Joe Starkey

did he retire?

Originally posted by Ninerjohn:

Originally posted by NineFourNiner:
Joe Starkey
Chick Hearn
Vin Scully (even though I HATE the #&$_#&$ Dodgers)

All irreplaceable.

LOL... Starkey was a good announcer but to put him in the same breath as those 2 is wrong. The one Bay Area sports announcer that I always believed was the best and most versatile and could be compared... Bill King. Lon Simmons was a notch below King in my opinion but still far better than Starkey.

I agree. The fact so many have expressed positive comments about Starkey reflects on the relatively young age of this board. I doubt anyone who ever heard them both would rank Simmons below Starkey.

Starkey was very good, but don't hate on Robinson.

Starkey didn't reakky retire, but he decided that calling for two organizations at the same time of the year was too much for him to do anymore, so now he's only calling the Cal games.

I miss Simmons and Wayne Walker. I could only listen to Starkey during a night game, which didn't happen too often. During the Nov and Dec I could listen to the broadcast after the team switched from KGO to KNBR after it got dark in AZ and CO.

Originally posted by NC49erfan82:

Originally posted by niners_guy:
I think there are "classic" football play by play guys and there are "new school" guys. The 49ers replaced a classic guy with a classic guy. I think they should have gone with an enthusiastic new school guy myself. A great example of an enthusiastic new school guy is Paul Allen who does the play by play for the Vikings.

I also like the Bears and Cheifs broadcasters. Merril Reese from Philly is also one person I like to listen to.

what about the Cardinals broadcasters.... I absolutely hate to hear is voice.

Originally posted by dj43:

Originally posted by Ceadderman:

Originally posted by nvninerfan1:
You don't have to like Starkey, but he was a lot better than the crap you hear on TV.
I for one got sick of Madden and his BS.

Madden is eclectic. But he doesn't always work for everybody. Me I think the Madden/Summeral team had to be the best broadcast duos on TV of my time. I watch all NFL and when our guys weren't on I looked forward to at least hearing games called by these guys.

Madden could dumb down quantum physics for anybody and make it sound good.

And Summerall, well that guy is puuuuuuuuuure class.

~Ceadder

I will never forget listening to Summerall trying to pronounce Houshmanzadeh. By the second half he just said, "that guy."

Yup that was classic. But at least he didn't try so hard that he mucked up the name repeatedly. I so hate that when an announcer is so confident in how he pronounces a name that he says it constantly even when it is wrong.

~Ceadder

Originally posted by TlSSER:
did he retire?

Just for the 49ers.

He is still doing the play-by-play for Cal.

I think Ted Robinson will be fine. i remember when he used to do the Giants games and I missed him when he left.

Originally posted by Ninerjohn:

Originally posted by NineFourNiner:
Joe Starkey
Chick Hearn
Vin Scully (even though I HATE the #&$_#&$ Dodgers)

All irreplaceable.

LOL... Starkey was a good announcer but to put him in the same breath as those 2 is wrong. The one Bay Area sports announcer that I always believed was the best and most versatile and could be compared... Bill King. Lon Simmons was a notch below King in my opinion but still far better than Starkey.

Bill King.

As for Lon Simmons... my dad always held up a radio to our ears while he and I sat in the stands. As a kid, I thought it was dorky/embarrassing to have my dad listening to a game on the radio that we were at, but I'm so grateful that he did. Because of all the amazing calls/moments during the '80s.

Listening to Lon call a 9er game >>>>>>>>> (__fill_in_the_blank__)



Here's the Young call that someone mentioned:

Originally posted by NickV:

Originally posted by TlSSER:
did he retire?

Just for the 49ers.

He is still doing the play-by-play for Cal.

At least I got to listen to his last radio broadcast driving back to SoCal from Napa. I still can't believe he picked doing Cal games over the Niners! Not a bonanza!