American League Championship Series.  Extra innings.  Walk off home run.  Grand slam.  

These are the ingredients of one of the most exciting baseball plays of the year.  In fact, it's the first "official" walk off grand slam in MLB postseason history (baseball afficionados may remember Robin Ventura's walk off grand slam for the Mets in Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS, but that was only credited as a 1 run single).  One would think this would be cause for one of the more boisterous, enthusiastic calls of the sports year.

Enter Joe Buck...

I've heard store closings delivered with more passion.  And I get the appeal of announcers wanting to step aside and let the noise of the crowd and the moment speak for itself, but that usually comes after a more vibrant call than "in the air to left... down the line... this ball... ends it."  Instantly, our followers on Twitter began to take notice...

It does sound like Buck's voice is getting moderately better, which is good... but maybe someone needs to check his pulse too.  The funny thing is, I thought Joe sounded more excitable than usual during the NFL Playoffs and the Super Bowl last year.  In fact, I thought he was (relatively) amped up for the big game in February and did well.  That clearly hasn't made the transition to the MLB postseason.  Maybe Joe watches this video before every baseball broadcast for inspiration...

With the rave reviews Terry Francona received, it'll be very interesting to see whether or not Fox can (or wants to) persuade him to stay in the booth and make it a three man team with Tim McCarver and Buck for the rest of the postseason.  It'll be nice to see McCarver in good health back in the booth, but Francona gives Fox's baseball coverage the spark of life and freshness it needs.

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It's rowdy in downtown Detroit (especially if the Tigers can pull out this Game 2 win) but there will be none of Hank Williams Jr.'s rowdy friends, as he was canned for... Barry Sanders. At least for this week.

As I said in my weekly NFL picks, I don't think the 1985 Bears could come into Detroit and beat the Lions on this night, a chance for 5-0 on their first MNF appearance since 2001.

The Philadelphia Eagles found a new way to comically blow yet another game, losing embarrassingly to the Buffalo Bills 24-31 after falling behind to a huge deficit early in the game.  This loss wouldn't be so bad if they were like, you know, playing up to their collective abilities.  However, with over a quarter of the season gone, it very well could be that the Eagles just plain stink.  Good thing they just spent the GDP of a small nation on Michael Vick and all those free agents, as their One-and-Four record is falling just a little bit short of all the pre-season expectations heaped upon the squad.

Listen as the Philadelphia Eagles radio announcer Merrill Reese freaks out after an offsides violation on 4th and inches, with 1:23 to go in the game.  Their sad-sack defense probably wouldn't have stopped the Bills anyways, but this is still enjoyable to everyone that doesn't cheer for the Iggles:

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This is an idea we've been floating around at AA headquarters for a while now - an NFL version of the Pammies.  We asked you earlier this morning on Twitter, and the response was a unanimous YES to the NFL Pammies.  With the legacy of the Pammies at AA, it only makes sense to expand our weekly documentation of awful announcing to the National.  Football.  League.  Listening to Dick Stockton announce a full Saints game and hearing Phil Simms call Mark Sanchez, "Mark Shantez" was like divine inspiration to launch our NFL Pammies...

This is where you come in.  Your tweets and comments are the lifeblood of the Pammies on Saturdays, so we'll need AA Nation to pull together and provide us with the best quotes from Sundays and Monday nights, and even the various studio shows that fill an NFL weekend (I'm looking at you Chris Berman and Shannon Sharpe).  If you're just an NFL fan and may be unfamiliar with the Pammies (if so, what's wrong with you!), AA gathers the funniest, most ridiculous, most awful, and most innuendo filled quotes of the week.  Therefore, we need direct quotes in tweets and comments when sending in a submission:

NO: Dick Stockton is old and terrible.
YES: "3rd downs are always important. This is the first important 3rd down of the game." - Dick Stockton

As with the college version of the Pammies, our readers will vote on the nominees and points will be awarded for the winning quotes.  At the end of the season, we'll crown both a college and NFL Pammies champion.  

Most of all though, we also need your help in NAMING the NFL version of the Pammies.  Who or what should we "honor" with this distinction?  With the Pammy Awards, we have The Pam Ward Chronicles and The Pammies.  For our NFL version, we need you to fill in the blanks...

