Wayne Hagin ?

[nymr83]

i don't know what the range is on WFAN (660) but it gets static as you drive up the NYS thruway and is unlistenable, though you can tell theres something there, (not sure if that makes sense) in Albany.

[Gwreck]

Sounds like your car radio/antenna is subpar. I've had no problem getting WFAN in the general Providence-Albany-Reading-Atlantic City radius around NYC.

That being said, AM radio is subject to lots of interference (high voltage electric lines, for example), and has a much stronger signal at night.

[seawolf17]

I believe it's a coastal thing -- WFAN is the only 660 east of the Mississippi. When I worked for 1180 WHAM in Rochester, which is a clear channel station, we'd occasionally get word of interference from a Cuban station that would block our signal in the southern states, but most nights, it was clear as a bell just about anywhere.

Yes, it's 50,000 watts, and yes, the AM signal is clearer at night because of the way it bounces off the atmosphere; that's also why it travels farther than FM.

[metirish]

It's time they streamed Mets games over the internet.

[Frayed Knot]

metirish wrote: It's time they streamed Mets games over the internet.

Well they are if you subscribe via MLB media or whatever they call it.
WFAN can't do it through their site because those rights belong to MLB.

[metirish]

Frayed Knot wrote: ="metirish"]It's time they streamed Mets games over the internet. Well they are if you subscribe via MLB media or whatever they call it. WFAN can't do it through their site because those rights belong to MLB.

Yes I meant FAN should do it, thanks for the info on MLB.

[Guest AG/DC]

It was five years ago that I was at a pool party where I (1) knew nobody, and (2) was the only one above nine using the pool. Heck yeah, it was like 108 degrees.

Anyhow, after that breach of etiquette, Cha thought it best to leave. We were driving the old Dodge Raider (Mitsubishi Montero with an American label) that we got off her Mom, and I first learned that you could hear Bob Murphy on hot summer nights in the DC suburbs.

"Cha," I said, "drive home slowly."

[Guest Kong76]

Today is first time I've heard Wayne ... he's alright enough so far.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, so far he doesn't sound like he's Mr. Excitement -- but it's also ST and there's not too much to get excited about. In all, I'd rather hear a straight-forward announcer as opposed to one who tries to manufacture drama where there is none and/or attempt to make himself the center of attention.

[Guest Kong76]

As if on cue, he has something to get excited about as Pagan knocks in the
go ahead run in the ninth topping off a nice looking day from him.

[Fman99]

Wayne stinks.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

He tries.

But yeah.

[metirish]

I will never forget one of the first times I heard him commentating on a game , Beltran was racing home form first maybe , anyway it was going to be a close play and Wayne doing the call on Beltran rounding third said this....' and now all eyes fixated on Beltran as he rounds third' , it just sounded so different.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

That's just it, he tries to get everything into every description, and often foregoes the timely delieverance of news. It's impossible to tell what happens on an infield single with him, for example.

And on plays like home runs, he frequently makes the mistake of including some dumb counting record a part of the call's excitement. At the moment he hits it I could give a rat's ass if Schneider's HR is his 3rd of the year or his 4th or his 15th, but Wayne feels like he's gotta tell me.

He also is very Midwest and Howie very Northeast, they're styles complement sometimes but not always.

[G-Fafif]

I like Wayne.

I like the outsider's perspective. It doesn't come off as just-passing-through, but as someone who has become genuinely fascinated by a baseball culture we take for granted. There's a real sense of "you New Yorkers sure do take this stuff seriously." I like the between-pitches insights. Early this year he watched Pelfrey struggle at Chase Field and talked about how the mouthpiece was working against him because it left his mouth dry and in Arizona, it mean he couldn't step off the mound and benefit from chewing gum. He's always noticing little things like that and throwing them in.

I also think he's wry as hell. One night he riffed on how he and Chris Majkowski would be coming over to watch some hypothetcial big game on Howie Rose's plasma TV which plainly caught Howie off guard, though he recovered with, "not if my wife Barbara has anything to say about it." Their chemistry is middling, but they serve their listeners well. I dig the goofiness, the home runs "hit deep into the New York night," even though the New York night is, you know, the Mets bullpen. And I don't find myself lacking for descriptions of a given play.

I couldn't stand Tom McCarthy (couldn't call a game, was boring as all get out) and was suspicious of Wayne's clearly generic-sounding voice, but he grew on me. I hope he sticks around a while.

[Guest AG/DC]

I'm still waiting on folks to come around on Ted Robinson.

[seawolf17]

="AG/DC"]I'm still waiting on folks to come around on Ted Robinson.

