The only one I can tolerate anymore is Chris Welsh. SMarty, Cowboy, Thom, and Grande….ugh.

Preach.

Thom’s ridiculous hyperbole is very funny and entertaining.

It is never embarrassing when the voice of your franchise is thought of highly enough by those in charge to call a national title game.

I think Thom’s a great announcer. It’s gonna be hard to win over the RR masses en masse b/c we are a tad fanatical and tend to watch/listen to almost every game. Therefore we catch almost every broadcast imperfection. Overall, I’m perfectly content with the television and radio contigent. We could do a lot, lot worse.

Tebow is practically an altar boy. What other Heisman trophy winner has spent time in a leper colony and participated in multiple overseas missions? I thought the remark was perfectly tongue in cheek.

If Thom sticks around here as long as his pops has, we are fucking screwed for like 30 years. I like Welsh as well, and unbelievably, even to myself, The Cowboy is now my second favorite. Thom’s fake laugh is what grates on me. And his constant use of, “Holy Moses!” is annoying.

The pairings make a huge difference also.

Thom + Welsh = The dislike between the two is palpable
Thom + Marty = Inside family jokes are barf making
Marty + Cowboy = Mildly entertaining
George + Cowboy = Very uncomfortable
George + Welsh = Comforting (simply due to familiarity)
Kelch + Anyone = Generic

I hate to admit it, but Jim Day is no longer on my most hated list. He used to really annoy me, but I think he keeps the pre and post game shows pretty lively. The players seem to like him and he gets some pretty good stuff out of them in his interviews. I would guess I am in the minority in this opinion.

And I thought, on the whole, he was terrific last night.

I have my problems with him: I think he talks too much and his verbal tongue-bathings of certain players get old quickly. Those two problems came up last night, particularly because he was paired with a color guy who didn’t have a strong presence (though I thought Davis was really, really solid with his strategy stuff.)

To my mind, tHom’s comment about only needing to spend 30 seconds with Tebow “to change your life” was the real groaner, but he isn’t any worse than most of the others who have covered him this year. Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson were far, far worse, particularly because they let their Tebowphilia extend to the parts of his game that are clearly lacking. Can you imagine Gushberger doing this game or, God help us, Dick Enberg? The only crew that didn’t worship Tebow this year (that I saw) was the Raycom crew that did the Ole Miss game. But that had more to do with Ole Miss coming out in the first series knocking the living shit out of him and continuing to do that all game.

We live in an era of hooray-for-everything announcing; tHom is just one of the hoard in that respect. But if I have to listen to someone yap for two hours, I’d rather listen to that than the mewling snark that passes for sports fandom at Deadspin, etc.

As for baseball, tHom is always prepared and, to disagree with a few here, he seems pretty open to new ways of thinking in baseball. I think that once his dad goes, he’ll open up even more. When tHom is paired with Chris Welsh, I think the Reds have one of the best crews in baseball.

Thom may overstate a few things here or there, but Man Mountain was dead on with his SEC announcer comparison. I just hope Verne Lundquist doesn’t dance again over this, or at least I hope it’s not filmed again.

Has anybody heard his calls for the Appalachian State upset of Michigan or the Boise State game? He is an incredible play-by-play guy for college football. He just had an off night last night and we don’t know how much of his Tebowner was created by the direction of Fox Sports big wigs. (He’s also been a pretty good announcer for Fox playoff baseball as well with the Bartman incident and I think the Jeter play, too.)

Chris Welsh just reminds me of my father of calling people/things by the wrong names and it has always driven me nuts. But he does an adequate job of conveying the game to the average fan, and that was probably what he was hired to do. Maybe his mustache and his 80s style frat boy khaki-pants and blue sport-coat suits just bother me too much. When Chris did national games he was way more of an embarrassment than Thom ever was. And yes, even with Thom’s Tebowner last night.

The NYTimes had a very catty article about it, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/sports/ncaafootball/09sandomir.html?_r=1&partner=rss.

“I like Kelch because he doesn’t get in the way of the game”.

tHom’s main problems are;

1. He can’t shut up
2. He believes in the old school too strongly
3. He is desparate for dad’s approval and is always competing with sMarty.

The good things;

1. when put with the right partner he relaxes and can be very good at describing the action etc
2. He’s beginning to question old school tactics some
3. He’s sending 3 canned good items to the free store.

I actually like most of the Reds announcers, but their pairings are usually toxic.

As I have stated before, since there is noone to keep sMarty’s ego in check, he is a lost cause unless the Reds can somehow pull a 1990-type season out of their keisters sometime soon, and I don’t think anyone sees that happening. When he has focus and has not been beaten down by the constant losing, he is still one of the best. So we’d better listen to him early and often. (I do wonder who his new whipping boy will be now that Dunn has ridden into the sunset.)

I like the Cowboy…he’s got an amazingly dry sense of humor, takes Marty’s ribbing good-naturedly enough, and is not afraid to say something controversial — and apologize for it publically if he was wrong (c.f. EDE)

I like tHommy, unless he gets paired with his dad, which is when the negative feedback loop gets too much for me to bear. When he is not with his dad, he calls a very good game, his constant ass-kissng of the Arizona franchise notwithstanding. If he can learn to keep the negativity in check, he may join his dad in Cooperstown someday.

I really like Chris Welsh, particularly when he is paired with someone other than GG. Do I remember him getting paired with the Cowboy last season, or am I on crack? I seem to remember really liking that game.

GG is, well, GG.

I think Kelch is probably the most underrated announcer we have, with the possible exception of Welsh. He definitely calls a solid game, and I think that if he were given a more regular position with the club, you would start to see a little more personality out of him, which I think would make him shine that much more.

Good, insightful feedback. What’s that doing here?!?

I’d say the leading candidate to replace Dunn in the Marty whipping category is EE.

I loved Marty since i moved to the mid east.Thom on the other hand is good to o.k. George well is cool ,but oh no to cowboy.toooo much dead air silence when he’s calling the game.i really don’t know what he is thinking or just watching and not talking.all in all he sucks at an on air announcer of games.even his color man annalist view is totally yet to be desired.Chris Welch i dig the little spots of hitting and pitching instructions by the reds players.if they do good in practice as they show us on the skit,then they may win just a little bit more games.

Marty to all out there please give the man the proper respect.he is one of the better announcers in baseball.him and Vin Scully. You all out there can pick and choose your opinions of thom. i do think he needs a little bit more attention to what he is saying then just saying something.

oh and the Oklahoma girl shot nice……….

He knows more about baseball than almost anyone on the planet.
Just ask him.
He needs to get an adult haircut.
He needs to get off tHom’s back
He reminds me of a couple of tired old Queens I used to know.
I wouldn’t be sad to see him and clownboy take Grande Loboto and retire.

Oh and FWIW I miss the days of Waite Hoyt when there used to be just the right amount of dead air. I remember lying in bed late a night as a kid, with my transistor radio listening to the Reds. When Waite wasn’t talking I could hear all the ‘background’ sounds of Crosley Field. Now if an announcer isn’t yammering away every minute…….

We saw Gran Torino last night and I definitely would prefer Clint Eastwood to be sMarty’s relpacement.