The Josh Innes Show - The Most Important Sports Announcers Of The 2000's

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

The Athletic has posted a list of the most important sports announcers of this century. This list doesn't include sports radio hosts. It's just game announcers. This destroy this list... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Well, here's a list for you from the Athletic. The Athletic lists the most impactful TV sports broadcasting voices of the 21st century. So I'm going to say that these are play-by-play announcers because I don't see any talk show hosts on this list. So it's not about sports media people per se. It's about sports TV broadcasting voices. Therefore, I guess, are talking about analysts and play-by-play announcers. Or if it's saying voices, are we saying the voice? Are we saying the voice of certainty, voice of certain sports?

Whatever. But it is the most impactful TV sports broadcasting voices of the 21st century. Let's dive into this list here because why not? Let's do some good old-fashioned list radio. What do you say, brothers? We will do that after these words. All right, let's see. So it's alphabetical.

So it's not like this person is number one on some sort of list. And the last person is number 25 or 50. it's just alphabetical. So this is 2000. It's this century, so it's nothing before then, although some of them have been broadcasting well before this century. It is still the people who are the most impactful broadcasters, voices of their sports, whatever, in this century.

Kenny Albert, yeah, this list is already null. Kenny Albert, please. Kenny Albert's terrible. And if you see Kenny Albert, okay, let me put it this way. When I say people are terrible, Kenny Albert is not a terrible broadcaster. He's a fine broadcaster. He's a fine technical broadcaster.

I just hate Kenny Albert, and a lot of my hatred for Kenny Albert stems from two things. One, I hate the look of him. He just has a look that I dislike a lot, right? And, you know, he's part of, like, the Albert family of broadcasters. I think that Marv is his uncle. I think, or is Marv his uncle or his grand? I don't think it's his grandpa. I think it's his uncle.

because his dad, I forgot who Kenny Albert's dad is, but it's another Albert that's a broadcaster who's not on this list. It's the, there's a couple of Alberts. Is it Eddie Albert? No, Eddie Albert's, no, Eddie Albert is Wilbur from Green Acres. So I, uh, I don't know who his dad is. His dad is some other Albert. But I, like, number one is I just hate the look of him.

There are some people you look at and you hate them because of the way they look. And he just looks like a fucking dufus with a gigantic bucket head. And I hate looking at him. I hate that he works with Jonathan Vilma, who I really dislike for whatever reason. Even though he's Saints Legend, Jonathan Vilma, I hate him as a broadcaster. And then the other part goes back to the broadcast, which is if you see Kenny Albert calling your game, particularly in the NFL, like hockey-wise, it's not bad because it's a playoff game usually or like a big game if you're going to hear Kenny Albert.

Although Doc Emerson was, or Doc Emrick, I should say, he was the dude that was the voice of hockey and you knew if it was Doc, it was a big game. Kenny calls some big hockey games, playoff game, so that's fine. But when you'd see Kenny Albert was calling your game in football, you knew that your game pretty much didn't mean a fucking thing. That means it was like Saints, Panthers, Week 16, both teams are out of it. Like, you know that your game was a dud if Kenny Albert and Jonathan Wilmer are calling your game. And I don't know if there's still a team or not.

But if those two dudes are calling your game, it's almost bottom of the barrel. So I disagree on Kenny Albert being an impactful voice of the last 25 years. Marve Albert, you're talking about a guy that bounced back, though. So, you know, late 90s, your biggest broadcaster out there doing the NBA on NBC. You bite some chick on the back. You lose your job. You come back stronger.

You're at T&T for a quarter century and still called a lot of marquee games. So Marv, I'm into it. I dig Marv. Joe Buck. Joe Buck is the voice of the Super Bowl. some years, the voice of the World Series for many years. How many years did Joe do the World Series? Like

1996, I want to say, was his first, and I want to say they alternated a couple of years in the late 90s, like NBC had one or two of them. But I think Joe is called, I mean, he's called well over 20 World Series. He's called some Super Bowls. Never basketball

or anything like that, but baseball and football he's done at a very high level. Look, you're not going to argue that Joe Buck has been an impactful voice, whether it's because people love him or people hate him. Joe has been, and there's really no other way to go about that. Joe is arguably the biggest broadcaster of the last 20 years as it relates to play by play. So Mike Breen, I dislike very much. And if I'm being real, I think the reason I dislike Mike Breen, and he's the voice you'll hear a lot on the NBA finals and the big NBA games. And I think part of the reason why I hate him so much

just because the world talks about him like he's this great broadcaster, and a lot of it's because he's the guy that calls the NBA games and people prop up the NBA on social media. I despise hearing this man yell, bang! And I despise how he pukes. And what is puking? Puking is kind of doing this when you're an announcer, like really kind of trying to sell your voice in that way. And like, you'll hear, he goes to the bat, and a foul.