He's something of a zombie, really.

[G-Fafif]

Caught Ted doing some Olympic event (tennis, probably) and got annoyed at him all over again, particularly for how he never stopped talking about the bloody San Francisco Giants the entire time he was a Metcaster. Wayne drops in the occasional Cardinal or Rockie anecdote when it serves a purpose. McCarthy didn't harp on his Phillies aphillieation, but Ted never left his heart in San Francisco. He left the whole thing.

The Olympic gig reminded me that he abandoned Met ship for other gigs continually: Wimbledon, Stanford football, two kittens playing ping pong. I didn't dislike him when he showed up, but I would have appreciated a greater commitment from a Rockville Centre boy.

[Gwreck]

Wayne has grown on me, too.

I still dislike the cadence of his voice at times but the observation about his reaction to New York baseball culture seems apt.

There's also the "stars burn brighter by comparison" thing. I was in Missouri this past week and it took me only about 3 innings to deem Mike Shannon unlistenable.

[metirish]

Dave O'Brien , now he was brutal, him and Seaver in the booth was hell.

[Guest AG/DC]

I'm not buying the Tedbash. Ted Robinson was Queens-born, Rockville Centre-raised.* He was a lefthanded hitting firstbaseman in Little League who wore seven to honor Ed Kranepool.

His point of reference may have been stuck in his last job, but not his heart.

*Like me.

[G-Fafif]

metirish wrote: Dave O'Brien , now he was brutal, him and Seaver in the booth was hell.

O'Brien couldn't even make the Irish-American Baseball Hall of Fame's first induction class.

Then again, maybe he was out of town.

[Frayed Knot]

="metirish"]I will never forget one of the first times I heard him commentating on a game , Beltran was racing home form first maybe , anyway it was going to be a close play and Wayne doing the call on Beltran rounding third said this....' and now all eyes fixated on Beltran as he rounds third' , it just sounded so different.

I remember that one. It was on Tatis's first big Met hit - the game-winning 2 RBI 2B which scored both Wright & Beltran.

I thought it was a great call. The opposite of what many had against McCarthy with his lack of adequate description about what was going on.
But as soon as Tatis buried one in the corner everyone knew would easily score Wright w/the tying run. So Hagin immediately became our eyes with his "all eyes now on Beltran" call as that run now became everything. He then went on to describe every detail of the rest of the play, from the hit being fielded in the corner ... to the relay throw being bobbled by Hanley Ramirez and therefore no throw to home at all.
We "saw" that play as it unfolded.

I haven't been listening to the radio calls lately enough to form an opinion on his overall rank in the pantheon of NYN announcers, but he's at least got the nuts and bolts to pull off good calls at times.

[soupcan]

I like Wayne too and am more than a little surprised to see that some people don't.

I think he fits right in with Howie, Gary, Keith and Ron in terms of knowledgable guys that don't have schtick and forego the hyberpole and homerism that is sooooo freaking prevalent across town, in favor of just giving me the facts ma'am and trying to stay objective.

The guy knows the game, has a good wit and can call a ballgame.

Keep him.

[metirish]

I tune into the radio a few nights a week when I am down in the garage doing the garbage. One night in a Mets blowout Howie and Wayne were talking movies and Wayne talked about the first time he came to NY some guy tried to hustle him but as he said ' at least I wasn't like the guy from europe who lost his watch' , it was quite funny.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

metirish wrote: I tune into the radio a few nights a week when I am down in the garage doing the garbage. One night in a Mets blowout Howie and Wayne were talking movies and Wayne talked about the first time he came to NY some guy tried to hustle him but as he said ' at least I wasn't like the guy from europe who lost his watch' , it was quite funny.

I heard that bit while running. I think that was after they spent an inning or two discussing the lyrics to "car 54" (Howie) and Bonanza (Wayne).

[nymr83]

lets face it folks, everyone is gonna suck after bob murphy.

i prefer wayne hagin to mccarthy

[metirish]

Yeah you're right bucket it was lyrics , my memory is not what it should be, must have burned a few cells.

[Frayed Knot]

Hagin = MUCH better at non-HR calls than at HRs

Unfortunately for him the sound-bite culture is going to judge him more for his lack of signature HR call than for the nuts and bolts of the rest of the game.
And his HR calls sound forced and basically suck.

[Centerfield]

I'm ok with Wayne. Not great, a lot better than some of the jokers I hear on XM calling other games. Obviously no one will be Murph, and the Cohen-Rose dynamic was too good to think we can replicate it again. So I can deal with Wayne until we find a way to clone Gary.