"It'd be great if the networks could cycle analysts through the booth fairly quickly to keep them fresh, but of course that would never work. It would be too time-consuming and expensive to have to train and publicize a fresh crop of announcers every year or two, and anyway who'd take that job knowing he'd only keep it for so short a time?"

Well, TNT et al do this pretty regularly for their NBA coverage, both color commentators and studio teams - the forever-rotating stable of mediocre coaches always has a place to land for a year before being inexplicably re-hired by yet another team.

How are the ratings for the CFL's announcer-less games holding up?

The links to "Tim McCarver Must Die," or whatever it's called, are empty.

Is it just me, or do the "death to Tim McCarver" links on page 2 of the column just link back to the page they're on?

Chris wrote: How are the ratings for the CFL's announcer-less games holding up?

Alas, Chris, the announcers are back.

Well, Zelasko is pretty and has a cool-sounding name. Maybe that's what she wrote on her resume. In any case, that was probably good enough for TV execs. Just do like I do and tune into the pregame show as late as possible. That minimizes the damage she can do to your brain.

My favorite Brennamanism was in last year's NLCS after Julien Tavarez freaked out against the Astros. Every time Brennaman said the guy's name after that, it was "Jooooolien Tavarez". So just imagine how much heat Lidge will take from Thom for hanging one against Pujols. He's probably frustrated that there's even a Game 6 because he was so sure (as most of us probably were) that Game 5 was in the bag. Hey, we feel bad too, Thom. We were hoping just as much as you were that you'd be done commentating baseball for this season.

Maybe Lyons has improved this year (although I hadn't noticed because he still seems like the same putz as before), but it's so very wrong that he's on my TV in mid-October while Joe Morgan or even Buck Martinez are not. No network should have all the NLCS games AND the World Series unless they make an agreement to contract out the best possible announcers. Of course that will never happen, so I'll just continue crying about it like your garden-variety La-Z-Boy quarterback.

The messed-up links are being fixed.

If you don't want to go back to the story, the links were to and

I guess html doesn't work in the letters form. Boo.

Trying again: The McCarver links are being or have been fixed. I can't link to them here but they were:

http://www.shutuptimmccarver.com/links.htm

and

http://bobfinnan.com/TimMcCarver/

Dear King,

Love your work. I'm glad you talked about announcers today because I had a chance to see Robin Roberts at the Women's Sport Foundation event on Monday night and it reminded me what you said about her recently ("she's a real pro). It got me to thinking who are the top 5 announcers working in the States today? My list: Robin Roberts, Tom Hammond (I have a weak spot for him), Marv Albert, Al Michaels and Jim Lampley. Honorable mention to Chris Berman (just kidding). Who are your five?

Any one else? (Please don't say Bob Costas or Jim Roberts - both too smarmy).

"Chris wrote: How are the ratings for the CFL's announcer-less games holding up?

Alas, Chris, the announcers are back."

Double alas, guys, I work for the CBC, the very station where that announcer-less trick took place. Since hockey is like oxygen here in Canada, the big bosses weren't willing to try that trick for their Hockey Night In Canada games that started on October 5th. What do you know, we settled our labour dispute just before the 5th (heck, we only started voting on the 4th and they brought people back to work ahead of time...so much for making sure we would vote "yes" on the deal) and the HNIC crew was on the air as normal.

From what I heard, the ratings were UP on the CFL games that went on without commentators. People were probably curious and they didn't care enough to be outraged that the product was not what it was before my cohorts and I were locked out. Maybe ratings would go up for Fox if they got rid of their Human Promo Machines too...

"Honorable mention to Chris Berman (just kidding)."

Berman wouldn't be so bad if he would just take a breath once in a while. He always sounds like he's being strangled when he gets to the end of a sentence. Isn't that one of the first things they teach you about broadcasting---how to finish a thought without needing CPR?

As far as favourite broadcasters go, I'm glad that King mentioned Dan Shulman earlier. We really miss him on Blue Jays' telecasts here in Canada. The insufferable twit they've got doing Toronto games now makes Brennaman and Lyons seem almost sufferable by comparison.

Al Michaels is excellent. I miss Buck Martinez doing Jays' games even more than Shulman. Madden might be a bit obnoxious, but he knows football better than just about anybody else and he clearly loves the game too. Joe Buck is head-and-shoulders above everyone else doing Fox baseball. I love to hear Vin Scully smooth-talk his way through 9 innings. But you asked for King's fave announcers, not mine, so I'll do what so many commentators just can't seem to do---shut my trapola.

When I lived in San Diego fifteen years ago, Jeannie "Go-Go" Zelasko did traffic and weather for a local AM station. She was pretty annoying then too (I can remember people remarking on it) but she mercifully only had thirty seconds in which to be annoying (plus about ten or fifteen seconds of banter with the on-air personality on either side of her report). She was insufferable then, and--as if she were on a mission to prove that people can't ever change in any way--she is insufferable in exactly the same way today. How she moved up from local traffic to national studio host is a mystery. Someone at Fox clearly likes her work though. Perhaps if Murdoch fired that person we would all be spared any more of "Go-Go," and, one could only hope, Brennaman...

Also, I have tried watching with the volume off, but the camera angles and quick cuts are still too distracting. I can only watch about a half inning or so before I have to get up and go do something else for a while.