What are your all time favorite announcers' calls?

[Squattage]

"The Jet steals home! The Jet steals home!"

-Sandlot

[Your Mom]

You don't beat Vin Scully. #1 announcer of all time.

[GBP04]

Vikings - Cardinals, December 28th, 2003

[Needle77]

"Secretariat is widening now, he is moving like a tremendous machine."

Youtube link

[34TheTruth34]

"Havlicek stole the ball" is my personal favorite.

honorable mention:

I don't know which announcer it was or even if it was TV or radio, but it was the call for Big Mac's 70th (actually, it might have even been Bonds 70th, but I don't think so), but the announcer just yelling "SEVENNNNDEEEEEEE!!!!!" was really cool. They'll occasionally play it in baseball highlight montages every once in a while. Anyone know who that was?


The worst I ever heard was Joe Castiglione's call of the Red Sox World Series victory in '04. After the final out it was like "The Red Sox are baseball's world champions" or something like that. It was said without any kind of excitement or enthusiasm, almost monotone.

I know it was like the worst, most anti-climactic World Series ever, but you're the long time voice of a baseball team that hadn't won the WS in 86 years. This is your moment, show some excitement for Christ's sake. Even just yelling "The Red Sox win the World Series!!!1!!!!" over and over again at the top of your lungs would have been better than that.

And, if you are the voice of a team for like 30 years and they haven't won the WS since 1918, don't you run through that moment over and over in your head for like many, many years crafting what you're going to say until it's perfect? Or, if not years in advance, then at least at the point at which they have a 3-0 lead and it's obvious they're going to win? I just don't get it...

If you listen to the games on the radio on WEEI, you can hear this call in their opening montage before every game.

I hope some Sox fans out there can jump in on this thread and confirm what I'm talking about...

[34TheTruth34]

[ QUOTE ]
Vikings - Cardinals, December 28th, 2003

[/ QUOTE ]

haha awesome!

[JordanIB]

"Lopez wants it away, and its hit deep to left center, Andruw Jones on the run, this one has a chance, HomeRun!!, Mike Piazza!, and the Mets lead 3 to 2!!"

Get tingles down the spine every time..

[EricLindros]

The way Gene Hart goes from future, to present tense, to past tense in the span of 15 seconds (along with me being a huge Flyers/Hart fan) is probably my favorite call ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-feMY5gi1M

Obviously, the do you believe in miracles call, Scully's call of Gibson's home run and the call of Bobby Thompsons shot that won the pennant all rank way up there too...along with Harry Kalas' call of Schmidts 500th.

[legend42]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't forget the classics:

Russ Hodges, "The Giants win the pennant!"

Johnny Most, "Havlicek stole the ball!"

Al Michaels, "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!"

[/ QUOTE ]

Those are definite classics, but I was trying to restrict my personal memories to calls I heard live. I did hear the Michaels call as it was broadcast (I was 10 years old), but as great as it was and is, I already knew the result of the game (some moron had called our house thinking he was giving us some kind of scoop, and my Dad was foolish enough to tell me they won). Took a little luster off the moment at the time, but now I usually choke up when I hear it.

One that I forgot to mention is Verne Lundquist's call on Tiger's chip-in at the Masters. "In your LIFE..."

[legend42]

[ QUOTE ]
"Havlicek stole the ball" is my personal favorite.

[/ QUOTE ]

And I dare anyone to try to say it without the Johnny Most rasp. Most's call of Bird's steal and DJ's layup against the Pistons is also classic ("What a play by Bird").

And yeah, I was also kind of disappointed when I first heard Castiglione's call ("stabbed by Foulke, he has it, he underhands to first and the Boston Red Sox are the world champions") but he's just not the kind of announcer who excels at high drama. Ken Coleman used to be pretty good in those big spots.