I bet you Vin is proud

My favorite announcer of all time is Vin Scully.

Call me old school, but I really look forward to his broadcasts because he'll always add something to the games, regardless of the quality of the play that day.

Whether it's some insight from years of calling ballgames, little things he'll do to make the games more fun or the behind the scenes input he'll add in, I could watch two last place teams phone it in as long as Scully is the one with the coverage.

One of the small things you'll notice without really noticing is that Scully won't openly root for the home team while he calls a game. I'd read somewhere - I think it was the Sports Illustrated compilation on baseball writing - that the decision to not make a scene over the performance of the home team was a conscious decision.

This was a carry over from working the New York market at a time when the Yankees, Giants and Dodgers were all "local" clubs and he was wary about alienating anyone listening on the radio that day.

I was reminded of this tonight during the Red Sox / Diamondbacks game when a play in the bottom of the third got an interesting response from the crew working the game for Arizona.

Daron Sutton and Matt Williams watched as Chris Snyder hit a roller up between the first and second basemen for the Red Sox and Alberto Callaspo advanced to second and swung a wiiiide turn towards third.

JD Drew threw in to Julio Lugo at second, who couldn't catch Callaspo, who slid back to put runners at first and second. The only problem is that when Callaspo stood up to brush himself off, he never called time with the ump.

Lugo watched and waited and when Callaspo stood off the bag to knock the dirt off his uniform, he tagged him out.

Instead of calling it a bush league trick play or bellyaching about it, Sutton and Williams called it a little more evenly, cited a need for the younger Diamondbacks to be more alert and used the whole play to reframe their ongoing storyline of how the Sox - though unconventional personality-wise - make sure they are prepared for the games and execute well.

I'm more than burned out on Hawk Harrelson and Ron Santo in the Chicago market peddling their shtick as unabashed homers, especially when I hear the Arizona crew get back to basics like this.

As Don Sutton's son, I'm thinking there's a conscious decision made here as well. Considering how goofy the D-backs booth has been in the two and a half years I've had the baseball package, this is a nice touch.

Nice work by the most recent addition to the Arizona booth.

(Photo from: OCRegister.com)