Osh41 and I were emailing one day about Steve Zabriskie and before we knew it we started doing a “who is/was better than who” list of the Mets announcers.
Neither of us really remember Lindsey Nelson so we haven’t included him. Â I remember his jackets, I remember him doing games, but I was too young to decide if he was “good.”
I also didn’t watch many of Sean Kimmerling’s telecasts (had babies and little time for Mets games) so I also haven’t included him.
So, here’s one fat guy’s list, my apologies if I forgot anyone.
1. Â Bob Murphy
2. Â Howie Rose
3. Â Old Ralph Kiner (age 70 and up, with wisdom and grace and great old stories)
4. Â Keith Hernandez. Â Blatantly honest.
5. Â Tim McCarver. Â It is trendy to hate him now, but when he first came on the scene his insights were new and interesting.
6. Â Gary Cohen
7. Â Ron Darling
8. Â Steve Zabriskie
9. Â Gary Thorne. Â Spent the summer of 1986 in cable-less Queens listening to him. Â I wasn’t cheap, Queens wasn’t wired for cable until 1987. Â Smart business to sign a long term deal with Sportschannel when people in Queens can’t see the games.
10. Â Eddie Coleman
11. Â Wayne Hagin
12. Â Tom Seaver. Â The Franchise wasn’t that good at first, when he finally started letting loose he stopped doing Mets games.
13. Â The younger bad Ralph Kiner. Â The malapropisms weren’t cute.
14. Â Rusty Staub. Â Sportschannel/FSNY was so bad that they dreagged Howie’s game down.
15. Â Todd Kalas. Â Was that a real voice or is sort of like a certain son of another famous announcer who is doing an impression of his dad?
16. Â Fran LINE DRIVE BASE HIT Healy. Â Who did he have pictures of?
17. Â Lorn Brown/Steve Albert. Â I think that booth is universally recognized as the worst.
My favorite booth: Â McCarver/Kiner/Zabriskie, even though the current TV booth is stronger, and Howie is better than all of them. Â Maybe Howie can be the next Vin Scully and just sit there by himself.
One man’s list – feel encouraged to argue.