A Whole Lot of Calls

Vin Scully (you were expecting someone else?)

A broadcaster named Jack Benjamin put together a collection of over 350 play-by-play calls as he begins the process to select The Greatest Play-by-Play Calls of the Last 50 Years.

Jack has divided everything up into different sports and different categories within those sports.

While there could be criticisms for the calls being selected, Jack has allowed space for suggestions, so kudos to him.

In fact, kudos to him for this whole project, which has me bleary eyed tonight.

I'm not going to sit here and criticize his effort because, again, he worked on selecting over 350 calls, with clips of each call included.

But, if I may, my only criticism is why not go back further? Play-by-play recordings exist back to 1927 with The Long Count of Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey. Full baseball games date to 1934. By not including anything prior to 1970, we're missing on a lot.

Just think of the names, like Red Barber, Mel Allen, Foster Hewitt, Ray Scott, Bill Stern, Graham McNamee, Ted Husing, and so many others.

Plus you're missing 20 years in the career of Vin Scully which, granted, we all know that's unfair anyway.

But, seriously, you're then missing on the Koufax perfect game* and the Greatest Game Ever Played and Wilt's 100 point effort and Roger Maris and Don Larsen and The Shot Heard 'round the World. I haven't even touched on the '47 World Series and the Olympics and college football, and...

*I get tired of debating the Koufax perfect game as not being a "moment." It's an inning. OK, fine. It's the finest piece/segment of sports broadcast ever, but beyond that, let's just pick it up with two balls and two strikes on Harvey Kuenn. It's still utterly magnificent in Scully's ability to set the scene, stay measured, but still get excited. It's a master class. Thus, a perfect call of a perfect moment.

As we're essentially at the 100th anniversary of play-by-play (opinions vary; baseball began on KDKA in 1921) this then eliminates the first half-century.

Instead, the oldest call is of Bobby Orr's famous Stanley Cup Finals goal in 1970. Both calls (Dan Kelly and Fred Cusick) are in consideration and both got very high marks from me.

But it's Jack's project so, as I said, criticisms end there.

The process is simple: go through each call and determine if it is:

- Definitely one of the Greatest Play-by-Play Calls
- Worthy of Consideration as one of the Greatest
- Maybe/Maybe Not one of the Greatest
- Probably Not one of the Greatest Definitely
- Not one of the Greatest

They'll then be assembled into brackets and further discussion will ensue.

I'm a tough judge (I know -- no shock). If the analyst steps on a call, it loses points, or loses out completely. That's a huge problem, especially in basketball and local football broadcasts. Some Olympics also.

If the play-by-play announcer can't keep their voice under control (hi, Gus!) well, you know how that's going to end.

Not every Doc Emrick call is "definitely great" in the hockey category, but none of them are below "worthy" (and that's considering his masterful work of Mark Messier's three-goal night in Game 6 of the 1994 conference final isn't included, when Doc called the game for the opponent -- the New Jersey Devils).

Every Vin Scully call (and there aren't that many here) is "definitely great." When you're the master, well, that's too easy.

I'm doing football right now. To that end, here's Vin calling "The Catch."

That's about as loud as Vinny ever gets.

That's the thing: a great call needs excitement but it needs all the facts also. It needs the reporting. Losing your mind doesn't tell me what happened. It certainly doesn't tell my mother, for instance. The play-by-play announcer is still supposed to be a journalist. (Remember: Report, Inform, Educate, Entertain)

Simply screaming OHMYGODHECAUGHTTHEBALLANDHITTHESHOTANDDROVEINTHEWINNINGRUNNWHILESINKINGTHEPUTTLOCKITCOCKITROCKITRESTOCKITANDITSGARGANTUAN!
...does not suffice.

But, as we told by a well-placed troll, he had to teach Jenga to blind people or some such nonsense (that is to say he doesn't remotely care about this).

So that's enough. That's my night. Hope yours has been fine.

I'm heading back to breaking all of these calls down.