Brewers hire Joe Block as new radio play-by-play announcer (Latest: Jeff Levering joins radio broadcast team for 2015)

[1992casey]

I've only heard Joe at length one time, and because that was the night he teamed with Davey Nelson, it's probably not the most representative sample. I thought he was fine and his delivery was smooth, though.

 

I've noticed some odd pronunciations, to the point where my eyebrows raise. "Wall" was one of them. I had to do a double-take to figure out what he said.

 

I couldn't care less about an announcer's voice. Bill Schoreder has a nice voice, for instance, but some of the things his voice utters make me scratch my head. When listening to a professionally trained announcer, as long as the content is interesting, delivery is smooth, and the guy is prepared, I'm pleased. (If the announcer isn't professionally trained, I'll cut a lot of slack on the "smooth delivery" part.)

[brettac1]

I'm going to call the small sample police if people don't start giving the guy a chance.

[PrinceEatMeat]

I'm going to call the small sample police if people don't start giving the guy a chance.

 

I agree. We're two weeks into his first season. Gotta give the guy more time. Takes more time than that to even get used to him.

[Spidey]

I have only heard a handfull of games so far this year, because I'm working in the Arizona desert, but I'll give my 1st impression of Mr. Block. I think I like him. So far, I think he's better than Provus. I know he's young, but my 1st impression is that he kind of reminds me of a young Jon Miller. Despite his flair for the dramatic, I've always respected Jon Miller as a play-by-play guy. I'll second the opinion that his delivery seems smooth. I'll keep listening, and hope he develops a repoire with Ueck.

[1992casey]

I know he's young…

 

I think that Joe is the oldest of the past three radio announcers at the time of hiring. Provus was 31 when he came on board, and I believe that Powell was in his late 20s.

[MNBrew]

I didn't think we could top Pat Hughes when he left. Then Jim Powell proved to be even better. I was skeptical about Corey Provus at first but he proved to be nearly as good as Powell.

 

I really miss Provus from our broadcasts, but living up here in Twins Territory where the River Falls station (106.3 FM, WEVR) comes in rather spotty and I don't have satellite radio, I absolutely love hearing Corey Provus' voice on Twins' broadcasts and have to keep reminding myself that that voice matches with the Twins, not the Brewers anymore. I don't get sentimental about Uecker's sidekicks, but I really miss Provus' voice from Brewers' broadcasts (not quite as much as Powell, but not far from that, either).

 

...And I've realized at the very least that I'm incredibly glad he got the Twins' job because I absolutely couldn't stand Herb Carneal (RIP). He was awful. John Gordon, while not as bad as Carneal, still wasn't a whole lot better.

 

We've been extremely spoiled to have one of the best radio voices ever in Bob Uecker, and his previous 3 sidekicks over the past 25 years have been really about as good as Ueck himself and have each made a fantastic team with him. I'd like to think Joe Block will get smoother & better over time. Here's hoping that's the case!

[brettac1]

Spent a fair amount of time in the car listening during today's game, the first time I listened extensively to Block since spring training. I thought he did a pretty fine job. I have heard worse radio broadcasters, and even worse TV ones.

[markedman5]

I never liked Hughes.....Powell was my favorite. I thought Provus was ok. Too soon to tell on Block.

[igor67]

Block seems to be warming up. Hughes was tough to forget, because he was Uecker's first partner that I remember growing up so there for awhile when I started hearing Cubs broadcasts after the league switch it was disorienting. Having to listen to him in the booth with Ron Santo though cured me of nostalgia. Powell was the best though. If Fox had brains they'd dump most of their current clown group of announcers and get some of this real talent calling games on Saturday.

[Schlitz001]

For whatever reason I was watching highlights from the 1997 World Series and the broadcasters were Bob Costas and Bob Uecker. Good times. I doubt Uecker wants to do national work again, but it would be nice to hear Costas and NBC take over the World Series again.

[brettac1]

I think Vin Scully said something along the lines of "I would rather have free time than be in Cleveland" after that series, and that was the last time he did national work, as well. I believe he was doing the national radio broadcasts then.

[pitchleague]

For whatever reason I was watching highlights from the 1997 World Series and the broadcasters were Bob Costas and Bob Uecker. Good times. I doubt Uecker wants to do national work again, but it would be nice to hear Costas and NBC take over the World Series again.

