Originally ran on fellow Bloguin site, Randall Simon Sausages.

One of the best articles I’ve seen on the sports web in a while came out yesterday at SI.com. Joe Posnanski, quickly turning into one of my favorite writers, had a list of 32 of the best announcing calls in the history of sports. After seeing the list, we felt called to dig deeper into the field of sports broadcasting and find 10 Not So Great Announcing Moments. Of course, this isn’t a complete list (heck, Billy Packer, Dick Enberg, Dick Stockton, and Dick Vitale don’t appear on the list – that’s 4 Dicks!). This list takes a look at some of the more recent and notable announcer screw ups, let us know what we missed in the comments below and enjoy! ***Update – You can check out 10 more great announcing calls here as well.***

Here at RSS we will give our takes on sports across the country and the globe,share in some debates, and most of all[:comma:] have some fun. Us Yoders share a couple of things in common: an Amish last name and a love of sports.

Visit Randall Simon Sausages

10) The Dodgers win! Umm… wait… no they don’t
-This clip comes to us in link form from the archives of Awful Announcing from 2009 (now back up and running here at Bloguin). Charley Steiner gets just a tad bit confused on what exactly is going on to end the 9th inning. Here’s the transcript from AA:

“Venable scores…and a throw to third base … OUT AT THIRD BASE … AND THE DODGERS WIN! Edgar Gonzales, trying to come home, then he stopped short, and then tagged out a third … AND THAT IS HOW THE DODGERS WIN THE GAME!
Wait a minute, two runs are in. Out at third base was Venable. The Padres in fact HAVE TIED THE SCORE, scoring five in the ninth inning…. My mistake … In to score was Gonzales … ALFONZO is out at third base. And we will go to the 10th inning … UNBELIEVEABLE. …”

Click Read More to see the rest of this list

9) Insane Nathan’s Hot Dog guy
-This guy is named Rich Shea. He is from Major League Eating. This is the single most over the top sports announcing you will EVER hear. Is it bizarre? Yes. Does it make Bill Walton look like Pat Summerall? Yes. Is it incredibly funny? Yes. But, I’m sorry, I’m an old school competitive eating fan, and I don’t appreciate the sport of my ancestors being made a mockery of and treated like it’s professional wrestling.



Not one, but 2 clips!

8) This is not Detroit man, this is the Super Bowl!!!
-As a Saints fan, the 2010 NFC Championship game is something I’ll never forget. It was the Saints’ first trip to the Super Bowl, and it came at the expense of creepy old man Brett Favre. It couldn’t get better, right? Well, it did! That’s because Vikings radio announcer Paul Allen called Favre’s final interception like something just died… oh yea, it was Favre’s career!



***Bonus Clip***
-This isn’t a Not So Great Moment, but whenever Paul Allen comes up, we have to show this amazing piece of announcing from 2003 and the last second play that knocked the Vikings out of the playoffs. The hilarity is only increased when put to TecmoBowl.

7) Pam Ward, nuff said
-There’s probably thousands of entries that could fill this slot. While this one isn’t technically a call of a play, it’s an embarrassing moment to have caught on live TV. Pam Ward tries to throw it to the studio at the 2009 Little Caesar’s Bowl, but the audio stays with the booth. Then, she wants an injured Marshall player to get the F$#% off her field…


>

6) “That’s kinda gay”
-As an announcer, it’s always tough when you lose your train of thought and words just start to fall nonsensically out of your mouth. The best thing to do is to just shut up and move on. Unfortunately, ESPNU’s Brian Kinchen decided it would be best to talk about hard and stiff pads and soft, caressing hands in a 2006 game. That may be awkward enough, but he followed it up with the above gem that saw him suspended from ESPN. I guess he never saw those Wanda Sykes commercials.

5) Mike Patrick & Britney Spears
-Mike Patrick has never been my favorite announcer, but he’s bearable… at least when he’s not accompanied by Joe Theismann. In a 2007 game between ranked Georgia and Alabama, Patrick thought he would be culturally relevant by talking about Britney Spears. Unfortunately the timing (overtime) and the randomness and pure shock and disgust in his voice makes this clip crack the top 5.

4) Thom Brennaman loves Tim Tebow…. a lot
-Thank the good Lord Fox no longer has the BCS. First, they don’t really know anything about college football, second we won’t have to see 578 band shots a quarter, and third we don’t have to suffer through the LOUD MONOTONE VOICE OF THOM BRENNAMAN. Thom was at the top of his game in the ’09 title game with his love for Tim Tebow. The first 2 minutes of this clip is a nice compilation of Brennaman and Tebow with analysis.

3a) That is a disgusting act...
-Joe Buck takes the coveted #1 spot on a lot of lists for least favorite announcer. There’s a certain smugness to Buck that creates a disconnect with the viewer, he doesn’t tend to get excited for the big moment, and he always puts himself above the game – whether it’s setting up his next comedy line or trying to be a crossover star (ahem, Joe Buck live, check out this link of Mike Francesa’s fantastic take). Because Buck deserves the #3 spot, we get 2 clips. First, his indignation over Randy Moss pretending to moon the Lambeau Field crowd. You’d think he sent naked pictures of himself to someone, geez…



3b) The Tyree catch
-This is the greatest catch in Super Bowl history. Listening to Joe Buck, he sounds as excited as he is when calling a Lions/Rams preseason game, if he ever announced a game that didn’t involve an NFC East team.

2) One championship winning goal, 4 different announcing botches
-Just this summer, our #2 moment occurred in overtime of Game 6 in the Stanley Cup Finals. Patrick Kane scored the winning goal in overtime on a shot that just snuck through the legs of Michael Leighton. We’ll give the announcers a little break because the puck wasn’t seen initially, and Patrick Kane was the only guy in the building that knew what happened, but when 4 separate play by play men absolutely botch the call, it deserves a place in broadcasting lore.

1) Line drive base hit! Caught out there…
-Poor Chip Caray. He’s had enough criticism and mockery piled on in the last year since this call in the AL play in game between Detroit and Minnesota in 2009. Personally, we’ve always liked Chip Caray from his Cubs days, but he was always in over his head at a national level and regressed badly. After this blunder, Chip was relieved of his TBS duties this year.

About Ben Koo

Owner and editor of @AwfulAnnouncing. Recovering Silicon Valley startup guy. Fan of Buckeyes, A's, dogs, naps, tacos. and the old AOL dialup sounds