New Belmont Track Announcer

[e_r]

Where did they dig this dude up from?

Talk about an ANNOYING VOICE (and a small track delivery).

Is it too late to get Marshall Cassidy out of retirement?

Never thought I'd ever hear anyone even more annoying than Marshall.

There's always MUTE.

[PaceAdvantage]

You're putting us on, right?

[Buddha]

it just john imbriale. he was the backup to durkin, and he had retired earlier this year. he must not have taken to the retired life too well :D

[PaceAdvantage]

And just in case you're being serious ER, Belmont is celebrating its 100th anniversary by bringing back racecallers to call a race or two today.

By sheer coincidence, Marshall Cassidy will be calling today's 5th race.

I'm curious why they didn't get Dave Johnson. Most of the guys they brought back (Imbriale, Dooley, Collmus) called races like last week!!! LOL

The only guy they brought back with any real history is Marshall Cassidy.

[fouroneone]

LOL @ People who didnt know about this

I think its a great idea.

anyone have a link to the list of annoucers???

[e_r]

You know what, I'm really not.

I had the OTB simulcast on and couldn't take it any longer with the dude's tone/delivery.

It's TORTURE.

I am NOT KIDDING.

[Dan Montilion]

Golden Gate Fields has hired Michael Wrona. Story at DRF, sorry too lazy to cut and paste.

Dan Montilion

[JimG]

Golden Gate Fields has hired Michael Wrona. Story at DRF, sorry too lazy to cut and paste.

Dan Montilion

At least when he calls the finish position of the entire field at the wire (which really annoys me), it won't take long with those 5 horse fields:D

Jim

[cj]

Wow, that was really, REALLY bad by Marshall...we'll leave it at that, he must be pretty old.

[fouroneone]

wow you guys are some critics.

I personally like the idea, and i am sure most of these announcers are quite nervous.

[cj]

I like the idea too, but other than Marshall, I doubt the others would be nervous. Collmus probably called YESTERDAY at Suffolk, Imbriale was calling as recently as February at Aqueduct.

They should have had Lederman come and just imitate all the old guys...and hey, if they were going to put this together, I have but one simple question. Where the hell is Costy Caras!!!!!??

[TRM]

I'm glad Wrona is not at LS any longer. Not that he was that bad, just annoying with that accent, and then calling all the finish positions...Whew!

[fouroneone]

Ok now I agree with you, Imbriale was one of my favorite race callers, but NYRA seriously couldn't find 9 different announcers? now they have him again in the 6th?

:bang: :bang: :bang:

[bettheoverlay]

I love Wrona. I started playing Turf Paradise just to have a reason to hear his calls and commentary. He sure does move around alot though.

[Valuist]

Let's face it, Marshall at his best was no great shakes. I know Durkin sometimes gets a bit too excited but back when MC was calling, he sounded like he was never thrilled to be there. Think back to a great BC finish, maybe Alysheba and Ferdinand virtually hitting the wire together. Here's how Marshall would've called it: "Ferdinand.......has...the..lead.............(dead air)".

[Drew]

Johnson is doing the derby draw on ESPN

[PaceAdvantage]

Good point about Johnson. I forgot he was doing the draw.

As for Marshall, every announcer has his own style. If they all sounded the same, people would complain about that....

I thought MC was a good announcer. I was just getting into the game while he was still calling NYRA races, so he was my "first" announcer, so I'll never say a bad word about him....

Plus, I got to work with him for a couple of years, and he was super nice....

[Zman179]

Marshall has always been a very good announcer. NYRA has always been a circuit with a readily identifiable voice and Marshall was no different. When he said "It is NOW post time...they'rrrrrrre all in LINE!" you knew exactly what track was about to go off.

Marshall's RETIRED. He's not going to call a race now like he did 15 years ago (after all, racecalling is like a language. If you don't use it, you lose it...and he is in his mid 60's) He did ok and most importantly he got the call right.

BTW, when Marshall came on the mike for the post parade, everyone on the third floor grandstand suddenly came alive for a minute; "Heyyyy! Whoa! It's Marshall Cassideeeeeeeee!"

[Zman179]

Where did they dig this dude up from?

Talk about an ANNOYING VOICE (and a small track delivery).

Is it too late to get Marshall Cassidy out of retirement?

Never thought I'd ever hear anyone even more annoying than Marshall.

There's always MUTE.

