Breaking Up the Band

They have their exits and their entrances / And one man in his time plays many parts

As reported by the New York Times and others, Joe Morgan and Jon Miller are losing their jobs as the ESPN “Sunday Night Baseball” telecast announcers.

The Times notes that both men are Hall of Famers. To me, Joe Morgan’s Hall of Fame plaque, which he (obviously) earned as a player, seems kind of… irrelevant? in this context. Anyway, much ink has been spilled already on the topic of Mr. Morgan’s broadcasting abilities. Let’s save some with which to extol Mr. Miller.

Jon Miller was inducted the Baseball Hall of Fame — as a broadcaster, no less — just this very year. He will continue doing TV and radio broadcasts for the Giants along with postseason radio for ESPN. According to his Wikipedia page he sometimes sprinkles broadcasts with quotations from Shakespeare, which I’ve never noticed, but it sounds very romantic, and according to this Edible San Francisco interview he’s really into kombucha, which is less romantic, but still cool.

On a personal note, Jon Miller’s radio call of the final out of the World Series was my last experience of the 2010 season, and it was a perfect way to close things out. Here’s hoping that ESPN rustles up a comparable pro for next year’s “Sunday Night Baseball.”