Favorite Cubs broadcaster ever?

[inari]

I saw this on another board and it looked like a good topic of discussion. So, in all your years as a Cubs fan, who takes the cake?

 

Pat Hughes takes the cake for me. Even over Harry.

[Fred Hornkohl]

Hughes is excellent. Jack Quinlan & Lou Boudreau were better.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Pat Hughes before they replaced Cubs games with the Pat and Ron Show .

[Cubfanintheknow]

Great topic during a slow time!

 

Pat Hughes is fantastic. He gets high marks starting with his voice and delivery right through his knowledge of the game. And he does it all while working alongside Ron Santo. Don't get me wrong--I LOVE Santo in the radio booth. But Ronnie needs a lot of prompting to get him to deliver his commentary on the game. Hughes does it very well.

 

For sheer entertainment, no one beats Harry. No one.

 

This'll take a few folks back a ways, but I also enjoyed Vince Lloyd and "The Good Kid" Lou Boudreau. Lloyd also had a great voice and delivery. Boudreau was a lot like Santo. They had a good time broadcasting games.

 

On the other end of the spectrum, Milo Hamilton put me to sleep--how the guy still has a job broadcasting games, I don't know. Chip Caray was OK. But I don't miss his terrible baseball phrases.

 

(edited to change a name)

Edited December 31, 2007 by Cubfanintheknow

[JeffH]

Chip Caray was OK.

 

He was?

 

One of the funniest things I have ever heard on TV was Chip referring to Hall of Fame RHP James "Pud" Galvin as "puhd" (synonym for the pecker) rather than "pood" (short for "puddin'").

 

The silence from Stone's side of the booth was deafening.

[Clem Fandango]

Still Harry for me. As a kid, I didn't really know much about baseball, I just knew I loved the Cubs and I loved watching the Cubs and part of that was because of Harry Caray. I remember playing Ken Griffey, Jr. baseball on SNES and during the game I'd add my own Harry Caray commentary over the action of the game. Harry wins for me

[JeffH]

Does anyone remember the awful Jim West?

[Cubfanintheknow]

Does anyone remember the awful Jim West?

 

Yeah, I remember Jim. He was pretty dry. But I think part of that came from the fact that Jack Brickhouse worked solo for a good portion of his career. I though he did better when Brickhouse would move over to the radio booth for the 4th, 5th and 6th innings--working alone while Lloyd took a break--and was paired with Boudreau, who would do color commentary during those same three innings for the TV side.

 

(edited to change a name--again!)

Edited December 31, 2007 by Cubfanintheknow

[Omar]

Steve Stone. The man has a magic crystal ball.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Steve Stone's crystal ball was predicting that pitchers would throw breaking balls out of the zone to impatient hitters when ahead in the count.

 

Uncannily prescient there, Steve.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Josh Lewin was easily the worst

 

Pat Hughes is my all-time favorite

[BCVM22]

Has to be Hughes for me. I was too young/oblivious to appreciate Harry when he was around (shame on my younger self); all of the best Cub moments I can remember play back as Pat Hughes calls in my mind (and on my iPod, heh).

[UK1679666180]

We talking PBP, analyst, or both?

 

Worst:

 

Play by play-Thom Bennanman was the worst, he has improved since then.

Analyst-Joe Carter and Brenly was pretty bad as well in his 1st stint.

 

Best:

Play by play-Harry Caray before the health problems in the late 80s.

Analyst-Stone

 

I liked Staats as well when him and Harry switched TV/radio.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

I was a big fan of Joe Carter myself...

 

I kid, I kid...

[JeffH]

Analyst-Joe Carter was pretty bad

 

Jeff "Frassero"

[Sweet Swinging Billy]

Certainly as already mentioned Pat Hughes, Ron Santo, Jack Brickhouse, Harry Caray...Dwayne Staats-- all of these guys were good. Milo Hamilton was okay, although Harry and he hated each other. Besides the announcers already mentioned...I think my all-time favorite(s) were Lou Boudreau and Vince Lloyd ---they made a great team. I really don't care for Bob Brenly any more but I do like Len Kasper. He is a HUGE upgrade over Chip Caray.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

Analyst-Joe Carter was pretty bad

 

Jeff "Frassero"

 

 

Delino got stuck in the a-hole.

[Cubfanintheknow]

Certainly as already mentioned Pat Hughes, Ron Santo, Jack Brickhouse, Harry Caray...Dwayne Staats-- all of these guys were good. Milo Hamilton was okay, although Harry and he hated each other. Besides the announcers already mentioned...I think my all-time favorite(s) were Lou Boudreau and Vince Lloyd ---they made a great team. I really don't care for Bob Brenly any more but I do like Len Kasper. He is a HUGE upgrade over Chip Caray.

 

Thanks for jarring my memory. Don't know why I was typing Lloyd Pettitt when I really meant Vince Lloyd in the above posts.

[Cubfanintheknow]

Analyst-Joe Carter was pretty bad.

 

I had completely forgotten him. Probably because he was completely forgettable.

 

And really, really bad.

[rocket]

i'll throw some love to len kasper.

[erik316wttn]

Once Chip got over trying to be Harry Jr. and just started to be himself, he wasn't bad. I've heard far worse.

 

Pat Hughes is the bomb diggity, though.

[jiml60]

Does anyone remember the awful Jim West?

 

Good at hockey, not so well calling baseball.

 

Vince Lloyd & Lou Boudreau were great in the radio booth.

 

Pat Hughes and Len Kaspar are the best pair of TV/radio guys in the ML today.

[NCCubFan]

Jack Brickhouse was my favorite, and I also really liked Vince and Lou. I don't remember Lloyd Pettit that well, since he only broadcasted a couple of years when I first started following the Cubs (1969 and 1970). I remember the name Jim West (he replaced Pettit as Jack's partner if I recall), but I don't remember much about him.

[SouthSideRyan]

I'll agree that Chip wasn't bad after the first couple seasons. Oddly enough, he seemed to come into his own as he carried Carter and Otto's carcasses through each game(though Joe at least sounded like he enjoyed calling a game. Otto, good God.) Then when Stone came back, Chip was almost what one would call good. My only real complaint was that he was kind of a dork, but oh well he's a pbp man, what do you expect. I was actually sad to see him go. I expected a downgrade when Chip was let go. Luckily we got the Len.

[fromthestretch]

Best PBP: Harry, before his stroke in 1987. A lot of people remember Harry from the later years, which is unfortunate. Prior to the stroke, he really did a great job. Pat Hughes is a close second.

 

Worst PBP: Gotta agree with Bob here. Lewin was terrible, and he really hasn't gotten much better.