Detroit Tigers TV Broadcasters Ranked 11th in MLB

Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Some Detroit Tigers’ fans hate ’em, other Tigers’ fans hate when they can’t hear them, but an outside source has determined that Mario Impemba and Rod Allen are the 11th best local TV team in all of baseball.

The blog Awful Announcing polled its readers on Facebook and Twitter over the last several weeks asking for fans of each team, and viewers who are fans of other teams but tune in via MLB Extra Innings or MLB.TV, to give each local broadcast team a letter grade of A, B, C, D or F.

Mario and Rod, of Fox Sports Detroit, placed 11th out of 30 MLB teams, receiving an average letter grade of B. 

Analysis: 78% of readers gave the Tigers either an A, a B, or a C, with all three grades receiving between 24% and 28% of the vote. Impemba and Allen got a lot of reviews that talked about them not taking things seriously too often, which immediately jumps out as one of their defining qualities.Reader Comments:“They also have this generalized silliness to them that at some points in games which makes me think I’m watching a game broadcasted by little kids” -jbaker1987“Mario Impemba for the Tigers is pretty decent as an announcer, not bad but certainly not the best, but Rod Allen can be unbearable to listen to at times.” -dishnet34@awfulannouncing @RodAllen12 & @mario_impemba for Tigers. Entertaining, informative & call the game rather than try to be part of the game. -@UMTiger89@awfulannouncing I like Tiger team. Some think @RodAllen12 is hokey but the guy knows the game and chased a Japanese pitcher around field. -@cmad3961@awfulannouncing I would give the Tigers announcers a C+. Rod Allen really brings down the broadcast with his not so astute analysis. -@Curtos07

I know some readers of Motor City Bengals are not fans of Mario and Rod, more particularly Rod Allen, but I think they’re fine and would give anything to hear them call postseason games instead of the yahoos they get on TBS, Fox, and MLB Network. Sure the Rod schtick can get old after Game 124, but that’s what sheer repetition will do.

I grew up in the age of George Kell and Al Kaline, and to me there is no substitute. That said, if George and Al did 150 games per year (they did probably 60-80 at most), today’s fans would probably get tired of the same thing every night. That’s just the nature of baseball’s “every day” mentality.

Other notables

Top 5:

1. San Francisco Giants
2. Los Angeles Dodgers
3. Baltimore Orioles
4. New York Mets
5. Chicago Cubs

• Minnesota was the only AL Central team to rank higher than Detroit’s broadcast team, placing seventh. Kansas City was 18th, Cleveland 21st, and Hawk Harrleson’s antics in the booth for several decades placed the Chicago White Sox dead last.
• No typical East Coast bias (i.e. Yanks-Sox love) in the poll. The Yankees team finished 25th while Boston finished 13th.

View the full rankings at Awful Announcing.

So do you think Mario and Rod should have been in the Top 5 or 10? Were they ranked too high? What grade would you give them? A,B,C,D or worse? Comment below and sound off.