I will state my case now and be done with it. The Astros tv guys are unbearable. Bill Brown and Jim Deshaies need to get a room. They are horrible. Have not heard the new radio guys, but Milo can jump off a bridge for all I care. Never did like him. I will be watching Astro games this year with the the Mute on, unless it's the other teams announcers. Larry Dierker added so much to each telecast with his insight. Jim Deshaies is as exciting as a cow with Bird Flu.
One other sad note: Bagwell is done. He has lost a lot of weight (steroids?) Has no power anymore. Why doesn't he just retire already? There is more to life than Baseball.
JD is decent IMO. I agreee about Bill Brown, he is pretty bad. Bill Worrell was better than him IMO. I didn't like Dierker.
I can't disagree with you too much about Deshaies but how can you not like some of his stuff. I mean the guy actually said this : "Derek Bell is the perfect Pirate. He lives on a boat and is stealing money from the Pittsburgh franchise."
I admit, JD had me cracking up at some the stuff he said tonight. But after watching Yankee, Redsox, Dodger, Giants broadcasts. The astros pale in comparison. Vin Scully does Dodger Games BY HIMSELF. There is no color guy. He is by far the best baseball announcer. I miss Gene Elston, who was just as good as Scully.
I dunno I've never had a problem w/ the guys in the booth. They kind of just blend into the background and are not overbearing - which to me speaks of a job well done. But then maybe it cause I only casually listen to what they have to say anyways.
Ok, as you can tell, tonight is my first taste at the Astros broadcast of 2006. Not much different than 2005. Just saw a commercial for 2006 Astros tickets on the broadcast. My God, how lame was that commercial. THIS IS A TEAM THAT WENT TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!!! Yet The commercial has no audio until after showing Bagwell, and Biggio swinging their bats. Looks like a high school team's commercial.
Brown is p.u. ecru, agreed. JD, however, is the best of the whole lot IMO. Milo has made me enjoy listening regardless of the score (while Ash was an improved mic man, up to barely tolerable and very dial offable). Larry will be missed, but at least he understands what our iron icon does not, and that is one can walk away.
I'm surprised people don't like JD. I think he's one of the best baseball guys i've ever heard. he's extremely knowledgeable and very humorous.
The Astros new radio announcers sound like minor leaguers. I don't know how the Astros organization thought of this as an upgrade over the competent Alan Ashby. I'm sure he would never have made the mistake of calling Phil Niekro a former battery mate of Mark Bailey. It's Joe Niekro, moron. Also, from what I heard Milo doesn't work well with them at all. Is the guy working with Milo younger than Ashby?
Yeah, I love Jim D. He's great. I could never stand Bill Worrell. He was fine in the Rockets booth, but at the basball games he was different somehow. All the others I never had a problem with. The new radio guys seem okay, I guess, but there have been a few times when I wished they would talk about one thing or another that seemed important either to the Astros or the game and they kind of ignored it.
I love our booth guys. I didn't like Dierker's negativity last year, even though I guess he was just pandering to the majority of his audience. Bill Brown and JD are very solid, IMO. I've only heard a little bit of the radio guys, but I liked what I heard. Wasn't a huge fan of Ashby at all and the only reason I can tolerate Milo despite his inability to accurately portray the action on the field is because his voice just harkens back to the old days. All that being said, I've always found the whining and moaning about the Astros (and Rockets) announcers amusing. We all have our preferences when it comes to announcers, from national telecasts to local ones. However, the melodrama that grasped the Houston sports landscape after Ashby was let go was beyond absurd. In the grand scheme of things, I watch baseball to root for my Astros. Not to listen to Bill Brown, Larry Dierker, JD, Ashby, Milo, or whoever else.
No doubt. After Dierker came back in '04, he wasn't the same laid-back good-natured insightful guy he was before. Not even close. His bitterness & defensiveness came through loud & clear. Worrell is horrible at baseball, simply horrible. I wouldn't read too much into ST games...there's a ton more dead air & meaningless action to liven up than there is once the season starts. I wouldn't be shocked if, after a couple of years (and post-Milo) the Stros settle on either Dolan or Raymond as the main PBP guy & bring in a former player/manager (Dierker, Ashby - who was good at color but horrible at PBP - or somebody else) to do color.
Milo is a great Hawkeye, so I will always have a soft spot in my heart for him. He is well past his prime though, and I agree with alot of the complaints about him. It's time to hang up the mic. I haven't heard the new radio guys yet, but they have Iowa ties, so I like them already. Right Click and "Save Target As" Here is Milo and Ash's call of our last 3 innings against the Cards, which ended up being our last victory last year. I put this online right after we won, but it was a huge file and I don't think many people got it. I lowered the bitrate and shrunk it in size quite a bit. 8.67 meg mp3 file that clocks in just under 50 minutes. The first couple of secs the audio is off but it corrects itself quickly.
I like Bill Brown and JD. I don't like Milo AT ALL. My main problem with him (besides not having any idea what he's talking about most of the time) is that he seems to think he's bigger than the game. He's not. Elston never had that problem.
ashby did that stuff nearly every game. he'd throw in all sorts of Seinfeld names among the visitors. Vandelay Industries was definitely a repeat customer of the Astros group ticket sales last season!
i loved the wrangler. at least the new radio guys keep you very informed of what's going on. I want to hate them but they're really good.
