Mike Battaglia

[sq764]

Is he simply the worst announcer to ever announce a horserace??

My God, he cannot even get the horse numbers right, let alone make an accurate call..

It hurts to listen to him..

[Speed Figure]

He's not as bad as the guy from MOUNTAINEER!:D THAT GUY SUCKS!!!

[sq764]

Oh come on..

Battaglia is still saying "GAINING GROUND" when they are posting prices..

[Speed Figure]

The "MOUNTAINEER" Guy is still saying "IN FRONT" When the horses are at the gate. I think they both suck.:p

[Milleruszk]

The "Bring Back Fred Capposella Fan Club" is now is session!

[bettheoverlay]

Nothing more annoying than Battagia's constant "they're together"

[cj]

More annoying...try Dave Johnson with "and down the stretch they come" as they pass the 1/16th pole!

[cj]

By the way, on the Toga trip, we had the pleasure of watching a pretty lengthy interview with Tom Durkin. This is a guy you would definitely love to just hang out and shoot the breeze with, seems very geniune and also a laugh a minute...had us just about on the floor of the tent laughing more than a few times.

[Dave Schwartz]

CJ,

Yes, Durkin was great. I think the best quote of all was when Mary Ryan said that he seemed slimmer.

His response: "Yeah, I lost about a jockey."


Dave

[sq764]

It was before my time, but he called a harness dead heat in a match race.. It was a pleasure to listen to..

And the guy knows his stuff..

[susan sweeney]

I agree. I turn off the sound when he is calling the race. You never know when a horse is running from the back of the pack. He only calls who is on front and then suddenly a horse appears unexpectedly. He also has an annoying cadence with this "together thing". An excellent race caller lets you know where your horse is during the race and if or if not that horse is making a move. They don't just call the front runners.

[sq764]

Give me Michael Chamberlain and Tom Durkin and I am happy..

[Tom]

I like Batagglia, but I hate Durkin. To me, there is none worse than he. Glad I missed the interview-I hate to puke sober. :rolleyes:

[Shacopate]

Break-een for the....lead...

Mike started calling races when his dad (who owned the track) told him that the regular caller wouldn't be in that day.

The rest is MSNBC history.

Also,

Forrest Gump is calling races at Los Alamitos.

[sq764]

They made 2 bad changes in my opinion, from an announcer standpoint..

At Retama, they replaced the guy from last year. I thought he was excellent. This new guy is average at best..

Also, the Evangeline guy (Don Nichols or something like that) was very good and he is gone this year.. Disapponting..

[Valuist]

Here's a standard Battaglia call:

They're moving IN-TOO the turn and up from the OUTSIDE its War Admiral in front, has it by a length.......down the stretch and its WARR ADMIRAL in front; GAINING GROUND up on the OUTSIDE here comes Sea Biscuit. They're nearing the wire and its all Sea Biscuit, or maybe it was Mineshaft.

I notice he has a tendency to overcall closers; maybe because he's a bettor and he probably likes to overbet them. It's funny how some announcers wear their parimutuel colors in their calls.

[sq764]

The guy at Ocean Downs who called up through last year was apparently a heavy bettor. You would hear some races where his voice just showed so much disappointment and there was occasions where he would just stop calling at the top of the stretch..

They added the Pompano harness announcer this year and it was like night and day..

[Valuist]

Vic Stauffer is another one who clearly wears his emotions in his calls.

[kenwoodallpromos]

In the early going I would say things like " they're running close like a herd of horses" or " it's still an anybody race"! The last place horse I would call "A Sulky Sullivan wannabe"!

[delayjf]

I know some don't like the accent, but Micael Wrona gets about as colorful as one can get calling a race. I remember one time he had me laughing my ass off, as some horse with an ten sylabel last name broke out in front, In a humorous fashion, he actually complained about having to repeat his name so often. You had to be there.

[Lefty]

Was watching one from TP the other night and Mike changed his opinion about 3 times as to what horse was on the lead. No wonder they replaced him at CD with Luke.

[sq764]

It was the 2nd race, I had the 3 horse in the double and just turned it on at the top of the stretch.. I was like "Cool, shit, cool, shit..."

[Stillriledup]

Is he simply the worst announcer to ever announce a horserace??

My God, he cannot even get the horse numbers right, let alone make an accurate call..

It hurts to listen to him..

11 years later, he STILL is employed as a race announcer.

GAINING GROUUUUUND!!!

:D

[NTamm1215]

11 years later, he STILL is employed as a race announcer.

GAINING GROUUUUUND!!!

:D

And you felt compelled to bump an 11 year-old thread while also active at the same time in another one bashing announcers. Classic.

[cj]

11 years later, he STILL is employed as a race announcer.

GAINING GROUUUUUND!!!

:D

And you wonder why I delete so many of your posts. I'll let this one stand as evidence.

[clemkadiddle]

Phil Georgeff from the Chicago tracks. (Even though I live in the Detroit area, I did go to Sportsman's Park and Hawthorne once in a while back in the late 70's and early 80's...)

"...and here they come...spinning out of the turn..."

Gotta love it.

[Shemp Howard]

Morris Tobe he ain't.

[EMD4ME]

How bad are the calls tonight? Or dare I ask, have they improved?

[Stillriledup]

How bad are the calls tonight? Or dare I ask, have they improved?

There's been a LOT of "gaining grounds" seems like a big closers track even though the last race was wire to wire.

[Exotic1]

11 years later, he STILL is employed as a race announcer.

GAINING GROUUUUUND!!!

:D

Gaining Ground # 6 R1 AQI 12/5/14.

Doesn't look like he ever ran at Turfway.

[Stillriledup]

Gaining Ground # 6 R1 AQI 12/5/14.

Doesn't look like he ever ran at Turfway.

WINNER. :ThmbUp: