To fill the shoes of Rory Markas, the Angels are going to need a competent, reliable announcer. As the intrigue winds closer to the dawn of the new season, it would seem that the Angels are not auditioning a new, untried voice. They don't seem, at this late date, to be pulling in any grizzled veterans for a one or two season stint. They most definitely are not bringing back Steve Physioc despite the LA Times poochy Diane Pucin writing a suckup puff piece on the virtues of rehiring that pathetic motormouth ninny himself. For you sentimentalists, Rex Hudler is not a play-by-play announcer and won't be back either.
Could the answer then be found at the Fox Sports Newtork regional branches? There are four Fox regional network baseball play by play announcers who would seem, for various reasons, to be the obvious frontrunners, at this juncture, to team with color commentator Mark Gubicza for the Angels television play by play announcer. They are:
CHIP CARAY: He was recently dumped by TBS as the Braves announcer but picked up for 105 games by Fox Sports South. He has the "national" profile that the Angels front office craves for their public profile. After the ignomious dumping by TBS, is he hungry to be the voice of a perennial playoff contender even if it means a move to the suburbs of LaLaLand?
MARIO IMPEMBA: The television voice of the Detroit Tigers for Fox Sports Detroit, Mario left broadcasting for the Angels after the 2001 season to cover his boyhood team. He is one of the best announcers in the game and could transfer to the higher profile West Coast as well as add a smidgen of continuity, at least for those of us who are not on the post-'02 bandwagon.
JOSH LEWIN: The Texas Rangers announcer on Fox Sports Southwest, Lewin is a preppy type who stinks of corporate suckup and seeing him on a few nationally televised Fox weekend games last season reminds Angels fans that the west coast is where the ladder-climbing backstabbers go to before they go to New York, so here his name is in the hat.
DARREN SUTTON: The son of former Angel Don Sutton also left the Angels after 2001. He went to the Milwaukee Brewers and is currently slated to be the straight man to Mark Grace on Fox Sports Arizona covering the Diamondbacks. In addition to continuity within the franchise's history, Sutton would likely be the least expensive of these four Fox Sports employees.