OT: Rod Allen, Mario Impemba not being brought back as Tigers announcer
Not surprising after the two went off air in September after a physical altercation between them. Not a Tigers fan here but interesting story to follow as it developed nonetheless.
October 9th, 2018 at 8:44 PM ^
I wonder if the altercation was the result of Mario mishearing Rod's attempt to say "second deck."
October 9th, 2018 at 9:05 PM ^
Lmao I still laugh at that
October 9th, 2018 at 9:47 PM ^
That one, plus Rod saying, "That's how you get (Adam) Eaton out."
October 9th, 2018 at 9:12 PM ^
Please elaborate.
October 9th, 2018 at 9:17 PM ^
There's a clip where Rod says second deck, talking about a home run that went into the second deck, that sounds suspiciously like " suck a dick". This has been played ad nauseum on the radio, it's somewhat funny the first few times, not so much after.
October 9th, 2018 at 11:25 PM ^
Makes sense thank you
October 9th, 2018 at 9:42 PM ^
Maybe Rod was talking to Mario and we misheard him.....
October 9th, 2018 at 8:48 PM ^
people still watch the Tigers 'play' baseball?
October 9th, 2018 at 8:52 PM ^
Mario probably got sick of hearing "I see you big fella"
October 10th, 2018 at 1:39 PM ^
I can just see Mario just wailing on Rod Allen screaming "How about this for a Big Fella!"
October 9th, 2018 at 8:55 PM ^
but i hear they are booked for UFC 249 or thereabouts. lets get ready to r-uuuu-mmmm-bbbb-lllleee!!!!
October 9th, 2018 at 8:56 PM ^
No doubt!!
October 9th, 2018 at 9:05 PM ^
I liked these guys. Especially this video:
https://mobile.twitter.com/tigers/status/778433867950788608
and this one...
”second deck!”
October 9th, 2018 at 9:07 PM ^
Well, you fight in a parking lot and you should be fired. Jeez!
October 9th, 2018 at 9:33 PM ^
If I'm being honest, they were the worst announcing duo for all the Detroit teams, radio or TV. I've always believed that Impemba was somewhere between solid and average, while Rod Allen was pretty much unbearable after he stopped being the slightest bit professional. Fox Sports needs to go find a new, young announcer to be the voice of the Tigers for the next 20-30 years; similar to what the Lions did with Dan Miller in 2005 and the Wings did with Ken Daniels in 1997.
What I do not want is for Matt Shepherd to take over full time. He is truly awful. Clean house, no Kirk Gibson, no Craig Monroe... start over.
October 9th, 2018 at 9:47 PM ^
I'm on board with all of this. I've never gotten the love for Shep. He's just not a great PBP guy. Definitely agree with starting from scratch.
That being said, Mario and Rod were great for a while, until it became glaringly obvious that they truly hated each other. Which was about a decade ago.
October 9th, 2018 at 10:29 PM ^
Ken Daniels was already established on CBC as a solid announcer. I'd love to see them make a play for Matt Vasgersian or Dan Shulman. Matt can still call Sunday Night Baseball like Jon Miller used to do back in the day.
October 10th, 2018 at 12:15 AM ^
To be fair I thought Mario was fine. And I'm not a big fan of Miller for the Lions (still a Mark Champion guy). But Detroit has excellent announcers across the board, except basically for the Tigers on television. And the Tigers television broadcast is kinda sorta the flagship of sports broadcasting in the state of Michigan.
I like Shep. I think he does well. I don't exactly understand all the flak he gets, but I don't live in the area anymore; perhaps he has just worn on people. It may be that he needs to get hired out of area and get a fresh start with a market to really take off.
The Tigers as a team are at a low ebb right now, but without looking at ratings I have to believe that it's a top ten job in MLB at least. They should be able to hire some really good talent for the booth.
October 10th, 2018 at 6:39 AM ^
The Lions shelving Mark Champion simply for being the voice of what all of us fans were thinking week in and week out was just plain stupid. But I would expect nothing less from that team.
October 10th, 2018 at 6:57 AM ^
What about Brandstatter & Dierdorf -- NOT!!!
October 10th, 2018 at 7:35 AM ^
I agree they need to go with a new, fresh team but Mario and Rod were far from the worst in the area. Brandstatter is awful as a play-by-play man for Michigan football and Dan Miller stinks at it for the Lions. Bring back Mark Champion.
October 10th, 2018 at 9:21 AM ^
IMO Dan Dickerson on radio is the best play by play guy I've ever heard--super knowledgeable about all advanced and traditional stats, good at his job. covers a a lot for Jim Price too. Would love to see him get the gig
October 10th, 2018 at 1:00 PM ^
I like C-Mo and I liked Jack Morris.
