-
Putting on Ears
June 11, 2013 | 20 comments
-
My Grandfather, Aaron Homnick (1893-1969)
May 29, 2013 | 4 comments
-
That Is What We Do
May 14, 2013 | 108 comments
-
Shame Old Shame Old From Obama
April 19, 2013 | 101 comments
-
Cut Out the Chase
April 5, 2013 | 83 comments
Sports Arena
Bad Call
Is Dave Van Horne really a Hall of Famer?
The latest broadcasting honoree of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, is Dave Van Horne, the voice of my hometown Florida Marlins. Van Horne has been announcing baseball on radio for two score and three years, the last decade for the Marlins, earning him the Ford Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting. He got to join this year’s player inductees, Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar, in the ceremony last Saturday at the Hall. In Florida pretty much every parade gets rained on, so I might as well not hold back from commenting truthfully.
The old joke about the anti-Semite at the bar would seem to apply. The anti-Semite sees one Jew in the corner of a crowded bar, so he orders a drink for everyone in the whole crowded room but the Jew. He sees the Jew accepting the insult with a smile so, rankled, he does it again and again but the guy never gets ruffled. Finally, the anti-Semite asks the bartender if he knows who that guy is that he has been snubbing all night.
“Sure I know him,” the bartender replies. “That’s my boss. He owns the place.”
Sometimes life works like that. People snub the annoying guy by concentrating on everyone else in the room, but by being ignored that guy manages to linger there until he is accepted as a member in good standing. Baseball has a host of good announcers, many of whom I have had the pleasure and privilege of hearing over the years. The worst I have ever heard is Dave Van Horne.
This is not my personal opinion. It is shared by every intelligent fan I have ever conversed with in town. My friends have called the team and pleaded with them to find somebody else. But his role as a vintage old-hand old-pro multigenerational veteran grizzled revered classic performer has made him impossible to judge. Now whatever small hope we held out for relief is gone. No one is going to fire the Hall of Fame guy. We are consigned to misery for all eternity.
Basically, this guy has very little idea of where the ball is going when it is hit and often he does not know where it has gone. People around here compete with horror tales of ludicrously missed calls. There was the time the Marlins needed a hit with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth inning, down by one run. The batter swung and Van Horne said it was a hit to left. The crowd noise did not seem to fit with the call and we soon learned why: the batter had lined to third and the fielder had stepped on the base for a game-ending double play.
Balls hit “off the end of the bat” turn out to be monster home runs. Balls hit well turn out to be popped up to the shortstop. In Thursday’s game at Washington, a runner tried to steal on a 3-1 pitch with two out. The catcher threw him out and Van Horne gleefully proclaimed a strike-him-out-throw-him-out double play. I was paying attention so I knew he was wrong. Sure enough, he came back after the commercial to correct the fact that the batter had not struck out and he would lead off the next inning.
What we do as listeners to compensate is to ignore him and follow the crowd noise. Since it takes him time to reconnoiter, the crowd generally calls the play before he does. We know if the player is safe or out from hearing if the crowd is happy or deflated by the result. Eventually Van Horne will catch up. The great announcers are able to describe the events in real time and include the listener in the excitement.
I grew up in New York City listening to Phil Rizzuto calling the Yankee games and Bob Murphy calling the Met Games. Both were delightful. Murphy had an ingenious way — literary, really — of building up drama and suspense by describing tangential details. He was a sort of Damon Runyon of the broadcast booth. “The pitcher leans over… looks for the sign… now he straightens… steps off… walks around the mound… picks up the rosin bag… now he’s ready… the windup… the pitch…” It was mesmerizing.
When I lived in Chicago in the '80s I had the joy of following the late Harry Caray’s calls, first for the White Sox while Bill Veeck was the owner and then over to the Cubs. Caray became inebriated by about the seventh inning, so the end of the game was particularly entertaining, the slurred words somehow even more charming. If the game went into extra innings, poor Harry almost went into a coma. But it was so much fun; I hated to miss a minute.
In the '90s I lived in Cincinnati, where I followed the Reds on the radio with the great Marty Brennaman and his late sidekick, the “old left-hander” Joe Nuxhall. Every game was a titanic struggle, in Brennaman’s felicitous phrase, and you always knew exactly what was going on. Jack Buck for the Cardinals, Vin Scully for the Dodgers, Jon Miller for the San Francisco Giants and ESPN; there have been so many great ones. Yet incompetent longevity can still get you into the Hall.
