I mentioned him as one to seek out before, but I missed it that Pete Van Wieren retired from Braves radio after last season. Too bad.
An mildly interesting note (to me) is that Mike Shannon in St. Louis, who was the long time broadcast partner of Jack Buck, now sounds a lot like Buck, in vocal inflection and mannerisms. He isn't nearly as creative or interesting as Buck was, but then, who is? And there is a guy in Baltimore who used to be in San Francisco, who sounds a lot like Jon Miller at first blush. I think his name is Joe Angel. It doesn't take long to figure out it is not actually Miller, though.
Eric Nadel is still good, though he has a crap team to announce these days (Rangers.) And you can still reverberate to the dulcet tones of Alan Ashby on the Toronto radio broadcasts, if you are into some kind of "what might have been?" trip.
And, Marty Brennaman in Cincinnati is a very good radio man; even if the rest of the Dickitie broadcasters, the Dickities, the Dickitie chili, the Dickitie town, and the entire southwest Ohio-northern Kentucky region, sucks for air.
And to second or third the emotion, the indistinguishable and barely talented no-names the Astros now employ and pay, coupled with the shell of Milo, make listening to Astros broadcasts, once one of my favorite things ever, an endurance sport. I blame McLain for not realizing the importance of the broadcasts and hiring someone with noticeable skills and enthusiasm, and Milo for hanging on and sort of casting a pall over the whole thing. Although it is hard to care enough about it anymore to get really pissed off at all.
