Update: Without regard to my comments below and with another year gone by...I really like the Mariners announcers. I think Rizzs and Goldsmith are just plain great. I only have access to radio broadcasts but I'm extremely pleased with experience.
Okay...I listen to the Mariners on the radio and have many personal opinions about the announcing staff...
Many years ago, while living in Southern California for a while, I listened to Dick Enberg doing the Angels broadcasts. He was great! His sidekick was Dave Niehaus and I didn't like his gravelly voice and delivery at all. He just seemed...boring. (I was young at the time.) Then, after moving to Seattle so long ago, I was very disappointed to learn that Niehaus would be the Mariners' voice. After years of listening to him, Mr. Niehaus grew on me. While I never really adjusted to the gravelly voice or his un-Northwestern pronunciations of so many words...(for example, he always said "National" with a long "I" rather than a short "A".) In any case, I grew to appreciate all the nuances of Dave Niehaus and miss hearing him.
Then, along comes Rick Rizzs. Similar to my inability to embrace Dave Niehaus early on, I had great difficulty accepting Rick Rizzs. Even now, I take issue when he says things like, "Kerplunk". Also, he tends to shorten words to a single syllable. Somehow, he manages to turn the word, "scoring" into a single syllable. I don't know how he does that! There are many other words that are shortened and, even though I fully understand the meaning, it still bothers me when I hear such things. Also, he tends to speak for a long time during a sentence and takes a breath and pauses, mid-sentence, at the wrong time, before finishing a comment. It's very odd and totally alien to normal conversation! Alas! After all these years, Mr. Rizzs has grown on me and the Mariners would not be the same without him. I am a fan for sure.
I do not like listening to Dave Simms....ever! His delivery is choppy and..."Southern California-ish". (This is not a good thing to be in the Northwest.)
I hate listening to Ron Fairly. He's the most boring speaker I've ever heard...anywhere. I do acknowledge that many of his stories of the past are very interesting but he should never be allowed to speak about a game in progress.
Mike Blowers needs to learn how to speak less nasally. If he can't adapt, he should not be on any broadcasts.
Ken Levine is the best!
Mike Blowers annoys me. I can't get over watching him swing for the fences for the last strikeout (against Boston?) some years ago. All he needed to do was hit the ball, not practically fall down while ending the game. (He seems to have never learned to hit the ball without swinging for the fences.)
Dave Henderson is great! I could listen to him all day long...even without a baseball game in progress.
Dan Wilson...I think I learn nuances of the game when I hear his comments and am in favor of having him on the broadcasts as often as possible.
I did listen to a few Youtubes of the new guy, Aaron Goldsmith. While I find it particularly offensive that the Mariners went ahead with all these "auditions" without input from me or (probably) any other fan, I'm not totally (yet) disappointed with the selection. Mr. Goldsmith seems to have a slight "S" issue in speaking whereby the "S's" are slurred a bit...becoming a "Sh" sound. In interviews he conducted, he did not over-speak and allowed the interviewees to express their opinions! (This is a wonderful thing. In listening to many, sports-radio broadcasts, the interviewer seems to use up all the time, framing the question with endless gibberish, leaving little (or no) time for a response.) It's also good that he (Mr. Goldsmith) doesn't have a soprano voice like so many other sports announcers have!
Okay...I'll get back to this, eh?
Slight addition...today is the Super Bowl. I turned on the television and there's Jim Nance! How in the world can a guy like that make it in that business? He can't pronounce the letter "L"! It makes no sense to me. If a person is in the business of speaking and has such an obvious (annoying) speech impediment, why is he on the air? I hate it!
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