=== Baseball Public Speakers ===

Sports announcers, great ones, apply a lot of method.  Vin Scully has a certain method that has made his act "happen."  From him, you could learn how to speak easily, if you cared to.  You speak like an older man, unrushed, with a telemarketer's smile as you speak, letting the ideas glide along rather than shoving them.

Kevin Calabro has another method; he makes "hip" happen in a very unorthodox way.  Not an athlete himself, he pulls off the impossible and is accepted as "in" by the athletes.  The way he does this may almost be unique to him.

Dave Niehaus was distinctively visual in his descriptions, and his personality made the cigar-chomping throwback reporter, the hunt-and-peck guy with the fedora, come alive.  He conjured Americana with his smoky voice and not-quite-too-gruff personality.  A boxing announcer who wandered into the baseball booth...

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=== M's 2011 ===

There is a short list of attributes that every great speaker has, every single one who ever connected with an audience.

One of the items on that list:  an authentic passion for their subject matter.

Dave Niehaus was a "dyed-in-the-wool hardball" fan.  Not baseball; hardball.  Though I didn't care for the way he looked at himself sometimes, it's been said that an honest arrogance works better than a put-on humility...

I didn't care for the way he looked at his broadcast partners, for sure.  But those things are negotiable.  What you did love, was the way he looked at baseball.  And the way he looked at you, in the audience.

...............

Other guys announce a ball coming off the bat, and their voice RISES! EXCITEDLY!, and my breath catches and my eyes widen...

and then the words come out:  three-hopper to second base.  That's put-on enthusiasm, and it annoys the stuffing out of you.

Niehaus got annoyed, genuinely annoyed, when the Mariners botched something.  I felt he was often very unfair about that.  But, admittedly, this was part of the fabric of what made him great.  Do you hear other M's announcers' voices get tight -- do other announcers chip their teeth in frustration when the Mariners foul up?

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Still other guys avoid the put-on, but will go innings or games at a time where they themselves don't much care what's going on... they might be smooth and competent.  Fine.  But if they don't care whether they are there or not, why should I?

If it doesn't bother an announcer when the Mariners lose, how can he truly convey that the world's a better place when they win?

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You can see at a glance, why no well-known sabermetrician could be a #1 radio announcer.  ;- ) His passion, if any, would be for correctness, for demonstrating competence, for dignity ....

A public speaker doesn't have to be overtly passionate; Vin Scully doesn't raise his voice.  But Vin's authentic emotion comes across with every word he says.

The most famous sabermetrician was the guy with the most passion for ... baseball its ownself.

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Part 3

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