The Best and Worst of Hollywood’s Baseball Broadcasters

Crafting the Call: Kyle Bandujo, author of “Movies with Balls,” joins us to dissect the role of a broadcaster in a movie; what’s realistic and what makes us cringe

Don’t watch a movie about lawyers with a lawyer. Don’t watch a movie about cops with a cop. Don’t watch a movie about infectious diseases with a biologist.

And definitely don’t watch a baseball movie with somebody who works in baseball … unless you want to constantly get told what’s totally unrealistic.

👋 Hi, I’m Josh Suchon, a former sportswriter turned sportscaster. I started this Newsletter because I missed writing, but only wanted to write on my terms. I mostly write about sports from a sociological standpoint, but it’s the offseason, so recent posts have included essays on concerts, overcoming addiction, and how we quit on each other in sports. Click here to subscribe. 👇

Baseball movies are really difficult to pull off. Some get the baseball scenes really well and the plot stinks. But most of the time, the baseball scenes are terrible because actors are not professional baseball players, yet the plot is pretty decent because most actors are really good actors.

Since it’s a new year, and I have a lot of new followers, this is an opportunity to shine the spotlight on another of my side projects, “Crafting the Call.”

Crafting the Call is a YouTube series that I co-developed along with Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, analyzing the craft of baseball play-by-play announcing. We’re both working broadcasters in minor league baseball. I call games for the Albuquerque Isotopes and Jesse is the voice of the Lansing Lugnuts.

This week’s episode is a critical review of the Best and Worst of Hollywood’s Baseball Broadcasters. The discussion is not focused on the overall quality of these baseball movies. Rather, it’s the performance of the play-by-play announcer and how he’s used as a plot device in the film.

A broadcaster in the movie serves three purposes:

1. Narration tool, to let you know how the team and players are doing

2. Comic relief, or a setup for the comedy that’s about to unfold

3. Subtle ambient sound to make you feel like you’re at the game

Our guest for this episode is Kyle Bandujo, the author of “Movies with Balls: The Greatest Sports Films Of All Time, Analyzed and Illustrated.” Here’s Kyle and a link to his book.

In order, we analyzed the following performances:

• Bob Uecker, as Harry Doyle, in “Major League”

• Barry Levinson, the director who did the voiceover himself, in “The Natural”

• Hank Azaria, as Jim Brockmire, in the TV show “Brockmire”

• David Lander, in a role titled “the M.C.”, in “A League of their Own”

• Curt Gowdy, as himself, in “Summer Catch”

• Jay O’Sanders, as Ranch Wilder, in “Angels in the Outfield”

• John Candy, as Cliff Murdoch, in “Rookie of the Year”

• Then-Twins announcer John Gordon, as Wally Holland, in “Little Big League”

• Arliss Howard, as a grown-up Scotty Smalls, in “The Sandlot”

• Vin Scully, as himself, in “For Love of the Game”

Bob Uecker, as Harry Doyle, is the gold standard for a movie broadcaster. That’s no shock. Uecker has broadcasted games for the Milwaukee Brewers since 1971. He’s also starred on TV shows, commercials, and was a guest over 100 times on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Uecker’s timing in “Major League” is impeccable, he ad-libbed most of the lines, and the jokes still work three decades later. We compiled a montage of Uecker’s best moments in the film in the episode.

A really underrated performance is Barry Levinson in The Natural. Levinson was the director of the movie. Once filming was done, Levinson realized that he needed an announcer to fill-in some gaps in the storyline. He didn’t have time to conduct a search and hire someone, so he just did it himself. As a result, we never see Levinson. We just hear him.

The editing is simply exquisite: ballpark chatter, the clicking of typewriters in the press box, the chilling score of Randy Newman (yes, the guy who sang “I Love LA” did the score), and the way Levinson’s voice fades in and out during the baseball scenes.

Here’s a four-minute excerpt from our discussion about The Natural.

Jesse made a really smart observation in the episode about how the angle the camera shows the announcer is significant.

In Major League, the camera is directly on Bob Uecker. In Brockmire, the camera is to his side. In Rookie of the Year, John Candy is in the middle of a crowded press box. (That’s never the location of the broadcaster.)

Kyle provided the outstanding perspective of someone who is not fixated on broadcasting X’s and O’s, and again, he’s literally written the book on sports films/

We liked some of the movies, but thought the performance of the announcer added nothing.

My biggest pet peeve? I don’t want to spoil it, but let’s just say it’s really important that the person talking has his mouth near the actual microphone.

Seriously, if you’re a writer or director of any length project involving sports, please contact me to become a consultant, so you don’t make foolish mistakes.

Here’s a link to the full episode:

If you’re curious about prior episodes, here’s a few more details about ”Crafting the Call.”

We’re two working minor league baseball announcers. We created the YouTube series as a teaching tool for ourselves, fellow announcers, and people who just love baseball or broadcasting.

Some episodes are dedicated to appreciating the greatness of a broadcaster: Marty Brennaman, Dave Niehaus, Harry Kalas, 2024 Frick Award winner Joe Castiglione, and 2025 Frick Award winner Tom Hamilton.

Some episodes compare the various calls of the same play: Dennis Eckersley vs Kirk Gibson in 1988, Mitch Williams vs Joe Carter in 1993, Game Six between the Cardinals and Rangers in 2011, the Padres triple play to clinch a playoff berth in 2024.

Some episodes are focused on how to call an unusual play: an inside-the-park home run, a straight steal of home, a triple play, an amazing catch by the outfielder, or truly dumb baserunning.

We also did emotional episodes on the best memories of the Oakland Coliseum (that’s our most viewed) and how a broadcaster says goodbye when a team leaves the city.

Here’s a link to the YouTube channel. I hope you become a subscriber.

If you know a student with broadcasting aspirations, or a professor who teaches Communications, definitely let them know about it.

If you want to recommend a future episode, leave a comment or send me a message.

And if you want to sponsor Crafting the Call, let’s talk!

Let’s finish with a survey.

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