Are These Guys The Greatest Five?

For all the wonderful and great readers, please do not forget that for all the latest college basketball news, please go over and look at my coverage, Crawford's Court, http://www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketball which will come out every Sunday and Wednesday night.

In the meantime, not to worry, I will continue to write Crawscorner, three times per week, on variety of sports subjects. The bottom line here, your readership is greatly appreciated and not ever forgotten. Now for today's topic and I sure hope you will weigh in on this for sure, as it creates lots of thoughts and memories.

Just who are the five greatest sports announcers of all time. Here are my top five and as always I am totally correct. NOT.

1. Vin Scully--No one can even come close to the the great Vin Scully. If you had to pick one guy to do the last sporting event ever held, he would be the person. He has just signed on to his 63rd year of doing Dodgers baseball and on November 29th Scully will turn 84 years old. Most people would just love to be 84, let alone calling major league baseball on a high level. If you listen to Scully doing Dodger games, he sounds like he is 35, he has not missed a beat all these years. It is also important to note, when Scully had time he was terrific doing NFL football games and did an awesome job as the lead announcer for many years on NBC golf. A total gentleman and total credit to sports. Sadly, we never get to hear much from him as he does very few, if any interviews, of which I am sure we could learn lots.

2. Dick Enberg---Smooth as silk, famous for the great line, "Oh My". He has done it all in sports and is still going strong into his 70s. Who can ever forget Dick Enberg, doing UCLA basketball in the 70s, wow what memories. His work on tennis is great nowadays, as has been his skill in calling baseball and football over all these years. I met him once, what a gentleman and I interviewed him once on the radio and one of the top five people I ever interviewed. (For the record, Chi Chi Rodriguez was the best person I have ever interviewed.)

3. Dan Schulman--Perhaps a surprise pick for many, but it was an easy pick for myself. Schulman is the  ''voice" of ESPN. Great on Sunday night baseball and great on NBA/NCAA basketball. Schulman is the Michael Jordan of sports announcers. He makes everyone around him look much better than they are indeed. There are just some people in life that are a "cut above" and Schulman is a perfect example. He might not have the star power of other announcers, but if you listen to him, he is a superstar.

4. Dick Vitale--Think what you want of him, but no one can dispute the fact that Dick Vitale made college basketball on TV. The state of Oregon's own Tom Jernstedt made March madness what it is today and Dick Vitale is solely responsible for the huge popularity of college basketball on TV. When Vitale goes to a college campus, he is bigger than any rock star. I also have to give him credit, the greatest marketing person for anyone is yourself and he is the greatest self promoter in sports. Also, always has time for the "little guy". A lost art.

5. Brent Musburger--- Born in Portland, Oregon, actually wanted to be a professional baseball umpire. Brent continues to excel and once again living proof your life is not over once you are in your 70s. People that have worked with Brent Musburger either from a production side or as an analyst all say the same things, they learn much from him and he is totally a team player. All of this is great, but in my mind he has sustained the test of time, he is still outstanding after all these years of doing his craft.

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