Gary Thorne isn't loved because of his accuracy - it's well known he's terrible with details. He's loved because he has a great voice and can convey emotion. He makes games more exciting.
This..... I can listen to "Do you believe it" all night long.
We watch a sport, I know the details, I don't care if the players names are called improperly every now and again. I love it when the announcer gets really excited when my team scores a goal.
Jim Gordon with his "scave" and all his other gaff's was a helluva lot of fun to listen to. Old Rangers fans love the guy and when he was with the Big Whistle they were awesome. I was too young at the time to remember them but they made the game fun, much the same way Thorne does.
I am 100% sure Thorne called games while drunk
I know I can be sarcastic, really sarcastic but I say this with none whatsoever, if he called games drunk that would make me love the guy even more.
What I don't love is homers. I ****ing hate homers, they insult your intelligence. I would go nuts listening to some of the garbage homer announcers, like in Philly.
The one caveat with this is, I loved D. Sanderson and Fred Cusick on NESN, they were so over the top homer that it was actually funny as hell. They had some calls that had me rolling on the floor.