Watching a game in person is a great experience. However, watching a game at home can be cool, too.

I think this is due in part to the commentators who call the game. Commentators such as the team of Joe Miller and Joe Morgan who do Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. I really enjoy their coverage of baseball games.

Unfortunately, that team is no more because ESPN is not renewing the contract for Morgan, which will end the 21-year stranglehold that he and Miller had on that program.

The end of this pairing got me to thinking about the commentators I love and the ones I loathe.

Good Commentators

Jay Bilas — College Basketball

He played for Duke in the ‘80s and now has a law degree, so you know the guy’s smart. He has a good pacing about him and I find most everything he says about a game to be interesting. He gives real solid in-depth analysis.

It’s almost like he’s trying, which is a silly thing for anybody to do, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

Dan Shulman — College Basketball

Much like Bilas, Shulman gives a good deal of depth when he speaks and he is a play-by-play guy, which is even more impressive.

Another impressive feat is that he does games with Dick Vitale. He keeps Vitale from freaking out on everybody about everything, which is like containing a tornado that has somehow caught fire and shoots lasers.

In other words, he has the hardest job in America. Maybe he should go on Glenn Beck’s show to deal with that. Hmm…

Bob Uecker — Brewer’s baseball

Uecker does a solid job calling games and has a great sense of humor. He also does what would be awful in some sports (but works in baseball), which is frequently talking about many other things besides baseball. The sport has a lull so this is acceptable and he is warranted to do this.

The fact that he talks about everything keeps you tuned in so when something does happen you get his great signature calls, such as this one: “Get up, get out of here, gone!”

Doc Emrick — NHL play-by-play

Another great commentator is Doc Emrick who does NHL games for Versus and NBC. This is a guy with the appropriate level of excitement. You can close your eyes and you will still think something very exciting is going down without looking at the action.

If he had read The Scarlet Letter to me, I would have enjoyed it much more, though it would have made the book very weird.

Bad Commentators

Gus Johnson — Football and college basketball

Johnson is an example of being too excited. Unlike Emrick, I feel that he is trying to blow up the Earth with his voice. I cringe with every one of his “Puuurrrrreeeee!” calls whenever somebody drains a three.

I imagine him yelling that phrase after he pours a bowl of cereal or after he flosses. I only can handle him in the final minutes of a game when his glass-shattering exuberance is appropriate.

Chris Collinsworth – NFL

Here’s the deal, like it or not — Collinsworth gives good analysis and knows football. My problem is that he is so smug. He gets that arrogant smile on his face and just seems like a jerk. If you can’t like a guy, you’re not going to want to listen to him regardless of what he says.
He’s the Yankees of commentating.

Jim Nance – NFL, golf, college basketball, creepiness

Holy crap, stop calling everybody “friends!” It’s just weird with his falsely calm demeanor. Also, he has an inability to be critical of anybody for anything. Actually, I take that back:: he was upset with Tiger Woods for swearing on the golf course when Tiger said he would stop swearing.
Nance is upset with Woods over that. Man, if Tiger doesn’t cutback on his swearing, it may land him in
some trouble.

There are other commentators that I like/dislike; these are just a few of the most memorable to me. Seeing a game in person is still the best, but a commentator can make games enjoyable … or unfortunately worse.