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If you haven't heard of Awful Announcing, it's a website that began about eight years ago as a humble blog with the goal of bringing to light some of the best and worst commentary and analysis in the sports world. We know that all sports broadcasters are not created equal (coughERNIEcoughHARWELLcough...excuse me), and in the same vein as "Fire Joe Morgan," Awful Announcing set out to show the public the difference. The site's popularity grew tremendously fast, and they now cover everything under the sports-related sun.
Anyway, today they released a ranking of the MLB's best broadcasting crews by team, as determined by their readers. The crews were rated by readers on an A to F scale, just like you were in high school. The site then converted the grades into a GPA-style four-point score. The Tigers duo of Mario Impemba and Rod Allen came in at #11 with an average score of 2.46.
The article notes that most voters viewed Mario and Rod as either an A, B, or C quality team, with few believing they are downright bad. But those who voted were evenly split among those three rankings, showing that fans generally are in agreement about the Tigers tandem; they're good, but not great.
On one hand, Hawk Harrelson and the White Sox crew came in dead last, so the results have some merit. On the other hand, Vin Scully and the Dodgers crew did not run away with first place, so all results should be taken with a grain of salt. The San Francisco Giants' broadcasting crew came in first place with an average score of 3.41.
You can view the full list here.
Personally, I think they have Mario and Rod pegged pretty well. I think they are a very good team, but they're probably not the best in the business. They don't take the game too seriously, and they don't get in their own way, but there's plenty of room for improvement. Their discussion of Rod's "incident" in Japan has been the highlight of the year for this Tigers fan.
What are your thoughts on the Tigers' broadcasting crews in general and how they compare to others in MLB?