With those caveats, I have broken each broadcast team into tiers. Local color and context are welcome, again if it’s enhancing the game itself. I could, after all, watch the game and know if a ball or strike is called, but how the batter is approaching the next pitch, or even (true) statements of how they’ve done against similar circumstances is interesting. My guiding star on the rankings was “do these announcers enhance my enjoyment of these innings?” Broadly, my subjective view is that my enjoyment is dictated by gaining insight into the action unfolding on my screen, and not taking away from the game itself.
A diatribe into the local ballpark’s ridiculous hot dog may charm some viewers and add some spice to the monotony of a 162-game season, while others find it gimmicky.įor these rankings, I’ve listened to each team’s broadcast during a random game and tried to stick to mid-season where possible, when teams’ fortunes aren’t wrapped up but the announcers have some time to round into form and build rapport. Likewise, we all expect different things from our broadcasts. I believe this is why fans are fiercely loyal to their teams’ broadcast booth, and also why you may strongly disagree with these rankings if you feel I’m too low on your favorite team. Inside jokes between play-by-play and color analysts from a week ago won’t necessarily carry over to a casual observer tuning in for that night’s specific pitching matchup. Fans of a team spend 100 or more games with their broadcasters, through the ups and downs of the season. It’s a job many want but there are only 30-ish of them, so teams (and/or their broadcast partners) can afford to be choosy.īefore getting into the rankings, I also want to note the extreme subjectivity of these rankings and the impossibility of gaining a clear picture of what all 30 teams’ broadcasters bring to the table. We’re often left, then, with capable and fluent broadcast teams that are very close in ability and execution. For the most part, teams have hired broadcasters that are well-adapted to the internet age, when anything can (and likely has) been fact-checked in a matter of moments. The task to rank them comprehensively becomes more difficult, however.
That is, we’re (thankfully and mostly) past the point of having announcers that say completely untrue, misleading, or offensive things that take away from our enjoyment of a ballgame on a Sunday afternoon. The distribution tails of MLB.TV announcers are pretty short.
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