You mean John Dooley? The announcer at Fair Grounds & Arlington who's considered to be one of the rising star announcers in the game? Wow, you'd probably boo a priest's sermon in a church.

[racingrev]

I'm glad Wrona is not at LS any longer. Not that he was that bad, just annoying with that accent, and then calling all the finish positions...Whew!

Obviously you have no idea of a good racecaller....

Michael Wrona runs rings around most USA callers... Denman, Durkin,Collmus, Stauffer, Chamberlain and Berry are the others on the top notch....

[Valuist]

I think Dooley is solid. He rarely makes mistakes. The only odd thing about him is his use of the word "groundness". I never was aware there was a word "groundness".

[cj]

Rev,

I don't mind Wrona, except for the calling of all finishing positions. Here is a hint: No one in the US cares who ran 8th. Other than that, I think he does a fine job.

Obviously you have no idea of a good racecaller....

Michael Wrona runs rings around most USA callers... Denman, Durkin,Collmus, Stauffer, Chamberlain and Berry are the others on the top notch....

[Valuist]

I agree on that. That's the polar opposite of the old Cassidy calls (and others) who would just say "Mr. Ed.......in front".

So how bad did Marshall sound yesterday?

[cj]

I can't remember if he ever actually made it through the whole field. Some of the pauses between horses were painful, almost like he was glancing at his program.

But hey, he had to be rusty, I liked the guy when he was the regular caller.

[Valuist]

That's true. I think racecalling is one of those things that one definitely has to keep up with or they get rusty. Part of me wanted to hear it but I probably was better off missing that race.

[Whitehos]

CLEM MCCARTHY

Am I the only one left on this board who remembers him?
Whitehos

[Lasix1]

Rev,I don't mind Wrona, except for the calling of all finishing positions. Here is a hint: No one in the US cares who ran 8th. Other than that, I think he does a fine job.
I'm glad Wrona's getting another shot. He has to own the record for bad luck and getting screwed by race track management. Only problem with him is that any track that hires him tends to fold within a year. Just how solid is GG?

[The Hawk]

Costy Caras has been the ML maker at Charles Town for the last several years.

[cj]

Absolutely true story...I was once in the booth with Costy, and he turned of the microphone DURING the middle of a race to watch Don Mattingly bat, after of course giving a "continue that way." He is a classic!

[46zilzal]

They call top to bottom and keep it correct. To listen to the BBC guy do the Arc is downright amazing.

The old Blue Bonnets was interesting with the caller swithcing back and forth French to English all the way around.

[Valuist]

We may not have heard the end of Marshall. Just read in the DRF that he's working as a placing judge and will serve as backup announcer to Durkin.

[PaceAdvantage]

Really? That's cool. Despite what others may think, MC is AOK in my book....

[Achilles]

In his prime, MC's calls were very precise, not only would he give the lengths beteween horses, but he would tell you who was inside or outside of the preceding horse. He did have that emotionless voice :sleeping: , but with his calls, trip handicappers almost did not need to watch the races!:cool:

[The Hawk]

Really? That's cool. Despite what others may think, MC is AOK in my book....

Completely agree, PA. Any announcer who doesn't try to inject his ego into his calls is alright with me, and that applies to Marshall.

[andicap]

Anyone remember the Fred Capposella (sp?) impression Robert Klein did as a tribute to him on his great "Mind over Matter" album back in the 70s?
Klein's impression was dead-on -- an absolutely hysterical rendition of Cappy "calling" his dinner at home as he was served by his wife.

:lol:

[Tom]

I always though MC was a horribly drab announcer.
Unitl he retired.
Then I realized jsut how good he was.
To hear an old call again on tape underlines how good he really was.
:(

[Zman179]

Yes, I agree Tom. But he's not the same Marshall.

About two years ago, he was the assistant announcer at Turf Paradise for about 5 weeks and he was absolutely dreadful. Awful. And I'm a big Marshall fan too, always liked his calls when he was the regular announcer and I've been following NYRA races since 1982.

I'm afraid that (as of now) he's lost it. He struggles to identify horses and he rarely gives every horse a call in the race (as opposed to his old rapid-fire style calls when everybody got a call at least twice). There are large pauses in his calls that shows that he's having trouble identifying horses. Nothing that existed when he was in his prime. What they need to do is let Marshall keep serving as a judge and let an up-and-comer become the assistant announcer.

