They brought Bill in after they canned Gene Petersen in '86. Gene was great to hear if you were a Rox fan, but he was too harsh on the refs that year and they moved him back to radio, IMO. Bill was pretty raaw at calling basketball when he started but since he had done baseball all those years he grew into the job pretty good. I spoke with him when the Rox played Cleveland when I was in Ohio, and he gave me plenty of time to talk with him after the game. Pretty Cool Guy
Worrell also implied that he had seen the uniforms and liked them as well. I hope so, because the description of the unis in the Chron (about the R playing a major role) could be taken in a lot of ways. As long as they dont look like the Michigan and North Carolina jerseys from a couple of uniforms (with the logo in the top middle), Im cool with it. As for Worrell as an announcer, I like him with Calvin on the Rockets games, but prefer Jim Deshaies as the color guy for the Astros. Worrell does an OK job, but Bill Brown and Deshaies are an outstanding team.
IMO, Bill is an awesome play-by-play guy. Murph can be annoying as hell with his bursts of giggling and singing and stuff. I guess you could say it makes him unique, but as far as I'm concerned, he may be a nice colored man, but as far as a color commentator? Eh...
Bill has seen the uniforms. He has been sworn to secrecy. The Chronicle hasn't seen them -- they've asked lots of questions, but we weren't giving much away in terms of answers, so they've tried to read between the lines on our answers as much as they can. They've heard nothing more than you've heard here, though. I'm a total homer on this one, but I watch tons of games each year on NBA League Pass -- and Bill and Calvin rate right up near the top for me. I'm not going to name names, but there's too much monotone on many of the broadcasts. Tim