Giving Van Horne this award in the Hall of Fame is like giving Director Ed Wood, the famously horrible director who managed to hang on for years, a Lifetime Achievement Award. It is like rewarding Joseph Biden, the famously horrible Senator who managed to hang on for years, the Vice Presidency of the United States. No one would be dumb enough to do one of those things, now would they?
Okay, one last joke apropos to this event. Sam goes shopping with his wife and suffers through an interminable series of trying on one dress after another to solicit his opinion. Finally, on one trip out of the dressing room, his wife is actually wearing something he can tolerate. “You should get this one, my dear.”
“You idiot! This is the one I came in with.”
About the Author
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he speaks at the Rally for Religious Freedom in Miami on June 8, 2012.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (43) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Jay D. Homnick
More Articles From Sports Arena
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/07/29/bad-call
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- Gabby Giffords Poisons the Well
- Walk the Line
- Confessions of a Soft-Drinking Newspaperman
The Spectacle Blog
Democrat Dan Maffei Blames Budget Cuts for Girl’s Rape, Mother’s Murder
Robert Stacy McCain | 6.18.13
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
David| 7.29.11 @ 9:01AM
Van Horne must be a liberal. They never seem to go away.
JimH| 7.29.11 @ 9:12AM
I want to say something here. Its not a big deal, but I think this site has been overwhelmed with sports talk lately. Don’t get me wrong, I love sports and I have participated in some exchanges here. But lately, particularly over the past few days there has been a whole lot of sports related articles and blogs. I’ve been a TAS subscriber for more years then a care to think about and I understand that part of the mission to to comment on the passing scene, of which sports is a part. But I think it is getting out of proportion lately. It’s kind of funny the left has a number of former sports writers doing political stuff. It seem that the right has a few political writer who are frustrated sports commentaters.
canuckistani| 7.29.11 @ 10:25AM
It's because the normal TAS rhetorical cabal has hit the nexus of a rock and a hard place. They just can't accept the ineptitude of the current GOP slate in the house that they would actually risk the economy over a theology based on pure fantasy. It is what we always condemned BHO for now we are carrying the bag. Silence usually implies consent, but in this case, it's just dumb fear to be critical of the lunatic fringe.
As for Van Horne, he is a great broadcaster of almost 40 years. He was the main man for the Expos for 32 years, and for the xenophobes on here, he broadcasted to a nation on radio and TV as the voice of baseball in Canada for years.
Caray and Rizzuto and Ernie Harwell and Jack Buck all declined into jokes by the end. Even Jon Miller has been punted. Vin is only one to keep up his skills at an advanced age - and that's one.
Van Horne gets in for quality, longevity, taking a risk and being a lone voice of MLB in Canada as the game finally expanded beyond our borders. Ask The Kid, who's battling cancer, whether DVH deserves a spot.
It was also fitting for Gillick to get in in the same year.
Steve A| 7.29.11 @ 9:43AM
Jay, Take no offense to the above & carry on. I would rather have one like your's here mixed in on occasion than read about how Ben Stein thinks I should pay more taxes.
I had the pleasure of growing up in New England in the late 70's & 80's. I remember going to the Red Sox games & listening to Sherm Feller announce the batter like it was yesterday. There was no AC/DC blasting on the speaker. It was Big League stuff. Meat & potatoes. " Ladies & genntlemen, boys & girls, welcome to Fenway Park."
In the winter it was Johnny Most telling my how Laimbeer & Mahorn for Detroit "have a license to commit mayhem on the court!" vs the Celts. We would turn the game on the TV, turn down the volume & put Most on the radio. Life was good.
pgt| 7.29.11 @ 10:14AM
Tune in to an early season Johnny Most broadcast, and it was easy to go through a quarter or longer and have no idea who the Celtics' opponent was.
Most was the Least.
Steve A| 7.29.11 @ 10:48AM
Hey pgt, You clearly did not grow up with New England sports so just save it. First off, you knew the opponent prior to the game. Second, you knew the opposing players by name also. Most did not remind you every whistle that the Celts were kicking the Sixers ass again.
