I wonder if this was the plan of the FAN 590 the whole time. After Tom Cheek left the booth, it didn't matter who replaced him--people would compare that person to Cheek (despite the comparison being totally unfair) and would not be happy with whomever took the role.

Perhaps Sawkiw was the guinea pig. Stick in the cheapest, inexpensive guy to take the abuse and lower the expectations of the entire listening base, then once everybody's used to a perceived "terrible" colour analyst, throw in a decent veteran and gain back the listeners lost the past two years.

If Ashby had directly followed Cheek, I wouldn't be surprised if people disliked him. It would've been no fault of Ashby or Sawkiw's--Cheek was just that good.

And if that was the case, Sawkiw would have certainly been aware of it which totally gives him bonus points in my eyes. He spoke passionately about the game, and that's all you can ask of someone who had no prior expertise in the field.

I hope Warren can find a nice low key environment in the minors and continue to build his career as a broadcaster. People that passionate about baseball will make good broadcasters.

VBP, you are being too kind.  There are only 60 radio broadcasting jobs in the major leagues (not including in-studio swingmen like Wilner) and it is insulting to the fan base to think that the Rogers hierarchy could not land somebody better than Sawkiw, following-Cheek notwithstanding.

I don't think radio fans (like myself, and most Bauxites) would be so hard on Sawkiw if he showed one iota of improvement in his mic skills over his tenure.  In my opinion, he did not.

Now, as an astute Bauxite posted in the thread, we just have to keep Ashby away from Alice Fazooli's.

I don't totally believe it wasn't that the FAN 590 couldn't find somebody better--60 jobs in MLB, I'm sure there was somebody somewhere better qualified for the job who would want it.

I'm just subscribing to the "Classic Coca-Cola/Coke" theory where the organization took away something identifiable and loved, brought in something new and odd, and replaced the odd brand with something that identifies with the 'old and experienced' a short time later. The end result is a sense of nostalgia created in the listener and they will come back to the brand just as quickly as they left.

Conspiracy Theory perhaps, but I think this was planned in advance.

 

 

It should be a great booth this year. Jerry can reminisce about his Giants memories and Alan can go toe to toe with him with his Dodger memories. Otherwise, it's just two laid back Californians in the booth, with the occasional statistical nugget from the hometown kid. The competitive tension of that rivalry should spice things up, plus Alan has what Warren did not: experience. I will not speak ill of Warren though. Following an iconic legend like Tom Cheek is almost impossible for anyone and I'm sure he did the best he could. His grip on the english language was umm interesting, but his passion for the game is absolutely undeniable.

I'm curious why a couple of you thought this was a terrible move.

Sadly lacking Magpie's restraint to speak ill of the departed, I see this move as addition by subtraction. Sawkiw made the radio broadcasts entirely unlistenable for me. All I want is to be able to flip to the ballgames while in my car without having to grimace. The bar I am setting for Ashby is very low. If he is actually any good at all (and by many accounts this appears to be the case), I see that as a bonus.

Come this October, this will be the trade we credit for putting the Jays into the playoffs.

And Ashby will be carried off the field, much to the chagrin of a jealous Jamie Campbell.

Hopefully Pat Tabler gets his walking papers next.

I don't mind Pat Tabler.  If a broadcaster won't offer anything substantial as far as commentary and analysis, my main hope is that they don't irritate me in some way.  Pat Tabler is someone I can generally tune out.  While it's true that TSN and Rogers could probably find someone better, they could also do a lot worse.  Replacing Rod Black would be a higher priority for me.

As someone who has taken shots at Rod Black before, I don't think that it's really the same situation at all. TSN broadcasts a very small chunk of the schedule and as a result they don't hire a baseball-specific announcing pair. Tabler's contract with Sportsnet must be non-exclusive enough that he can join Black for that handful of games.

Rod Black is an uninspiring baseball play-by-play man, but the fact of the matter is that he is a well-spoken, smooth announcer who is capable of competent play-by-play on multiple sports. I don't know if it's experience or if he just genuinely loves them all, but the fact that he can drop into the booth at any kind of sporting event and not appear like he's lost completely blows my mind. How many broadcasters can you think of who can do that?

He's not my favourite play-by-play guy, and I reserve the right to make fun of the things he says on the air when I think they're unintentionally funny, but I have nothing but respect for Rod Black.

Anyways, Rod Black is The Guy at TSN -- if there's a sport that doesn't rate it's own exclusive crew over there, he's going to be the man in the booth, or at least one of the people in the booth. I can live with him for 20 games a year.

I don't want to say anything bad about Warren Sawkiw. I think that he basically wasn't ready yet to be in a major league booth. He did improve from season to season, and I actually really liked his player interviews a lot more than his colour commentary.

Anyways, Rod Black is The Guy at TSN -- if there's a sport that doesn't rate it's own exclusive crew over there, he's going to be the man in the booth, or at least one of the people in the booth. I can live with him for 20 games a year.

It might just be me, but I've always thought Black seemed a bit awkward as a play-by-play guy, for both baseball and basketball.  I like him just fine as a host, but he doesn't seem quite as polished when doing play-by-play.  He's kind of similar to Brian Williams in that regard (although I consider Williams to be a worse baseball play-by-play announcer).

I've liked Chris Cuthbert and Gord Miller when I've heard them calling baseball, but I'm assuming their current workloads probably wouldn't allow them to cover baseball semi-regularly as well.

TSN already has the guy that should be doing baseball play in their stable and none of you have mentioned him- Vic Rauter. I'm not sure I could handle "Make the final!..." on every broadcast though, but as one poster said that's only about 25 games a year and I'll probably have the TV muted with the radio on anyway. He's intelligent, personable and as a soccer and curling guy, used to long gaps in the action.

Oops, that should read "baseball play-by-play" not "baseball play"