Friday Open Thread: Best voices in baseball

The Tigers have officially made one of their best and boldest moves of the offseason. With the hiring of former White Sox play-by-play announcer (and one of the best announcers currently working in baseball), the Tigers are poised to have exceptionally listenable game-calling in both the TV and radio broadcast booth. One interesting note on the hire is the fact that Benetti, like Dan Dickerson, was hired by the Tigers directly. What that says about Bally Sports Detroit’s viability is anyone’s guess.

The Tigers are no strangers to good broadcasters, with Ernie Harwell being an exceptional voice for the franchise for ages, and Mario Impemba and Rod Allen being such a long-standing duo that fans created drinking games around their oft-used turns of phrase.

This leads to today’s open-thread question, and it’s not just Tigers-centric.

Who do you think the best of the best have been to call the games, for any team, both past and present? And more importantly, why? Did you love how Vin Scully always had a story about every player, or do you dig Melanie Newman calling Orioles games now? Are there broadcast crews where you’ll switch the feed when the Tigers play them just to hear a particularly funny or smart announcer?

Who are your favorites?

Ed. Note: The original version of this article stated that Jason Benetti was hired by Bally Sports instead of the Detroit Tigers directly. We regret the error.