The _________ Chronicles.

The _______ies.

Leave us a comment or a tweet on your name ideas and we'll start our NFL version of the Pammies next week.

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Dwayne Bowe made this ridiculous juggling touchdown catch in Kansas City's win in Indianapolis on Sunday.  Even though Megatron has had an array of amazing catches and Victor Cruz of the Giants has put forth some highlight plays... this is the catch of the year in the NFL so far.  Making the play even better is AA favorite Kevin Harlan on the call...  "OH HE GOT THE BALL!!!"  With the NBA lockout looking bleaker and bleaker, hopefully Harlan finds a way to work such classics as "right between the eyes" and "with no regard for human life" into his NFL broadcasts...

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Pam Ward triumphantly returns for this week's Pammies with a couple gems in this week's nominees.  Elsewhere, ESPN managed to pick up 14 of our 16 nominees this week featuring Craig James and Matt Millen in their starring roles and a couple new faces getting in on the fun.  Also, it's a historic week for the Pammies as the one and only Gus Johnson makes his first appearance!  You'll have to see it to believe how he makes the field this week...

As a reminder as to how the Pammy vote works, each week we'll nominate 15-20 quotes for you to pick the best 10.  The winning quote of the week will earn that person 10 points all the way down to 1 point for 10th.  Remember, you can vote for your favorite five quotes.  Here are your Week 5 nominees...

1) "Texas is the hungrier team. they're playing with fire in their hair." - Craig James (via bjo109)

2) "Unless you know somethin', don't say nothin'" - Lee Corso (via sctvman)

3) "You know I'm a smoke man" - Brent Musburger (via jleimer) obivously referring to him betting sports.

4) "You can watch Texas practice live on Tuesday & Wednesday, on the Longhorn Network." - Kirk Herbstreit (via SEC_wrld)

5) "Harris, steps into it, almost incomplete." - Mike Patrick (via SBisho12) The pass was incomplete. It was nearly intercepted.

6) "Pittsburgh starting to pick up some chunky gains" - Pam Ward (via sctvman)

7) "When they are in the wildcat, you can bet on them either running or throwing" - Brent Musburger (via jshaddo)

8) "I don't wanna say that snap was way inside, but even Ryan Howard would've swung at it" - Gary Danielson (via AlexFromBuffalo)

9) "Ray Graham running away from would-be defenders" - Pam Ward (via patdoc38)

10) "LSU is hammering LSU" - Scott Van Pelt (via Michael Necci)

11) "This is why Lamar miller averages eight and a half carries per touch." - Craig James (via DWW_1992)

12) "The son of the great CRAIG JAMES from SMU with the score" - Gus Johnson (via ConnorKeisel).  There's a hole in the world tonight...

13) "If Tyler Bray were any more laid back, he couldn't see over his hips." - Mark Jones (via CaptTouchback)

14) "You cant make that play in the Big Red Shootout." - Lou Holtz (via David Reeves) commenting on OU/Texas highlights.

15) "You have to read the play, then you have to play football" - Matt Millen (via crippenstation)

16) "Plenty of time and four timeouts" - Mike Patrick (via MrIronD) late in the Miami/VT game when Virginia Tech was driving for the go-ahead TD.

Vote For Your Week 6 Pammy Nominees! (vote for up to five)

The winners will come Wednesday morning so make sure you vote early and often and check back for the full Week 7 announcing sked later this week!

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The early reviews are in and mostly positive on Gus Johnson's new role calling college football games on FX. Pitted against the likes of ABC, CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, and the MLB playoffs though, the majority of college football fans have yet to experience one of the loudest announcers coupled with the most naturally loud sport. 

I found myself drawn to FX as the Aggies and Red Raiders provided a bevvy of big plays and scoring despite having rooting interests watching other games. While I didn't get to watch a lot of the action, I felt lucky to have been able to this catch during a commercial in another game. Take it away Gus:

I think if you're a college football fan, the bottom line is that you don't have to fear Fox and FX's foray into college football as you did during the dreaded BCS on Fox experiment. With Fox broadcasting two conference championships and the Cotton Bowl, it will be interesting to see if Johnson can finish out his rookie year on a high note with the potential of drawing some very big games. 

