> Actually Speedvision has a fairly small staff and most of the announcers cover
> mulitple subjects. Posey is like Hobbs, in that they both drove at a time
> when drivers raced in all sorts of series. F1, Trans Am, Nascar, Indycar, Sportscars.
> So his experience is widespread. He is a slow talking Texan but not as bad as Hobbs used to
> be on ESPN's F1 broadcasts when he was often sloshed on the job. :) Prost and
> his Koop de GRACIE comes to mind :)
Dave -- Was this meant to be a joke, or have you been reading the
Orlando Senile again?
ESPN is owned by ABC, which in turn is owned by Capital Cities and they
all share commentators and crew with Speedvision, which is owned by
someone in the mix, but damned if I know whom. Be that as may, ESPN has
a fairly large staff -- I used to live in Bristol, CT, where ESPN is
HQ'd. Not even counting the NASCAR commentators shared among those
entities, you have Silent Sam (Texan? Not quite -- he grew up with a
large silver spoon in his mouth in Sharon, CT, in the Berkshires, a
stone's throw from Lime Rock), Dyvid 'obbs (sloshed? I've been to a
Lotus Owners' Group party with Hobbs -- he's about as much of a drinker
as Carrie Nation, though he will have a beer, thank you -- he DOES like
to joke around on air a lot), Steve Matchett (ex-Benetton wrench), Bob
Varsha, Mike Joy, Dorsey Schroeder (TransAm), Derek Bell, Glen Jarrett
(Dale's bro), Calvin Fish, Doug Nye (an excellent writer), Alan
deCadenet, the ever-annoying John Bisignano, Paul Page, Dr. Jerry Punch,
and a huge bunch of No-Namos.
IMHO, there are too many people in the commentator booth for ESPN's F1
coverage (IMHO, there are too many people in the booth when Sam Posey's
there alone...). I gotta say, though, even worse than Sam was Sam with
Bobby Unser -- when it sounded like they were gonna punch each other out
any minute -- and Sam and Bobby with Danny Sullivan -- who, if he's not
actually really, really, REALLY dumb, certainly sounds like it.
Word I got from a very secret squirrel is that Sam is a golden boy with
ABC, even though they get reams of letters asking if he couldn't be
assigned to, like, snowmobile racing or "The Wonderful World of Newts"
or something. He's been with them for a long, long time.
Then there's the (excuse me while I gag) DEAN OF AMERICAN MOTORSPORTS
JOURNALISTS, Chris "What's it like out there?" Economaki, who could
single-handedly make the most exciting race sound like a seventh-inning
slump in a sandlot league ball game. Thanks God he's in semi-retirement.
He makes Leon Mandel sound erudite.
Best race announcer regardless of category? Hands down, Ned Jarrett --
and I'm not a huge NASCAR fan. He's quiet, knows what he's talking
about, and gentlemanly. He should run classes for some of the other ninnies.