 

 

. . . and Joe Morgan. He kind of pushed Uecker out of the way during those broadcasts a lot of times with his analysis, leaving Ueck to only analyze pitcher/catcher stuff.

[bullox]

Block just puts me to sleep. I almost forget a game is going on when I'm listening. He does have some tough shoes to fill, but really I'd almost rather listen to the opposing broadcast when Block is on.

[stalton]

After watching some of the video replay clips on the Brewers website, some of Block's calls were pretty awesome. I got chills after listening to George's walk off double against the Dodgers. Like Provus last year, I think Joe is really starting to get into a groove with a month or two of games behind him.

[Glennron]

Overall I think he's been just alright, but one of the positives I've noticed is that he'll fill in more information during Uecker's innings. Like when Uecker gives an infamously poor description of what actually happened Block will chime in in the background to make it easier to understand what's going on.

[JohnBriggs12]

Had to listen to Block yesterday for about 30 minutes while driving. The guy is terrible, amatuerish and almost to the point of unlistenable. Not only is his delivery uneven and halting, but his play description is late and non descriptive. He can't get out what he's intending to say. Spit it out Joe for gosh.

 

He's got the perfect vocal tone for radio, but other than that he has no business doing baseball at all much less at the major league level. He's the equivalent of the Ted Baxter character on Mary Tyler Moore show. Just awful. He needs a script and live action sports don't come with one.

[davego]

I live west of Eau Claire and from time to time I flip on the Twins game and listen to Corey.

[JohnBriggs12]

Yesterday, in the 3rd inning Block kept mentioning how many hits the Brewers had, mentioning at one point that 7 out of the last 8 hitters had reached safely. But he never explained why they had only scored 1 run to that point. Mixed in there of course was a caught stealing, a double play, and Morgan getting thrown out at 3rd trying to stretch a double. He never mentioned that at all. This at a time when most of his audience had just gotten out of work and would not have been privy to that information. The info on the hits was fine, but he left out the context that resulted in so few runs produced.

[RockCoCougars]

He is what he is. He's not that bad, but he's not that good either. I will say that he's improved from the early part of the season. At that point, I couldn't figure out who he was reminding me of.... then I went into a Walgreens and they had their weather radio with the 'male' computer voice on. It came to me, that was it, very similar in their choppy delivery.

[Bombers]

His call on Ramireze's walk yesterday off was bad. It went something like: (mono tone) ... "Ramirez fly ball to CF" (Ramirez has barely left the batters box - everyone knew it was gone) ... (after the ball goes over the fence, a little more excitement but not much more) "and this one is out of here, the Brewers win" ... Really, that's all you got?

[bigredrobbo]

Hey, I hear Daron Sutton might be looking for a new gig soon!

[Patrick425]

His call on Ramireze's walk yesterday off was bad. It went something like: (mono tone) ... "Ramirez fly ball to CF" (Ramirez has barely left the batters box - everyone knew it was gone) ... (after the ball goes over the fence, a little more excitement but not much more) "and this one is out of here, the Brewers win" ... Really, that's all you got?

 

I thought the exact same thing. In fact when he first started announcing it I swore because based on his call I thought it was going to be a fly ball out to CF.

[Mass Haas]

It may be lucky for Joe that on the WTMJ Brewers podcast archive page they no longer host the post-game summaries of action and highlights. (They still archive Ueck with Roenicke, and Block's interviews.)

 

The summaries can be painful to listen to live -- it's like whatever Kent is feeding Block, there's just a disjoint there that makes it awkwardly produced and presented. I can see that in April, but not July.

 

And too many moments that just seem uncomfortable in the pre-game interviews. Maybe because I'm expecting those moments now and am being too particular, but I do listen to those daily via the archive.

 

Well, he's young and has great pipes -- and also probably reading this thread, which means with effort and focus he can build on some of the more constructive criticisms.

[MadScientist]

Something that's been rolling around in my mind is that Joe would be much better in a situation with a full time color man next to him. That isn't the way the Brewers radio works, so things just aren't working.

[1992casey]

Yeah, Brewers radio is unique in that there's usually only one announcer in the booth. That setup was requested by Bob Uecker some time back.

 

Most teams have two play by play announcers that switch off between play by play and color duties. A few (e.g. the Cubs) pair a play by play person with a color commentator.