And I'm like, brother, I can't listen. to you. I fucking hate you. I despise Mike Breen. And it very well could just be a hipster play on my part where I hate him because so many people like him. That is very possible. I am broken in that way that if a whole bunch of people like something, something inside me takes over and tells me to hate that something. So that would not be shocking if that were the case for me. It's kind of the reason why I started liking Nickelback so much is because people hated them. And then I'm like, you know what? I like these fucking guys. Then it became like a real like. You know, that could very well be the case.

But Mike Breen is one of those guys I hate. Lisa Bennington, I have no, Byington, I have no idea who that is. If it's a lady play-by-play announcer, if I'm just being honest, I probably wouldn't enjoy her. Not because she's a lady, but what I've learned is there are a lot of lady announcers that I just don't like. Color analysts don't bother me. And even a lady play-by-play doesn't bother me if it's not someone who's super puky. The problem with lady play-by-play announcers are it's like they try to really kind of deep up their voice and end up sounding really puky and I just dislike them. It doesn't mean that.

Look, that's not me telling you they shouldn't have the job. Like that would be the spin is, oh, so you don't think women can do this? You can call a fine game. But like the fire up the fountains lady in Oakland, who was like the first full-time baseball lady play-by-play announcer, who if you remember the show in 790, we played that audio from the chick in Colorado saying fire up the fountains. Well, that lady is now the voice of the Oakland A's or wherever they are, the traveling A's, the soon-to-be Las Vegas Aves. And she's dreadful, just awful. Like, there's no redeeming quality about her as a broadcaster. Like, she doesn't call a bad game in the sense that, like, oh, she misses calls or anything.

She is unlistenable. And I feel like we're being fucked with. The fact that she has a gig doing this, we are being fucked with. That's the only thing I can surmise from this. she's terrible I don't know Lisa who is Lisa Bennington I don't know Andres Cantor no clue who that is I'm going to go out on a limb and say he does soccer but I have no clue Ian Drake okay not a huge fan but okay Ion Eagle very good big I and eagle guy although I've gotten to a point now where I can't tell him and his kid that

does the Nickelodeon game apart and I find myself being annoyed by the fact that I can't tell them apart, but Iron Eagle is very good. Doc Emrick is a legend. I mean, Doc is just a fucking rock star. I would agree with that. Like, Doc, when you think of big playoff hockey, you think of Doc. And he is one of the few announcers that losing that announcer actually negatively impacts how you watch that sport.

Like, there's a rotating door of dudes who called the Super Bowl, right? Al Michaels is called Super Bowls. Joe Buck is called Super Bowls. Like, they alternate who calls the Super Bowl. kind of just like, okay, like I don't get used to that, right? But Doc is one of those guys who you associate with big, the biggest hockey games there are. You associate it with Doc, and he's part of the star. Like, he is part of the show. He is one of the stars. So losing Doc Emmerich did change the way you listen to some of these hockey games. They don't feel as big without Doc Emmerich.

So out of all these people, I would argue that Doc, out of all the people we're going to list, Doc would be the guy that you'd go. Because very rarely do I think losing a play-by-play guy is going to impact how anybody watches a game. Like, it's the NFL. It doesn't matter if Kenny Albert's calling the game or Kevin Harlan's calling the game or God is calling the game. It's a football game and you're going to watch it. Hockey is still a niche, right? Like hockey is not a sport where 15, 20 million people are going to watch the finals, the Stanley Cup finals.

It's just not going to happen that way. But he is so closely associated with hockey and he has such a big game. game announcer that I thought it did hurt when he left. No other sport would have that. Dick Inberg. But the problem with that is Dick Inberg, I think he stopped calling games a long time ago. First of all, I think Dick Inberg's dead. And second of all, Dick Inberg was associated with football when football was on NBC.

Actually, no, I take that back. Dick Inberg did call, when the package moved to CBS. Dude, that's not a knock on Inberg, because I think Dick Inberg was fantastic. I miss all those guys, and I bet you a lot of you guys, too, from our childhood that called these games on NBC and even before it moved to Fox. But when NBC still had more of the games before they lost the rights and then eventually got it back with Sunday night football, but guys like Dick Inberg, God, Dick Inberg was good. Let's see. Chris Fowler, gross. I think Chris Fowler is awful. Chris Fowler is an example of ESPN being cheap. Yes, he calls Marquis College. football games. But Chris Fowler, to me, is a guy I associate with ESPN being cheap and not

wanting to pay people. So they just take dudes who are studio host and sports center guys and throw them on television and say, hey, do two jobs. It's the same reason why Carl Ravich is doing Sunday night baseball. Yes, the job that was once held by the great John Miller, a fucking legend with big big beautiful pipes. He had great pipes. They were amazing pipes. Those pipes. And they replace him with fucking Carl Ravich, the host of baseball to fucking night. So, and then Chris Fowler falls into that same category. Let's see, Kevin Harlan is a god. He's on this list.

