If Kriedler had been out, they would have said so right way, so we could extrapolate from their commentary about the high-risk nature of Villar's throw that Kriedler must have been safe.īut it's not our job to extrapolate. “Villar throws to third! OH MAN! Why would he make the throw to third, Jimmy?”ĭickerson and Jim Price emoted for some time about the huge risk Villar took in making the throw to third, and only after a minute or so did they casually mention that Krieder was safe at third. But it's hit-or-miss whether, when Dan calms down, he tells us if the ball was caught or if the runner was safe.

WOW!” So we know something exciting happened. A hitter will tag a ball and Dan will exclaim, “Line drive. Too often, Dickerson gets caught up in his reactions to plays and forgets to give us the basic information. Play-by-play announcers on the radio have to tell us this, in detail, very specifically, all the time. Where did the throw go? Was the runner safe or out? Was it a ball or a strike? What's the count? How many outs? What's the score? Your only way to keep up is for Dan to tell you – and I mean to tell you everything. You can't see any graphics or text letting you know what's going on. It is the only medium that involves no visuals whatsoever. Radio is a particular type of medium for baseball. I am sure he is every bit the quality guy he appears to be.īut the rave reviews of Dickerson's performance doing radio play-by-play tend to gloss over a gaping hole in his game: He often doesn't tell you what happened.

Detroit lions play by play announcer