Results tagged “rossporter”

Back in 2004, Dodger’s owner Frank McCourt made the unpopular decision to get rid of radio play-by-play announcer Ross Porter. Porter had been on the job for 28 years, and considering he had to work with color commentator Rick Monday since 1993 he should’ve gotten hazard pay. Porter was by no means as eloquent and compelling as Vin Scully. With a few exceptions no one can enter the realm of Vin Scully. But Porter...

The Dodgers just made their biggest move of the spring, and it came off the field. After LAist pleaded with Frank Court to hold Lon Rosen accountable for stupid decisions like firing Ross Porter, cutting down on Nancy Bea Heafley's organ time, hiring Steve Lyons, and in general denigrating the image of Dodger baseball, McCourt actually fired Rosen. The LA Times also had been embarrassing the Dodgers, reporting every flub in their impersonal and illogical relations with season ticket holders. The Dodgers responded by also firing VP of Communications Gary Miereanu.

Even their secondary announcers, guys like Jerry Doggett, Don Drysdale, Ross Porter, and Rick Monday, were all in the top-tier of baseball announcers. We all bemoaned the firing of Ross Porter, but that pill was made slightly easier to swallow when a quality announcer in Charley Steiner took his place.

Best known for his work at ESPN (who can forget the SportsCenter ad where he shouts: "Follow me to Freedom!"), Steiner has always been one of the most underrated play-by-play announcers in the business. His play-by-play for ESPN Radio was excellent, but unfortunately for the last three years, he's been brought down by working Yankee games alongside idiotic and annoying John Sterling who can't say the word "the" in fewer than 4 seconds.

As someone who has represented the Los Angeles Dodgers with class and dignity for 28 years, Ross Porter deserved much better than to be fired by some new idiot who runs the marketing department. The Dodgers won't get better ratings because they have some 26-year old game show host doing games. No kid is going to put down his skateboard and listen to a baseball game because someone who sounds more hip is on the radio.

But between Ross Porter's potentially final Dodger broadcast (we'll address this again soon), and another Shaq-Kobe feud, one thing caught our eye in the paper recently.

Stop right there!