If Marshall really wants to become the assistant announcer, he has to go back to the basics. He has to practice and regain some of his prior calling form. He has to become a bit sharper (not like when he was in his prime of course, but sharper than he has been lately). He has to realize that if he continues to call races like he has been the past couple years, he's only going to embarrass himself. And that would be a shame.

[CapperLou]

Anyone remember the Fred Capposella (sp?) impression Robert Klein did as a tribute to him on his great "Mind over Matter" album back in the 70s?
Klein's impression was dead-on -- an absolutely hysterical rendition of Cappy "calling" his dinner at home as he was served by his wife.

:lol:

Andy:

You sure bring back some fond memories when you mention Fred and Klein's rendition. Cappy was a dear friend of mine for decades--we first met at AQU over 40 years ago. Used to have dinner with he and his brother Connie many nites of week during SAR meetings. But here's what you get a kick out of---One of my college buddies was from Saratoga and his Dad owned the Saratoga Bowl Alleys with Eric Guerin. Cappy used to work the desk there several nites a week. Whenever I would come in Cappy would announce---CapperLou is approaching lane 3; etc. It is Now Post Time!!!

We used to have a lot of fun at the bowling alley. Fred is the one who gave me the nickname along with Burley Parke of CapperLou. I used to have so much fun when I was up in the crow's nest at SAR with him--climbing that ladder and he had this old fashioned cooler full of soda etc.

Cappy was the greatest--I still have tapes of some of his great race calls. He was gentleman, a genuine nice guy; everybody loved him. He was an avid coin collector too and they had auctions and get togethers in Saratoga every summer. Man, as I write this it feels like yesterday!!

All the best,

CapperLou

[Valuist]

On Monday, Cassidy called one of the races. I thought he didn't sound bad. I didn't notice any mistakes. I never cared for him not calling the 2nd or 3rd place finishers at the finish line but at least it was accurate.

[Ron]

On Monday, Cassidy called one of the races. I thought he didn't sound bad. I didn't notice any mistakes. I never cared for him not calling the 2nd or 3rd place finishers at the finish line but at least it was accurate.

I just thought he got cut off after calling the winner...huh..

[falconridge]

I always though MC was a horribly drab announcer.
Unitl he retired.
Then I realized jsut how good he was.
To hear an old call again on tape underlines how good he really was.
:(
Love him or loathe him, one trait of Marshall Cassidy's that set him apart from every other announcer I ever heard was the cool detachment with which he described races. Most announcers modulate during the course of a call: the fewer furlongs remain, the higher-pitched the delivery; and when the field comes "spinning out of the turn" (to quote Phil Georgeff), "heads are turned for home" (Trevor Denman), and "down the stretch they come" (Dave Johnson) the tenor rises at least half an octave. With Cassidy, this was never the case. In the opening strides of a two-mile starter allowance or the last jumps of a graded stakes, his tone remained constant, his manner disinterested (one could never tell which horse he may have bet). I haven't caught his act lately, but if it's anything like I remember, as a caller of races Marshall Cassidy remains a paragon of steady-as-she-goes insouciance.

--falconridge

[GameTheory]

.... as a caller of races Marshall Cassidy remains a paragon of steady-as-she-goes insouciance.You win! You are the first user EVER to use the word "insouciance" on PaceAdvantage! Congrats, you are a real sesquipedalian.

[Steve 'StatMan']

For those of us who are diving for dictionaries:

Per Merriam-Webster's Dictionary:

insouciance - in*sou*ci*ance: lighthearted unconcern

sesquipealian - ses*qui*pe*da*lian: adj 1) having many syllables:LONG; 2) using long words


Wow - 'us*ing long words' has fewer syllables than 'ses*qui*pe*da*lian' :D

[Macdiarmadillo]

Now, uh, "dictionary" -- that's some kind of book, right?

[andicap]

I don't know how everyone else feels but I get tired of listening to announcers with "trademark" phrases. I used to live near and in Chicago and watched the daily wrap up show they had in the afternoon and after a while "here they come spinning out of the turn" gets pretty boring and predictable.

Same for Dave Johnson -- on network TC or BC appearances he would interrupt the flow of an exciting race just to get his trademark "Down the stretch they come!" call in. Sometimes he wouldn't get around to saying it until they were at the 1/16 pole.

Funny how some people don't like Durkin. Just shows you can't please everyone and you shouldn't try. To me he's one of the best ever, but I like his type of call where he gives you a flavor of the race. To each their own.

