If he were to get an award for the kind of stuff he puts on the air, it really would be the end of civilization as we know it. That’s not an overstatement.

Maybe he improved, or maybe my tastes changed, or maybe I slowed down, or something… By the time he retired, I actually enjoyed listening to his stories on the air.

I still found his repetitive nature annoying (he would generally say the same thing three times), and on certain plays he was very predictable (e.g., on an infield fly, he could be counted upon to always suggest that the infielder should have dropped the ball on the off chance that the baserunner on first would take off). But Fairly certainly was not the worst, or close to the worst, of the Mariner announcers. IMHO, anyway.

I don’t hate Rizzs, he bothers me much less than Fairly ever did. I like “Goodbye, baseball”, especially when he does it in that understated way of his. I even met him once, at a Dan Wilson signing at, I believe, the Bellevue Square Bon Marche back in ’96 or ’97 (I was about 13 at the time), he ran into it “randomly” (perhaps?). He autographed slips of paper for me and my two younger siblings, too shy to approach him themselves. I remember wishing he had been Dave Niehaus instead, and feeling bad about that.

It apparently wanders all over some fine Issaquah establishments….

As for phoniness, Captain Ken Wilson takes the cake. Nobody else is even close.

I do love it, though, when Rizzs says “Wow!”

judging from the stories that have been posted here about Rizzs’ wandering eye.

does it count as a ‘wandering eye’ when the person is single?

Not only does Rick have that used car salesman smarm, he seems to have Larry’s lecherous streak as well, judging from the stories that have been posted here about Rizzs’ wandering eye.

We’ve talked about this a little before, but unfortunately, that’s not the case: Rizzs is an amazingly rehearsed, artificial machine …. it’ll entirely break you of any thought that he’s at all sincere.

oh, I think he is sincere. I think he believes that to be a true professional, he needs to do “the little things” to be at the top of his game, and if that means working on his delivery (“say friends” … say, friends … hey friends”) during the breaks, so be it.

I still think he (and the Ms) would be best served by moving him into a meet & greet role.

We’ve talked about this a little before, but unfortunately, that’s not the case: Rizzs is an amazingly rehearsed, artificial machine. If you ever have a chance to hear his between-inning breaks where he tries to figure out which (say) “Hey friends” sounds the most smarmy for use the next inning, it’ll entirely break you of any thought that he’s at all sincere.

Watch it there, buddy! I resemble them words…

….at least, the first part up to the word “demographic”.

That doesn’t change the fact that he isn’t a very good baseball announcer. He gives off the used car salesman vibe every time he talks.