Conserdude| 7.29.11 @ 9:45AM
I have never heard David Van Horne, so I'll take the writer's word for it that he's undeserving of the baseball broadcaster's HOF. However, I have heard Phil Rizzuto for years broadcasting for the NY Yankees and he was a joke -- a likeable one -- but a joke still. He missed calls all the time, had no deep analysis, and was a blatant homer. At least he's not in the broadcaster's HOF.
ejp| 7.29.11 @ 4:18PM
Phil Rizzuto's style was not to be a Vin Scully-Red Barber clone (a style of broadcasting that frankly is a type that wears thin on me after a while) and brave for him!
Stuart Koehl| 7.29.11 @ 4:47PM
My favorite Phil Rizzuto moment. Yankees vs. Chicago, the WPIX camera focuses on the opposite broadcast booth. "There's something you don't see every day", says the Scooter. "Harry Cary picking his nose on TV".
Ltdskilz| 7.29.11 @ 9:50AM
We in Houston can relate. I have to admit that I absolutely love Milo Hamilton. He's a wonderful asset to the community, a great guy. He called the Hank Aaron No. 714, and yes, he's also in the Hall of Fame. However . . . if I really want to know what is going on in the game I need to wait for Milo to finish so one of the other guys, Dolan or Raymond, can tell me what actually happened. Another lesson in life delivered by Baseball.
Mark Shepler | 7.29.11 @ 10:23AM
Speaking of bad calls, I think there's a bit more to Hominick's dissatisfaction with Van Horne than his questionable ones. Homnick lets out his true gripes in the ninth, tenth and eleventh paragraphs. He is a transplant from the storied districts of baseball lore with historic teams, supporting casts and loyal fans. His fandom roots are in the most mythic of all. Gee, a nice Jewish kid down in Aventura? Who'da thunk it? And so, like many, many fans before him he has landed in S. Florida with its open city feel and transient ways and probably feels no particular pride in the local, relatively young team. He listens to the games because its the only live one in town but the Marlins? Yahoo upstarts. In my 50 years it has always been thus.
Sports teams in S. Florida, particularly the Marlins, have a very spotty record with fan loyalty. Even the Dolphins, one of the NFL's great all-time franchises cannot consistently fill Joe Robbie Stadium or whatever it's called this season. To give you a feel of the fleeting nature of sports historicity here that is the name of the first, maybe the only, privately funded and built stadium in the US. It was built entirely by the determination and effort of the Dolphins original and longtime owner, Joe Robbie and at the time of its opening in 1987 a modern marvel to house the wonderful team he also created from nothing in 1965. Within a few years of his death they erased his name. It is also where the Marlins play. And yet neither team, the sole franchises within their respective sports sitting pretty amongst a population of close to four million residents, cannot fill it even in a strong season, the Marlins embarassingly so. About the only time it fills is in postseason play. Or when the Jets come to town and then we must suffer with half the stadium wearing green and being obnoxious.
Why is this? Partly geography, partly ticket prices but mostly due to the fan pool. Those four millions live in a strip of land approximately 10-15 miles wide by 120 miles long extending along the east coast from southern Dade county (Miami) area up to my neighorhood in Jupiter with only two major routes running up and down its length. The stadium is in north Dade, a solid 80 miles from here. For me to travel to the stadium is an hour and half drive with the traffic increasingly congested and crazy nearing the stadium. It's a mighty hassle to go through just to spend a couple of hundred bucks to watch a game.
The main reason however is lack of fan loyalty. Everyone here is from somewhere else originally and it is there where their fondest memories, loyalties and sympathies lie. Witness Homnick's loving, tear-in-the-eye portrayal of his beloved New York teams. If you could chat at length with Homnick and the thousands and thousands like him here you would quickly learn that everything in NY was better from the food (they can't make pizza or bagels here), to the professionals (all the lawyers are crooks, the doctors quacks, the accountants thieves), to the contractors (they couldn't make it in New York), to the drivers on our roads to...well...you name it, they did it better up there.