He is a rock star, football and basketball. I'd argue he is the voice that is most closely associated with the NBA now, mostly because he's on NBA 2K on the games. And I think that that helps a younger generation really discover him. So while Mike Breen is the guy that calls the finals, I think the guy who's most closely associated with the NBA, is actually Kevin Harlan. He's one of my heroes. I love him. Gus Johnson, I think, has always been overrated. Now you don't even know where to find Gus Johnson, and he's just a character of what

he used to be. But if you go to Prime, when the NCAA tournament was at its apex, and for me, as a viewer, that was early to mid-2000s, like 07, 08, 09, you go into the era of, you know, J.J. Reddick versus Adam Morrison, that type of shit when the NCAA tournament was cooking. Gus Johnson's voice was great on there. The problem is he left the NCAA tournament and the NFL on Fox, or on CBS rather, and went to Fox and then just became kind of

a lazy character and whatever now and then just yell something just to show that he's still Gus Johnson. Like Gus Johnson was a cultural movement at one point when he was doing the NCAA tournament. Now he calls games that very few people care about. Like, oh, here's the Big Ten Championship game or something where people are

like, cool. But outside of that, you're calling like a Penn State, Indiana game at 11 in the morning that no one's watching. Should I know who Mike Joy is? Because I don't. Jim Lampley is boxing. Good for Jim Lampley. Nothing against him. Nothing for him. Vern Lundquist. I miss

very much. You don't know what you got till it's gone. The SEC on CBS. Vern Lundquist on the call. We used to make fun of Vern because he was just old and whatever. Now I miss him greatly. He was in this new Happy Gilmore and looks old and doesn't sound very

good and I feel terrible for him. But if you go back to, again, Prime SEC on CBS, and I'm talking like Les Miles-era LSU, hijinks, wacky plays are happening. Vern was so good. And now you juxtapose that with Brad Nestler, who's also on this list. Brad Nestler never fit calling SEC football games to me. When I would hear Brad Nestler, I associate him with like, you know, Missou of the Big 12 taking on, like, Nebraska. Like, that's what I associate Brad Nestler with. I don't associate Brad Nestler calling LSU, Florida, in the swamp, 230. Like, that doesn't feel like a Brad Nestler game.

I'm just not a Brad Nestler guy. I think he's all pipes and no substance. Jim Nance is on this list. You know, I dislike Jim Nance very much. I think he's syrupy and golf, good for you. Football-wise, I just don't enjoy you. And I really hate Tony Romo. Beth Mowens, my God.

Beth Mowens is the automatic turnoff. Like, when you hear a Beth Mowens, like you turn on TV and, there's Beth Mowens. You know it's a shitty softball game and there's no reason to watch it. But now she's infiltrated like college football, like all that. And like all like, like just like Doc is a guaranteed tune in. If you put Doc Gamerick, he is the only announcer on this list that if Doc Gamerick is calling the game, you're like, you know what? Fucking right. Doc, right? I don't even care about hockey, but Doc. He sounds so good and he's great. Beth Mowens is the only person on this list who is an automatic tuneout.

Well, actually, I take that back. Her and Joe Tessator, who is also on this list from the athletic. Joe Tessitore and Beth Mowens. Those are two people who are stone cold, guaranteed, turn this shit off. Let's see. Sean McDonough, he's, like, I'm just, he's there. There's nothing about Sean McDonough that's bad, really, and there's nothing about Sean McDonough that's really great. He's just there.

And now he calls a bunch of big games, but he's just there. The aforementioned John Miller, who was spectacular on Sunday night baseball. Everybody waxes poetic about 1990s ESPN Sports Center and Dan Patrick and Keith Oberman. The one thing all wax poetic about as it relates to ESPN, Sunday night baseball, John Miller, Joe Morgan, fucking rock stars. John Millen's pipes are a thing of beauty. My God, he's a god. Brent Musburger, another guy that I really enjoy. You used to associate Brent Musburger with huge college football games, obviously, or oogling what's his name's fucking girlfriend in the stands. Now he's just a gambling dude, but he was a fucking stud,

Britten Musburger was. Let's see, Brad Nessler, who you know I hate, Jim Nance, who you know I hate. Dan Shulman, he's a solid announcer, but he's another one of those guys that's just kind of there. Joe Tessitore is among the worst. Tessitore, whenever he was doing Monday night football, and I think Drew broke some sort of single season passing, or I think he threw for the most yards in a career or something. And the guy just wouldn't shut the fuck up. Like, shut up, Joe Tessitore. You're the worst. I will say, though, that he was really good on that wacky golf show, the holy moly. And Mike Tarrico, who's another guy who I think is just fine, but no one's tuning in or tuning out for Mike Tariko. Now, in fairness, there aren't too many

people on this list that people are tuning in or tuning out for, if we are being fair. Anyway, more to come.