There have been a few changes this year
What does baseball sound like? It sounds like the crack of the bat. It sounds like an umpire ringing up a batter. It sounds like a crowd singing the seventh inning stretch. But for many, baseball sounds like a broadcaster on a television or the radio, the call of the home run as much or more important than the ambient sounds around it.
Broadcasters have a hard job. They need to explain the game, analyze the game, and effectively communicate what’s going on in a very short amount of time. Ryan Lefebvre, the Royals’ longtime TV play-by-play announcer, told me once that the driving force behind his style and decisions in the booth was in an effort to best serve the average baseball fan—the types of people who come home from work, have dinner, crack open a beverage and sit down for a few hours of entertainment.
But, of course, just because it’s a hard job doesn’t mean that all broadcasters are the same. Just this week, the site Awful Announcing posted their annual MLB broadcaster rankings. Over 13,000 votes were cast, with the Chicago White Sox group at 30th and the New York Mets ranked 1st.
Kansas City’s broadcast team finished 19th in the polls. Lefebvre began announcing with the team in 1999 and has anchored the primary play-by-play spot since 2008. Rex Hudler is the second-longest tenured announcer, having joined the team as the primary analyst in 2012. Recent additions include Jake Eisenberg (play-by-play), Jeremy Guthrie (analyst), and Mike Sweeney (analyst).
The Royals broadcast team finishing in the middle of the pack feels about right to me. Yes, personal preference is paramount for these types of conversations, and you can love or hate your announcers for reasons silly and serious and nobody can tell you that you’re wrong.
Objectively, though, there are elements of the Royals’ team that drag down their rating. Guthrie and Sweeney have been mostly fine, but they’re clearly new to the profession. Rex, meanwhile, has an extremely idiosyncratic style and can be polarizing. And while Ryan and Rex have improved their dynamic considerably, Ryan’s occasional cynicism and snark can sometimes be at odds with Rex, and there are times when it seems Ryan is mocking his partner.
Overall, I like the Royals broadcast team, and Eisenberg in particular has been nothing short of phenomenal; it’s a treat to hear him on the radio or see him on TV. I think Guthrie’s addition is particularly interesting, because he played Major League Baseball as recently as 2017—nearly two decades after Rex last played. And I think that, in the long run, the Royals are going to need someone who can discuss analytics and the technological part of baseball more fluently. I don’t think Ryan or Rex fits that bill, and frankly I wonder if Guthrie or Sweeney do, either.
But what do you think? Are you happy with the broadcast team? What changes would you make?