Whevever I'm assaulted with such nostalgic nonsense on stilts I quickly ask, "Soooo, why'd you move here again?" or should they persist, "Hey, just remember they all came from whereever YOU did, so if all of those refugees are the incompetents, castoffs and desperados what does that say about YOU? Hmmmm?" That usually ends the bitchin. Most everyone came here to reinvent themselves or is on the lam or something but all I really do know is that they either can't or won't go home again so it can't be all bad here. Or so great there.
And so it is with their baseball too, especially baseball. New Yorkers seem to take a special pride and hold a special reverence for baseball. I don't quite understand it but what I know of the game and its history I've concluded its because they see themselves almost as parents, the pre-mythic Titan society that brought forth the new gods befitting a strong young society, incubating and nurturing the game in the early days. Then perfecting and dominating the game in its hey day and now, well just out of an old bully's inflated pride. Or maybe it was the nearest thing to outdoor recreation they had. Whatever.
What I find most curious about Homnick's kvetching about Van Horne is that it indirectly proves something else about my point. The Marlins are in danger of serious problems due to lack of turnout at the games. Talk of a new, up to date covered baseball stadium has stalled mostly because of the vast stretches of empty seats the stadium managers and tv producers go to lengths to hide. Van Horne is a radio announcer Homnick thinks clownish but doesn't have to listen to because Homnick lives a scant ten minutes away from the stadium. Do you suppose were it Yankee stadium he'd be complaining about the radio guy when he could be there and whilst "his" team languished for want of fans in the bleachers?
Steve A| 7.29.11 @ 10:53AM
Hey Mark, Thanks for reminding me why I will never visit Miami again.
Mark Shepler | 7.29.11 @ 11:09AM
Well Steve,
I'm just busting on Jay. It's been an irksome feature of life here my entire life. And don't stay away, though I live way north now my heart will always be in Miami. It's beautiful down there and I don't mind the mix, it's just too danged crowded.
Besides the center of gravity of ex- New Yorker obnoxiousness has moved north. Did you see the report that Boca Raton was recently rated the 12th rudest city in the world? I'm sure in their perverse sort of way they feel chagrined at not being #1.
Steve A| 7.29.11 @ 11:21AM
Sounds good Mark. I may strap on my Don Johnson shades & give it another shot!
lol wut?| 7.29.11 @ 11:15AM
"Talk of a new, up to date covered baseball stadium has stalled mostly because of the vast stretches of empty seats the stadium managers and tv producers go to lengths to hide."
talk of a new covered stadium has stalled?
lol wut? maybe it's stalled because the thing is nearing completion on the old Orange Bowl site near Little Havana.
as to Van Horne, he's a damn sight better than the ninnies that the yankees have (and who are on the radio down here in SoFla) broadcasting their games some twit woman and an idoit that yells yankkes win naaa naaa naaa naaa naaa yankees winnnn! whenever the pinstriped pinheads manage to win one, what's that all about? pathetic they are.
as to Dave, who cares if he gets the calls wrong, it's all about the ebb and flow of the call of the game mixed in with innane trivia and wacky commercials and Dave is very good at it, poetic he is and much better than those yankee "announcers". Dave fits in well with that other whack job SoFla announcer, Randy Moller of the florida panthers, he of the wacky saying immediately after a Panthers' goal.
Mike Giles| 7.29.11 @ 2:40PM
Originally from Boston, Right?
ejp| 7.29.11 @ 4:02PM
Sounds like it. I've said my piece in defense of Sterling, but the sexism aimed at Suzyn Waldman, a solid reporter who cut her teeth the hard way covering the Yankee beat for WFAN for years when the Yankees were treated like second-class citizens at that station (and still are, with their overabundance of Met-centric hosts) is frankly pretty disgusting to read, and who was also singlehandedly responsible for getting Steinbrenner to do something about reconciling with Yogi Berra, is something I'm finding quite appalling.
ejp| 7.29.11 @ 4:04PM
I edited that wrong. Apologies for the mangled synatax. It should read like this.
I've said my piece in defense of Sterling, but the sexism aimed at Suzyn Waldman, a solid reporter who cut her teeth the hard way covering the Yankee beat for WFAN for years when the Yankees were treated like second-class citizens at that station (and still are, with their overabundance of Met-centric hosts) , and who was also singlehandedly responsible for getting Steinbrenner to do something about reconciling with Yogi Berra, is frankly pretty disgusting to read.
