1963, Dodgers beat NY Yankees for the World Series trophy. Funny thing about that, the '63 Championship was the <ONLY> WS Championship that Dodgers won at home.

I remember the Dodgers just squeaked out the Serious over the Yankees in 1963, 4-0. Yankees only scored four runs the entire series. (LA beat that two years later, only scoring two vs. Baltimore).

White was on the 1958 Giants but rookie Orlando Cepeda had the position sewn up and they had McCovey in the minor leagues, a surplus which was never sorted out until Cepeda was traded to St. Louis in 1966.

SF did get Toothpick Sam Jones for White, and he won 39 games in two years.

I could do without the "Yankees win...Theeeeeee Yankees win" guy.

My impression is that local announcers are becoming more objective overall, not homers. Certain exceptions of course, such as Ken Harrelson.

You are far from alone on that score; John Sterling is someone I have always found off-putting.

From a post five years back:

<....While on the theme of Sterling, here's a classic Matsui HR call by the master from two years ago:

'It's high, it's far, it's gone.....it's an A-bomb!'

Guess he forgot that it wasn't Rodriguez at bat. This also makes one wonder how those of Japanese origin might have felt on hearing this particular call....>

I've listened to Marty Brennaman of the Reds and he's very good.

What bothers me these days is the overanalysis. Talking too much about the strike zone, talking about every tiny little thing, and often not well.

I understand that announcers shouldn't be quick to criticize players, but some clearly will not, never, ever. The former players in particular are bad about that. Most of them don't know the rules of baseball, which drives me crazy. What do they have to do all day, but learn a little about the game they are making much money to talk about?

<I've listened to Marty Brennaman of the Reds and he's very good.>

I think they make too much of individual plays. I was a stats geek before it was cool and I think the numbers just crunch along and over 162 games, work themselves out. I don't know who was first to say it, but there is an old maxim that goes something like "Want to know how a guy will perform? Look at the back of his baseball card." One example: A couple years ago, the Reds had a pitcher in 4-5 games with one bad inning that was just killing them. Instead of just accepting that his ERA was still at the normal historical levels, the announcers kept saying such enlightening platitudes as "He's got to get past this one bad inning ruining an otherwise great start." Or the pitcher who gives up a lot of home runs, always has, always will, they'll say "He just had 2 bad pitches this game that ruined an otherwise great effort." And again, the numbers on the back of the baseball card don't lie.

Say a pitcher has been a little wild, and goes 2-0 on a batter. If the batter drives the next pitch, it's "He knew he was going to get a fastball, and he was ready." If he misses or pops it up, it's "He's too impatient, he needs to take that pitch."

Or say a runner is out on a great throw trying to advance, it's "You should never test Ichiro's arm" or whatever. It took a perfect throw and tag to get him, maybe it was a good risk. Yet the same announcer will be saying a runner should try to steal when there's maybe a 30% chance he'll be thrown out.

Rick Sutcliffe is one who used to drive me nuts this way. Just going over every tiny thing, and always based on what happened.

This gets away from just the announcers to the sportswriters and TV guys, but you probably remember Jack Clark hitting the series-winning homer in the ninth against the Dodgers in 1985.

There are bad roster choices in the major leagues, but largely that is true. (I think finesse pitchers and knuckleball pitchers tend to be undervalued, no matter what their record is, for example.)

But announcers are not necessarily selected for their knowledge and ability to relate what's happening. The looks sometimes matter, and the voice sometimes matter, too much. What a player looks like doesn't matter at all.

SFG have the best record in baseball, not the Cubs. Most wins 54, and best percentage .621