P.S. anyone ever hear the old story about Clem McCarthy and Bill Stern (the old football announcer who once had the wrong guy running for a TD and got around it by telling radio listeners the guy had latereled the ball to the right runner. )
Stern was giving McCarthy some guff about a call McCarthy blew big-time in the Derby once. McCarthy supposedly replied: "Well, Bill, you can't lateral a horse."
:D

[falconridge]

P.S. anyone ever hear the old story about Clem McCarthy and Bill Stern (the old football announcer who once had the wrong guy running for a TD and got around it by telling radio listeners the guy had latereled the ball to the right runner. )
Stern was giving McCarthy some guff about a call McCarthy blew big-time in the Derby once. McCarthy supposedly replied: "Well, Bill, you can't lateral a horse."
:D
For backstory on andicap's anecdote, see my post (#44) in the "Worst Call Yet" thread (about McCarthy's having confused 1947 Preakness winner Faultless with that year's Derby winner, Jet Pilot. McCarthy missed a lead change on the far turn when the field momentarily disappeared behind a canopy, and called Jet Pilot in front from the 5/16 pole to the wire).

McCarthy took his gaffe philosophically, but Stern, ostensibly commiserating with his colleague about his "humiliating" mistake in front of "all those people," wouldn't let go. After Stern went on for some time about how embarrassed he would have been had he suffered the same kind of contretemps that tripped McCarthy, the veteran race caller decided he'd had enough. Whereupon he uttered the rebuff that andicap quotes.

Now for some background on Stern, a high-profile, self-promoting hack of a sports announcer, whose principal distinction was having been the play-by-play man on the first Major League baseball game ever televised (catch Stern's "act"--if you've the stomach for it--in the 1942 film, Pride of the Yankees). Stern had long covered college football on the radio, and shamelessly resorted again and again to the same device to cover his confusion as to what was going on on the gridiron. Let's say a ball carrier scores on a 50-yard run from scrimmage. Stern's account might go something like this: "Brown hands off to Smith, who cuts back at midfield! He dodges a defender, breaks a tackle at the 45! moves past the hash mark at the 40, fakes out the safety at the 35! He's at the 30, the 20, the 10 ... Smith laterals to Jones at the five! [my italics] Touchdown, Wossamatta U.!" When, of course, Jones had had the ball all along.

Spitting out of the Stern,

Falconridge

[Milleruszk]

Lou,

Thanks for the memory....Capposella was the first race caller that I can remember. I always thought he was the best. My father and I would go to Aqueduct when he was calling the races. Do you know where you can purchase old race calls? Thanks again.

Tom






We used to have a lot of fun at the bowling alley. Fred is the one who gave me the nickname along with Burley Parke of CapperLou. I used to have so much fun when I was up in the crow's nest at SAR with him--climbing that ladder and he had this old fashioned cooler full of soda etc.

Cappy was the greatest--I still have tapes of some of his great race calls. He was gentleman, a genuine nice guy; everybody loved him. He was an avid coin collector too and they had auctions and get togethers in Saratoga every summer. Man, as I write this it feels like yesterday!!

All the best,

CapperLou

[toetoe]

Just a boost here for M. Wrona, and there's nothing wrong with hearing the final positions of all the runners. It's good to be told that frontrunner you thought was home at the 1/8-pole actually faded to last, or whatever.

[Hosshead]

Costy Caras has been the ML maker at Charles Town for the last several years.He might be a nice guy BUT:
Absolutely, Without a Doubt, THE WORST ML Oddsmaker on Earth !! No, make that, in the Solar System, there's a guy on Neptune that's better too !

There are many days when he gives the same ML odds (sequence) to half the races on the card ! And the other half gets a different "sequence". There was a dicsussion about this once on the HTR bb. He has "templates" of ML odds he assigns, depending on what odds the fav is given, then the rest of the field are given that pre-determined "pattern" of odds, no matter who is running. There is absolutely no skill (or work) put into his ML Odds !
I don't think he even knows which horses get which odds.

Funny story Cj related about him watching a baseball game during the call of a race, I have No Doubt that is Absolutely TRUE !! :lol:

[Figman]

Marshall Cassidy is retired and lives in Saratoga Springs. He only worked the Saratoga meet.

John Imbriale will be substituting at Belmont Park if called upon and available from his retirement.