Williams World: Separating the wheat from the chaff in the field of televized announcers

If you said about 400, you’re right. That’s a far cry from the NBC’s “Saturday Game of the Week” that many of us saw growing up. Up until the mid to late 1990s, it was about 100.

The influx of televised game has led to more jobs for play-by-play and color analysts. FOX has four regional crews, ESPN has three and TBS has one with two rotating color analysts.

But that does mean all of them are worthy of employment. Some are great — so great that add to the experience of watching the National Pastime on television. Others, however, make you want to press the mute button.

TURN THE VOLUME UP

1. Jon Miller and Joe Morgan, ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball: These guys are the best. Miller, as many Orioles fans recall, is a brilliant storyteller and knows how to build drama without forcing it. Morgan, however, is a traditionalist who does shy away from challenging players.

2. Dave O’Brien and Steve Phillips, ESPN’s Wednesday Night Baseball: Call them ESPN’s new school team. O’Brien does a great play-by-play by mixing in stats and players’ backgrounds. Phillips has been able to make that rare jump from baseball executive to broadcaster. He understands the game and relates well to players and viewers with his vast knowledge of the game.

3. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, FOX: No two broadcasters in baseball bring out such a true love-hate set of feelings than these guys. Buck, the son of Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck, has a great sense of humor which drives some fans crazy. They accuse him of not respecting the game - which is crazy. McCarver, who has done more playoff and World Series games than any other broadcaster in the history of the game, is seen by many as over analyzing the game. That’s simply wrong.

4. Gary Thorne/Jim Hunter and Buck Martinez/Jim Palmer/Rick Dempsey, MASN: OK, I can hear it now: Williams is pandering to the locals. That’s not true, especially of you listen to how good these guys are compared to the duos who cover the rest of the league. Thorne and Hunter could work for a major network and Martinez, Palmer and Dempsey offer outstanding color analysis.

5. Bob Carpenter/Johnny Holiday and Don Sutton/Ray Knight, MASN: The Nationals’ broadcast team is considered by several members of the media writers to be among the best local teams in all of baseball. Like the Orioles’ broadcasting team, all of these guys have had extensive network experience. Carpenter and Sutton might just be the best local broadcast team in baseball. They work almost all the games together and in their second year get rave reviews from the broadcasters that I have spoken to around the major leagues.

HIT THE MUTE BUTTON

1. Chip Caray and Buck Martinez/Ron Darling, TBS: This is painful for me. I like Chip and when he replaced his grandfather as the voice of the Cubs along with Steve Stone, he was very good. But a few years in Atlanta has knocked him off his game — and not even two quality color analysts like Martinez and Darling can help him. Let’s hope he gets in his WGN form in time for the playoffs.

2. Len Kasper and Bob Brenly, WGN: When Caray and Steve Stone left the Cubs broadcast team because they were asked not to say anything negative about baseball’s lovable losers, they were replaced by Kasper and Brenley. If you want to go the homer route, the Cubs should go with the WGN Radio team of Pat Hughes and Cub Ron Santo, a former Cub. Hughes and Santo are very entertaining and could have brought back that “Harry Caray” feeling. It’s not too late to make a switch.

There are other broadcast teams that could be mentioned, but what’s the point of piling on?