Mark Shepler | 7.30.11 @ 1:13AM
Hey lol wut,
Well, you got me there. Shows you how much of a baseball fan I am. Since I'm not really one the argument over whether to build the new stadium and where was about the last time the issue got my attention. Seems like just a few months ago.
But my point is valid. There WAS an argument and it was over viability viz attendance. It always is in S. Florida in stark contrast to other towns and effects every aspect from whether to build at all, to where to the very design. I like to remember that the Superdome, one of America's largest stadiums, was always sold out and season tickets there as scarce as hen's teeth even though the Saints never even broke .500 for 25 years or so.
So this time 'round they've bet on the Latino's love of baseball to pick up the slack and done a repeat of the Heat's first digs by putting the stadium way down by downtown Miami in a dicey area. Gonna be hard to get into and out of and one dare not stray out of the parking lot. Can't see many northern Broward or Palm Beach county folks heading down there for many ballgames.
BTW, just by coincidence, I drove across 826 today for the first time in years and the new stadium is very pretty. Looks kinda like a stainless steel Sydney Opera House. It's new, it's shiny, it's more comfortable- all the features deemed necessary to fill the seats but care to lay any bets on how long it'll draw respectable sized crowds? I give it five to ten years before they're talking about the need for a newer, better one to bring out the fans.
In short, we always have to approach our pro sports venues backwards. Instead of knowing a team can fill any venue with loyal, eager fans like other towns we must concoct a newer, better one in the hopes that if we build it, they will come. The very process is an admission of weak fan support.
I'll leave the other debates over announcers, players, the game and all the rest to you guys who love it.
My beef was really with the snobbery of transplants disguised as esoteric debates over local idiosyncrasies. But all in good fun, I'm actually a fan of Homnick's stuff. As a fellow S. Floridian who admires his writing, I like to watch his back when I can and bust his balls when I'm able.
Cheers!:)
astorian| 7.29.11 @ 10:26AM
Phil Rizzuro was not a "joke," but he was DEFINITELY a homer, and rarely made the slightest attempt at being an objective reporter.
We who were Yankee fans always had a great deal of affection for the Scooter, but I think we all understood how annoying he was bound to be to any listener who WASN'T a Yankee fan.
Phil is another guy who shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame. he wasn't quite good enoug has a player, and he wans't NEARLY good enough as an announcer.
Bob K.| 7.29.11 @ 11:22AM
But if you give credence to the stories going around the Poconos in Pennsyvania, where he lived for a time, he was a Hall of Famer when it came to stiffing waitresses and restaurants there! "I'm Phil Rizzuto, you should be happy just to have me eat here!"
ejp| 7.29.11 @ 2:50PM
The Scooter deserved the Hall Of Fame as a player, and as an announcer with Frank Messer and Bill White, he was a joy to listen to. Messer provided the objectivity in the booth, White provided the serious player analysis (and foil for Rizzuto), while Scooter gave Yankee fans the unbridled enthusiasm and fun. Individually, Rizzuto isn't a HOF broadcaster, but collectively the Rizzuto-Messer-White team should be in as a trio.
ejp| 7.29.11 @ 2:50PM
The Scooter deserved the Hall Of Fame as a player, and as an announcer with Frank Messer and Bill White, he was a joy to listen to. Messer provided the objectivity in the booth, White provided the serious player analysis (and foil for Rizzuto), while Scooter gave Yankee fans the unbridled enthusiasm and fun. Individually, Rizzuto isn't a HOF broadcaster, but collectively the Rizzuto-Messer-White team should be in as a trio.
ejp| 7.29.11 @ 2:50PM
The Scooter deserved the Hall Of Fame as a player, and as an announcer with Frank Messer and Bill White, he was a joy to listen to. Messer provided the objectivity in the booth, White provided the serious player analysis (and foil for Rizzuto), while Scooter gave Yankee fans the unbridled enthusiasm and fun. Individually, Rizzuto isn't a HOF broadcaster, but collectively the Rizzuto-Messer-White team should be in as a trio.
ejp| 7.29.11 @ 2:51PM
Apologies for the triple post. A stuck server on this end.
Ken in People's Republic of MD| 7.29.11 @ 10:45AM
I've never heard Dave van Horne, but I can't believe he's worse than the Orioles' announcers.
