I've been following baseball for a very, very long time, from days when the switch-over from radio to television was just beginning and the television announcers were former radio announcers. In televison's baseball beginnings there was probably one camera covering the action and there were no video replays, no insets on the screen showing you the count, inning, batters's stats, and so on. All that was up to the announcer.
As time went by and technology advanced, the announcer had less to do and became more of a personality. Now we have ESPN and Fox baseball broadcasts that have three anouncers, all of whom consider themselves celebratories who babble on trying to prove their importance.
I had thought for some time that Remy/Orsillo needed to be broken up as together they spent to much time discussing what shirt they were going to wear, or packing, or.... And when they'd invite a comedian, friend or whoever into the booth, we would get games where we'd see about one-third of the game with the rest of the camera centered on the booth the rest of the time.
Each was quite competent but they got too familiar. I actually thought that Remy would retire, given his health problems, and we might see an Eckersley/Orsillo combination but we ended up with O'Brien, who might be more tolerable if paired with a strong personality but as himself is a person with a tendency to make silly mistakes in twisting the score, the count, or using the same phrases repeatedly. Unfortunately, I do not think Eckersley wants a full-time job and the travel and it appears they are trying out new options (Jonny GoHomes).
