Favorite sports journalist, commentator, or columnist?

Phil Mushnick - New York Post

Mushnick is the greatest sports writer on Earth. What he writes about is the bullshit, hypocrisy, and idiocy that has infected our sports world. From baseball players not running to first base (and the announcers never acknowledging it...unless, of course, it is an opposing payer who does it) to baseball "Sunday Family Days" being moved to 8:30 Sunday night because ESPN money means they can do whatever they want with our baseball) to the idiocy of holds and saves, instant replays, PSLs, Ray Lewis getting hired while intelligent ex-players don't stand a chance.....Mushnick nails everything that is ruining our sports in America and he is a fantastic read.

Nationally I like Joe Posnanski and Jayson Stark. When Posnanski wrote for Sports Illustrated I thought all of his pieces were great even if the subject matter wouldn't have normally appealed to me. Stark is great because he knows so much about baseball and presents it in a way like you're talking to your buddy. Plus I met him once at a book signing and he was very nice. I kinda sorta almost like Peter King, but sometimes he irritates the piss out of me.

As far as commentators go, there's very few national commentators I truly like. Mike Emrick in hockey, Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth in football. That's about it. Everyone else I'm either neutral towards or dislike (only talking about national ones here).

You aren't alone, I like Cowherd too.

cowherd picks his nose and eats it!


Link:

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I listen to him on The Guardians podcast. He acts like a clown sometimes but he really knows what he's talking about.

Has to be the king of metaphors (and hyperbole), the darts commentator, Sid Waddell.  Without the late Sid Waddell, with his natural enthusiasm and excitement for the sport, darts wouldn't be the huge worldwide television spectacle that it is today.  The fact that the world championship trophy is now called the 'Sid Waddell Trophy' tells you how important he was for the sport.

Here are just a few of Sid Waddell's quotes you may not have heard (you could probably fill the British library with his gems.. oh.. and you have to read the quotes with lots of excitement in you head for the full Sid Waddell effect).



There hasn't been this much excitement since the Romans
fed the Christians to the Lions.
- Sid Waddell

He's as cool as a prized marrow!
- Sid Waddell

Darts players are probably a lot fitter than most footballers
in overall body strength.
- Sid Waddell

He looks about as happy as a penguin in a microwave.
- Sid Waddell

The atmosphere is so tense, if Elvis walked in,
with a portion of chips...
you could hear the vinegar sizzle on them.
- Sid Waddell

That was like throwing three pickled onions into a thimble!
- Sid Waddell

He's about as predictable as a Wasp on speed.
- Sid Waddell

It's like trying to pin down a kangaroo on a trampoline.
- Sid Waddell

Under that heart of stone beat muscles of pure flint.
- Sid Waddell

Well as giraffes say, you don't get no leaves unless you stick your neck out.
- Sid Waddell

That's the greatest comeback since Lazarus.
- Sid Waddell

When Alexander of Macedon was 33, he cried salt tears
because there were no more worlds to conquer.
Eric Bristow is only 27.
- Sid Waddell

There's only one word for that - magic darts!
- Sid Waddell

Look at the man go, its like trying to stop a water-buffalo with a pea-shooter.
- Sid Waddell

The players are under so much duress,
it's like duressic park out there!
- Sid Waddell

"[He's] as happy as a hound-dog who's won a year's supply of Boneo."
- Sid Waddell

"If we'd had Phil Taylor at Hastings against the Normans, they'd have gone home."
- Sid Waddell

"Bob came on like the Laughing Cavalier … now he looks like Lee Van Cleef on a bad night."
- Sid Waddell

"It's the nearest thing to public execution this side of Saudi Arabia."
- Sid Waddell

"There was less noise when Pompeii was swamped in lava! Absolute pandemonium here! Barmaids are frozen like Greek statues watching! No beer's been served! Everybody's eyes [are] absolutely hooked on that board."
- Sid Waddell

"You could hear a blob of vinegar drop on a chip in this hall."
- Sid Waddell

You can get the dart player out of the pub, but you can't get the pub out of the dart player.
- Sid Waddell

"William Tell could take an apple off your head, Taylor could take out a processed pea."
- Sid Waddell

"It's like Dracula getting out of his grave and asking for a few chips with his steak."
- Sid Waddell

"Keith Deller's not just an underdog, he's an underpuppy!"
- Sid Waddell

"This lad has more checkouts than Tescos."
- Sid Waddell

"Big Cliff Lazarenko's idea of exercise is sitting in a room with the windows open taking the lid off something cool and fizzy."
- Sid Waddell




"It's a form of mental and verbal gymnastics, and one of the things that appeals to me most about commenting on darts is that no one knows exactly what I'm going to come out with next - and neither do I."
- Sid Waddell

Bill Walton

Al Michaels
Stephen A. Smith
Skip Bayless
Michael Wilbon
Jim Lampley