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American League Championship Series - Detroit Tigers vs Texas Rangers 
FOX- Joe Buck, Terry Francona (Game 1 & 2), Tim McCarver (Games 3-7), Ken Rosenthal

National League Championship Series - Milwaukee Brewers vs. St. Louis Cardinals
TBS - Brian Anderson, Ron Darling, John Smoltz, Craig Sager

Saturday, October 8th

ALCS Game 1, Detroit Tigers @ Texas Rangers (FOX 7:30/8:05 pm)

Sunday, October 9th

NLCS Game 1, St. Louis Cardinals @ Milwaukee Brewers (TBS 3:30/4:05 pm)
ALCS Game 2, Detroit Tigers @ Texas Rangers (FOX 7:00/7:45 pm)

Monday, October 10

NLCS Game 2, St. Louis Cardinals @ Milwaukee Brewers (TBS 7:30/8:05 pm)

Tuesday, October 11

ALCS Game 3, Texas Rangers @ Detroit Tigers (FOX 7:30/8:05 pm)

Wednesday, October 12

ALCS Game 4, Texas Rangers @ Detroit Tigers (FOX 4:00/4:19 pm)
NLCS Game 3, Milwaukee Brewers @ St. Louis Cardinals (TBS 7:30/8:05 pm)

Thursday, October 13

ALCS Game 5*, Texas Rangers @ Detroit Tigers (FOX 4:00/4:19 pm)
NLCS Game 4, Milwaukee Brewers @ St. Louis Cardinals (TBS 7:30/8:05 pm) * - If Necessary

Friday, October 14

NLCS Game 5*, Milwaukee Brewers @ St. Louis Cardinals (TBS 7:30/8:05 pm) * - If Necessary

Saturday, October 15

ALCS Game 6*, Detroit Tigers @ Texas Rangers (FOX 7:30/8:05 pm) * - If Necessary

Sunday, October 16

NLCS Game 6*, St. Louis Cardinals @ Milwaukee Brewers (TBS 3:30/4:05 pm)* - If Necessary
ALCS Game 7*, Detroit Tigers @ Texas Rangers (FOX 7:45/8:05 pm) * - If Necessary, ^ If ALCS ends, TBS 7:30/8:05

Monday, October 17

NLCS Game 7*, St. Louis Cardinals @ Milwaukee Brewers (TBS 7:30/8:05 pm) * - If Necessary

When I think of Bob Uecker, I think of Harry Doyle. When Brewers (and most baseball) fans think of Bob Uecker, they think one of baseball's best announcers. They're not wrong -- he's brilliant -- but 'Major League' introduced me to Uecker and, thus, to me he'll forever be the guy who once inquired, "That's all we got? One goddamn hit?"

But in real life he's always been a legendary announcer for the Brewers (and WWF and Miller Lite commercials) and thanks to The Outside Corner, we have his awesome call of Nyjer Morgan's one goddamn game-winning hit that propelled the Brewers into the NLCS (no Nyjer Morgan f-bombs included, unfortunately): 

Of course, it doesn't take a degree in journalism to see the conflict of interest between ESPN's role in college football and their sizeable financial backing of the Longhorn Network.  Heck, it makes Craig James look like a beacon of virtue (oh hey Poynter, we're still waiting for that Craig James article by the way).  We've covered the news exaustively at AA in the offseason, but now that the college football season has started, we've seen how ESPN has decided to delicately dance around the 10,000 pound elephant in the room.  

First, there was the mysterious appearance of Texas on ESPN's website amongst other top 25 teams when the team wasn't ranked.  Now today, during the Red River Rivalry game, fans saw the definition of a shameless plug from stalwarts Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit.  Naturally, amongst all the talk of how important it was for people in Texas to call their cable operator, there was no mention of ESPN's involvement in the network.  But hey, you get to watch LIVE TEXAS PRACTICES!!  I guess mentioning the force and money behind the Longhorn Network would actually involve transparency and journalistic integrity and all of those silly things ESPN clearly doesn't believe in any more. 

[Video H/T SportsGrid]

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