If you followed the Hershey Bears on line last night you know that Bears’ play-by-play voice John Walton was alone on the air for upwards of four periods of action, in addition to his pre- and post-game labor. With most broadcasts of most sports, there are almost always at least two voices in the booth, and for good reason — it’s not easy doing play-by-play, color, analysis, and frankly simply talking for upwards of four hours all by yourself without appreciable rest to be found among it all. Which makes Walton’s work at a game’s greatest moments all the more impressive.
We were listening in to JW last night with the audio of Detroit-Pittsburgh muted on TV, and boy were we glad we did. Listen to his endearing, infectious, and heart-stopping call of Alexander Giroux’s overtime game-winner deep into overtime last night:
5/30/09 (Bears 5.. Moose 4) Giroux OT 3rd goal
And that’s charcateristic Walton. Piping him in through your computer’s speaker is like having an extended telephone call with a best friend. We encourage you to download a generous sampling of Walton’s audio work and see if you don’t agree.
One Comment
Sounds like Rick Jeanneret a bit. Excellent.