October 10th, 2018 at 1:41 PM ^
I feel like Gibson and C-Mo could compliment each other pretty well. Gibson clearly knows his stuff, but is too monotone. He needs a high energy counterpart.
October 9th, 2018 at 9:42 PM ^
I suppose if one of them isn't back then I'm glad both of them are gone. I'd hate for the instigator to be retained, while the guy who finally snapped got punished.
October 9th, 2018 at 10:13 PM ^
I've heard of guys playing a drinking game with Allen's and Jim Price's usual cliches and canned responses. After 4 innings most were seriously hammered.
October 10th, 2018 at 12:06 AM ^
Were they seriously... yellow hammered?
October 10th, 2018 at 1:01 PM ^
“That’s the art of pitching.”
He says that about everything so I still have no clue what the art of pitching is, according to jim
October 9th, 2018 at 10:08 PM ^
Dan Dickerson should move to TV. He is fantastic calling college hockey games as well.
October 9th, 2018 at 10:28 PM ^
Dan should call our games with Brandy and Jansen as a three man booth
October 9th, 2018 at 10:32 PM ^
Yeah. I love Brandy as a color analyst. His play by play has improved a little but he just isn't that type of announcer. Dickerson's voice would be great for that.
October 9th, 2018 at 11:38 PM ^
Brandy is a great color guy but he's really bad at play-by-play. He struggles with communicating distances (it's usually the last bit of information he gives out as he's describing a play) and he has weird varying moments of inflection, where he gets really demonstrative and loud about a 6 yard run, but there's a 22 yard pass downfield and he's bizarrely calm about.
Also, I think "sack time" is a lame catchphrase, but that's my personal opinion.
October 10th, 2018 at 12:06 AM ^
Dan's perfect on the radio. He's a great announcer, period, but he belongs on Tigers radio pbp. Anything else is misuse, even if it's still great.
October 10th, 2018 at 7:34 AM ^
Can't agree enough with this. I did like the occasional "crossover episodes" where DD was on TV and Mario was on the radio but they never felt like a good permanent solution.
October 9th, 2018 at 11:00 PM ^
They should hire two women. Seriously.
October 10th, 2018 at 12:09 AM ^
Interesting choice. From the vague reports it sounded like Rod was the instigator, but perhaps they were both a problem (and difficult to deal with off camera) and so this was the result. On the one hand, I'd hate for Impemba, who is fine, to lose his job because Rod was a jerk. On the other, if they were both part of the problem (and perhaps, like some relationships, this was a case of both being awful and one getting pushed over the edge first), and if things were difficult regardless, then this needed to happen and it's not a crushing blow.
I hope they both find green pastures (and better working relationships) somewhere.
October 10th, 2018 at 12:19 AM ^
They should hire Tim and Sam from Cramblin Duvet Advertising.
October 10th, 2018 at 7:41 AM ^
"Detroiters" is one of the most underappreciated shows in the last couple of years.
Do people even know that Mort Crim was the inspiration for Ron Burgundy?
October 10th, 2018 at 12:23 AM ^
This is an excellent article by Lynn Henning: Link
Well reported, and wrenching all at the same time. Impemba had his dream job, and now it's gone.
October 10th, 2018 at 1:32 AM ^
Good article. but Henning sucks in general. too positive all the time.
October 10th, 2018 at 1:32 AM ^
Good article. but Henning sucks in general. too positive all the time.
October 10th, 2018 at 1:32 AM ^
Good article. but Henning sucks in general. too positive all the time.
October 10th, 2018 at 11:20 AM ^
well, he is a sparty
October 10th, 2018 at 12:40 AM ^
So let me get this straight, if my coworker starts choking me because they don't like how I'm doing my job, we both get fired? It's amazing that people are saying impemba was "instigating" the whole thing because they had some kind of harmless, off the air, brief dispute over a chair. Everyone with a brain in their head knows exactly what is going on here, and we're tired of it.
October 10th, 2018 at 1:12 AM ^
I doubt he'd leave but the Dodgers radio guy Joe Davis is from Potterville, Mi. He's an excellent baseball announcer.
30 years old and replaced Vin Scully if that tells you anything.
October 10th, 2018 at 8:20 AM ^
I have a co-worker who is friends with him and I don't think he will be moving back to Michigan anytime soon.
October 10th, 2018 at 8:25 AM ^
Tigers don't deserve announcers anyway. Makes sense.
October 10th, 2018 at 11:32 AM ^
When I used to hear Mario Impemba's name I used to think he was two different people. I always heard Mario and Pemba. That was like 15 years ago, though.
October 10th, 2018 at 1:26 PM ^
Who’s going to tell us what a great idea a bunt would be 7-8 times a game now?
October 10th, 2018 at 1:42 PM ^
I propose Don Kelly and C-Mo