Baseball Prospectus | Articles | Prospectus Matchups: Celebrating the Sinister
I’m a fan of the Astros organization. By that I mean I think they are one of the better-run teams in baseball. I certainly wish them no ill-will, but I have to say this: I take a certain perverse joy when I hear them lose on the radio because of the effect it has on their broadcaster, Milo Hamilton. For those of you who have never heard Milo do a game, he is of the genus homerus shamelessus. He’s so blatant that it immediately makes me start pulling for the other team. Maybe he’s the nicest guy in the world–I don’t know–but whenever he starts referring to the Astros as “we,” I sign up for the other side.
Tom “Wimpy” Paciorek has turned into a pretty big Braves homer ever since switching over from the White Sox games. He doesn’t say can of corn anymore like he use to, which is a relief.
I was just starting to warm up to Paciorek a little until he said “right size, wrong shape” the other day when somebody hit a ball about a mile foul. It immediately took me back to the nightmare that was the combination of Harrelson and Paciorek. He actually says some reasonable intelligent things from time to time, but his semi-orgasmic commentary is just too much.
I will say that Rathbun has probably the best comb-back I’ve seen in a long time. There are many impressive comb-overs, but the comb-back is a true art.
Skip says “can of corn”. I have no problem with that.
The worst part of the FSN crew is tha camera work. There will be a fly ball to left and the camera is on Andruw or stuck on the pitcher, ugh! Can the not hire the Turner guys out?
Listening to Paciorek makes me recall watching ball games with my buddies way back in the 1980s when we’d get way too stoned and listen to whoever was the bad announcer for the Minnesota Twins in those days. Paciorek is a regular “puddle of consciousness,” but every now and then he has a Carlos Castenada moment and things make sense. Albeit briefly and my guess the “profundity to addled-state ratio” is at least one-to-one.
The thing with Paciorek is you probably can get as much insight sitting in a skid row bar in a booth filled with winos, but that’s kind of the beauty of it.
Anyway, I was referring to Skip’s loathing of Hamilton, which was mentioned in the comments a week or two ago… Hamilton said nasty things about Harry Caray immediately following his death, and Skip — who is generally nice to every other announcer — didn’t appreciate it.
But ragging on the FSN guys is a lot more fun 🙂
In the interest of attempting to veer back toward the vicinity of the topic… Hamilton is a jerkoff, I’m glad someone is pointing that out in the media, and I’m sure Skip would be pleased to about it as well.
I might be mistaken, but Skip’s references to can of corn are usually making fun of the term.
When searching for the origin of my dad’s strange “#8 Can of Golden Bantam” reference when he sees a can of corn, I came across this site. My dad grew up listening to the Pirates in the 50s and 60s so it makes sense. His entire baseball phraseology seems to have been taken from this guy.
Looking around for Milo/Harry stories, I found this one on some random site, which I’ll quote extensively and pretend it’s fair use:
“Milo Hamilton was furious and Harry Caray was delighted.
“The scene was Opening Day, 1982, Caray’s first home game as the newly anointed top banana in the Cubs broadcast scheme, and the outside chill was nothing compared to the frosty conditions inside the WGN booth.
“Hamilton had expected to ascend to first seat when Jack Brickhouse left the Cubs booth, but Caray had bolted to Wrigley Field and Hamilton didn’t like it. Then, during the seventh-inning stretch on Opening Day, Hamilton’s quiet rage became public.
“Caray rose to sing “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” and Hamilton tore off his headset, flung it down and snapped: “I don’t have to listen to this [bleep].”
“Brushing past producer Jack Rosenberg to exit the booth, Hamilton encountered a writer out on the catwalk.
“Poking his finger repeatedly in the media visitor’s chest, Hamilton raged: “You know, it’s my [bleeping] booth, too. I’m still a part of this. But that [bleeping] bastard inside’s got all of you under his thumb. So now you’re here to do another piece of [bleep] about that guy without asking me a single question. You’re all a bunch of [bleep].”
“The poking and the tirade continued until well into the bottom of the seventh when Rosenberg directed Hamilton back inside the booth.
“After the game, Caray summoned up enough stagedoor innocence to ask the writer, “Hey, what did you say to get Milo going like that? I just can’t figure that guy.”
“Figure that guy?
“No, no, Harry. It was you that all of Chicago always wanted to figure.”
Just wanted to make a quick comment about Paciorek (sp?). I hated him on CWS games and shuttered when I heard he was going to do the FSN games. Rathbun is very good. But it makes my skin crawl every time something good happens to the Braves and Wimpy screams “HELLO!”
Wow, Prince seems like he was a pretty well known broadcaster. at least half of those famous lines are still used or known today
I’ve got a Milo story: He was on the KDKA radio team during the year the “We are fam-a-lee” Pirates won it all in “79. Not only was he a shameless homer; he shilled for a local restaurant called Po-Li’s. The restaurant passed out the meals when a player appeared on the star-of-the game show.
When Milo asked Phil Garner if he’d soon be seeing him at Po-Li’s, Phil replied, “I hope not.”
Call me crazy, but I don’t understand why some of the Braves announcers aren’t in the Hall of Fame for broadcasters. I think theyr’e pretty good.
For those who don’t remember, the early Braves announcers were Larry Munson and the aforementioned Milo Hamilton. I was only 10, but I hated him then. But if you’re stuck up here in NY, you still get to listen to John Sterling on the radio. Aren’t we just too lucky?
Why do people expect “team” announcers not to be biased. That’s so stupid. They announce for their team, not ESPN, they don’t need to be unbiased.