For a city that had such stalwarts as Chuck Thompson, Bill O'Donnell, Ernie Harwell, Jon Miller, Bailey Goss, or Vince Bagly doing the Colts, the current crop of play-by-play geeks is quite a comedown.
Not only do we have to suffer another losing season, we have to listen to Jim "He swings though it(even though the pitch was in the dirt and the batter missed it by two feet)" Hunter on TV or Fred "I've been doing these games for 20 years and I still can't follow the play" Manfra on radio. While Manfra at least seems like a nice guy, Hunter is an arrogant fool who thinks he's the only person in the world who knows anything about baseball. What's more, he doesn't know anything about baseball. Oh, yeah, he knows there's a bat and a ball involved in some fashion, but after that, he doesn't grasp the game. Yet he tries to educate his captive listening audience. Don't bother, Jim. I've forgotten more about baseball than you will ever know.
Jim Hunter is the absolute worst baseball announcer I have ever heard, and I have heard quite a few. I guess he'll be in the HoF in due time.
Dave | 7.29.11 @ 10:52AM
As a southern California kid who grew up listening to the new Los Angeles (just in from Brooklyn) Dodgers on a little AM radio my mom picked up for us at the local second hand store, I'll not soon forget those vintage games Vin Scully and his first partner Jerry Dogget called in that opening season of '58 and beyond. Most anyone who's heard Vinny paint a game will probably agree. Then again if you a Giants fan ...
Nuff said.
I've not heard or even heard OF Dave Van Horne, but if he's as bad as described in this column, I can only surmise that he's just another in a long list of propped up marginal figures who end up being given a free pass, a few "attaboys" and finally sent off to that big room where the golden parachutes are stored. In Van Hornes case, that'd be the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
But don't think it only happens for people who made a living in the great American past time. Nope, it 's been going on more and more in each and every decade as our culture, values and expectations of excellence continue dropping like a 500 pound safe off the Golden Gate Bridge. You doubt? Well, take a look who's getting all the press, love and adoration for bad behavior. Amy Winehouse was a tragic druggie, for sure, and certainly no role model. There were other kids named Hendrix, Jackson and Joplin, plus an endless list of additional well knowns who, in a better day, would have been shunned as those we choose not create shrines and statues to. But it's not just among the pop culture. Ol' Bubba Clinton walked away from his former Pennsylvania Avenue address with a nice pension and plenty of political connections to keep him raking in millions a year, maintaining the good life while sucking up the continuing keister kisses from MSM and offering his "impeached presidency" opinions on everything from global warming to "How to Remove Tough Stains from Dresses." All that, and yet today, the guy is still given priority seating and complimentary champagne at Che La Bubba.
Dave Van Horne? Well, he's no Bubba Clinton and (again) I never heard the man call a game. But if Dave's as icky as some describe, he's sitting among predictable company. Of course, it may be just jealousy on my part. See, I'm one of those ol' foofs who has a tough time getting a table at the downtown Denny's. Counter seating don't cut it.
Bob K.| 7.29.11 @ 11:16AM
Hall of Fame selection is an award run by journalists. Of course they will honor other journalists when they can and that is essentially what a sports announcer is!
So, Mr. Homnick--you don't like the guy? I write that down to "professional" jealousy.
Nice to be in a so called profession that allows you to back bite your colleagues without fear, isn't it?
Real professions make it tougher to do this.
Chris| 7.29.11 @ 11:48AM
No one can be worse than John Sterling and his allegedly female, nails-on-a-chalkboard sidekick the creatively christened Suzyn Waldman. Sterling suffers from all the usual sins: grossly misjudged calls, zero depth perception, endless homerism, but most of all, John makes it all about John. Anyone who has ever heard him begin his signature HR line only to see him meekly admit that it was caught by Jeter in shallow LF will know what I mean. As for Suzyn, the less said the better. On the bright side, their station's contract expires this year, so hope and change may be on the way. And that always ends well, doesn't it?
