Gary Thorne(!!!!) among many hires for Kings PBP role

[perrygetz1*]

It was so great to hear Thorne again. It's just too bad jim fox is still there with his annoying speech patterns. Worst commentator in the league (and YES, he's even worse than Hayward)!

 

[Brodeur]

Was OLN not interested in Thorne when they first got the NHL rights or was it Thorne's decision? I do remember OLN getting most of the NHL on ESPN crew like Brian Enngblom, Bill Clement, and Darren Pang. But Barry Melrose stayed.

Thorne has a longer history as a baseball announcer, so he stuck with ESPN during/immediately after the lockout. Then he became the Orioles PBP announcer in 2007. I can only imagine Thorne wasn't as interested in ditching ESPN for OLN who didn't have a ton outside of hockey.

 

[Osprey]

I had been watching Kings games, hoping for them to lose. These last few games, though, I've found myself hoping for them to score and win just to hear Gary call them. That, gentlemen, is the power of Gary Thorne.

 

[Its a Trap]

Gary Thorne

 

[Its a Trap]

I love Doc, especially as a Devils fan, but for me Gary Thorne just makes something more exciting. His voice rises at the right moments and he had plenty of great calls despite his name-goofs which were aplenty.

 

[cptjeff]

Was OLN not interested in Thorne when they first got the NHL rights or was it Thorne's decision? I do remember OLN getting most of the NHL on ESPN crew like Brian Enngblom, Bill Clement, and Darren Pang. But Barry Melrose stayed.

Neither. The NHLPA vetoed him. They were consulted, and the players didn't like the fact that he constantly mangled their names.

 

[KaseMeOutside]

it is a travesty he is not calling games nationally in America anymore, get your **** together NBC

 

[cheap77]

It's just too bad jim fox is still there with his annoying speech patterns. Worst commentator in the league (and YES, he's even worse than Hayward)!

I don't think I can disagree with you more.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

Now I have to watch kings games

 

[SnowblindNYR]

There's always like 20% of people in these threads absolutely obsessing over some name screw ups. I just don't understand why people get hung up on this fact when the guy's voice, timing, and enthusiasm are the best in the business.

 

[Bleedred]

Thorne is better than half of the league's PBP announcers quite easily, if not even more than that.

He probably gets knocked down a few ticks because of the gaffes with the names and mispronunciation.

Gary needs to come back to the NHL. Unless he loves baseball more than hockey, who the hell would rather work an MLB schedule than an NHL one? Especially at his age? 162 games a year vs 82 games a year? I know the travel probably evens out and isn't a whole hell of a lot more in the MLB than it is in the NHL, just because you're playing 3-4 games in the same city, whereas in the NHL they're not doing back to back's in the same city in the regular season, unless it's at home.

If he likes the Orioles and MLB more, I can't fault the guy for that. But if he's itching to do some hockey again, he should come back.