Three-Man Announcing Booths

As a diehard fan of baseball, football and basketball I tend to pay attention to any new trends that may arise in the sporting world.



One trend in particular that i've noticed spring out of late is the three man announce team. Baseball has Jon Miller, Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips up there. Football has Mike Tirico, Jon Grueden and Ron Jaworski. (Didn't check to see if I spelled Jaw's name right, hopefully I did.)



Even my beloved Bulls had Neil Funk, Stacy King and Tom Doore.



The thought of the three man booth is simple - you get one guy to simply call the action, while the other two guys are supposed to give their different area's of expertise about the game.



Like for baseball - Jon Miller is their play by play. Joe Morgan is a hall of famer who is supposed to give the 'players' perspective. While Steve Phillips used to be a general manager, so the hope was he could give an insight on a players true value. Or something.



Sounds like a good plan right? In theory. IN THEORY, communism works. (Extra points to anyone out there who can give me what Simpsons episode that is from.)



The problem with the three man booth is most of the time the former players are so old they can't possible relate to the current-day athlete (Like Joe Morgan.) The play by play man thinks he's a color commentator and doesn't do his job (alot like Joe Buck) and the third guy they bring out doesn't really seem to bring any opinion other than more noise.



The other big problem is generally these three man booths are thrown together based on name recognition. I'm pretty confident if they allowed swearing that Rizzo, commentor Kevin and I could be a way better three-man booth for any of these sports. Nobody would know our names but we would have way better banter because we're actually friends. Not just co-workers.



The guys who came up with the idea of a three man booth could really learn from other areas of sports. Having three mediocre quarterbacks isn't as good as having one great one. Having three so-so relief pitchers isn't the same as having a monster closer. Etc. Etc.



Look at Vin Scully He's been the lone radio announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers forever. I mean that literally he was with them in Brooklyn. And you know what? He's the best at it. He doesn't need two other jackasses to help him call a game.



We need more Vin Scully's and less noise in the announcing booth. Fans watch tv to watch the game, not the morons who call it.

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