Conserdude| 7.29.11 @ 1:24PM
i'm not a yankees fan, so I don't listen often to Sterling. When I do, I get a kick out of him; his goofiness is funny. Were he the announcer of my team, I would not be so amused which may explain why not a single Yankee fan I know (& I know many) likes Sterling or his vacuous side-kick Waldman.
ejp| 7.29.11 @ 2:56PM
I LIKE John Sterling. I have to be honest, I'm more than annoyed with the pile on that's come from psychopathically deranged Sterling stalkers like Phil Mushnick (the one thing about the NY Post I hate) who keep poring over for nitpicky things that no one listening actually cared about so he can manufacture a poison pen column in the process. John and Michael Kay together on radio from 92-01 during the Dynasty years were the greatest radio team calling baseball I have ever listened to along with the earlier Yankee team of Rizzuto-Messer-White. As for the "endless homerism" charge, that's a crock because they give credit to the opposition where it's due, and they are nothing at all like the jokes you hear in Chicago doing Cub and White Sox games.
Pete Moon| 7.29.11 @ 12:25PM
Just as bad was Philadelphia sports writer Bill Conlin getting in the HOF. Before him were skillfull scribes like Jim Barniak and Ray Kelly whose research, care for the printed word and discretion showed. Conlin was mostly just loud. If there is a bust of him in Cooperstown it should have the word 'Lazy' inscribed on it.
The baseball HOF has become as much a display of one's political networking as it is a display of one's baseball prowess.
FlaJim| 7.29.11 @ 1:51PM
Never heard of Van Horne but he sounds like the nitwit Duh-Wayne [something or other] here in Tampa. He wears a Disco Dan rug and looks like a relic from the 70s when he claims he started his career. Doesn't know the difference between a changeup and a slider, or between a curve ball and a fastball. "Oh, he got him on a 98 mph changeup." Huh? Then the silly talk about 'cutters.' What the h3ll?
I fondly remember the days when Dizzy Dean was a commentator. Didn't do a lot of talking about the game in progress but we could see what was going on anyway. At least he kept us entertained with his goofy anecdotes.
somnolence| 7.29.11 @ 3:04PM
I ceased being interested in the Baseball Hall Of Fame when they continued to overlook the clear qualifications of Gil Hodges. It is high time that knowledgeable fans of baseball history have the final say, not the writers or the Veterans Committee.
bravebear| 7.29.11 @ 4:21PM
What about Mel Allen? Though never a Yankees fan (grew up in a house full of expat Bostonians), I enjoyed his call of the game. Especially enjoyed the later innings, after he did 4 or 5 live Ballentine beer commercials; THAT was real New York baseball!
ace 15| 7.29.11 @ 7:15PM
Haven't heard this cat, but here in Milwaukee, we are blessed to have Bob Uecker. He is as entertaining now as he was in the 70s. He has not declined in his ability to both entertain and educate his listeners over the finer points of the game.
bravebear| 7.30.11 @ 12:32AM
Mel Alan was an Alabamian who broadcasted from New York during the 40s, 50s & 60s,the time of the integration of baseball, a process which he endorsed and welcomed. His most famous phrase was, "How about that!" He was a good ole' boy with a love of baseball and the country, and a conscience.
bravebear| 7.30.11 @ 12:36AM
Sorry, "Mel Allen". It's getting late here in Alabama. I think I remember Uecker from when I lived in Milwaukee in the late 60s; used to call the Braves'games, as I recall.
Clint| 7.30.11 @ 7:41AM
test
Wayne | 7.30.11 @ 1:13PM
There are so many people in the HOF who probably shouldn't be there. Certainly that would include Harry Carey. But I find the voting rather arbitrary. We just had Andre Dawson voted in the Hall. When I went to Cub fans and asked them how Hawk gets elected but not Harold Baines they laugh, till of course I show them that Baines had virtually identical numbers. Yet Baines gets 5 percent of the vote. They laugh when I bring up Paul Konerko, but his numbers are better than HOF member Billy Williams and Andre Dawson. Maybe it depends more on what team you played or announced for.
ejp| 7.30.11 @ 2:18PM
Kirby Puckett as a first ballot HOFer while Don Mattingly is still out, I'm still laughing at the absurdity of.
cuban pete| 7.30.11 @ 4:22PM
Halls of Fame should be for players, managers and coaches only. Let the writers and announcers establish their own HOF.
By the way,Bill Pierce should be in the Hall of Fame.Had he played for the Yankees he would have been selected years ago.