joe starkey

40,141 Views | 263 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by OdontoBear66
CalBarn
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AunBear89 said:

It's been too long since his second day on the job.

Since1975.
I couldn't agree more. He's so bad if I don't have access to TV, I will simply not listen to him
and just wait until later to find out if Cal won or lost. It's too painful, frustrating, and aggravating.
Who needs the stress of a horrible play-by-play broadcast that drives you crazy?
76BearsFly
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I would like to see him transition into more color than play-by-play.
Another Bear
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Joe had a great run, Niners, Cal and a bunch of other stuff.

I'm bringing this up because no one should feel bad for Joe. He had a great career and now it's probably time to hang 'em up.

Besides the competence and slipping stuff, it's time. The new Cal AD has listened to the fans. Knowlton knows the fan experience needs to improve and by extension the whole broadcast crew needs to be updated. Post game show too. Joe and Cupper, they're now the age of current UC student's GREAT-grandparents (maybe great-great-gp). Get the age gap to about parents level or with a generation.
philbert
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I switched stations during the postgame show when the Cupper started reminiscing about one of his old teams. Truly bad radio.
85Bear
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philbert said:

I switched stations during the postgame show when the Cupper started reminiscing about one of his old teams. Truly bad radio.
Me too. I wonder if someone here with connections could ask Knowlton to tune into the show and take a listen sometime. I'd hope that he'd be appalled by what he hears and take appropriate action.
CalBarn
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AunBear89 said:

It's been too long since his second day on the job.

Since1975.
Yes, the worst ever.....period
petalumabear
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CalBarn said:

AunBear89 said:

It's been too long since his second day on the job.

Since1975.
Yes, the worst ever.....period
yeah I'm not a fan..... I'm just grateful to live in the Bay Area so I can go to the games and see the roadies on TV. If I had to listen to him "call" games I'd probably not .....
joe amos yaks
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To summarize, this is a positive endorsement for Joe Starkey.
High five, go Joe and thrive!
And we thank you.

Go Bears!

____

*Some of you must have missed the Bud Foster era.
"Those who say don't know, and those who know don't say." - LT
SoFlaBear
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10/20 Cal @ Oregon State

Joe has called Garbers "Bowers" three times that I've counted. He caught himself on one of the three instances.
HighlandDutch
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And he just said the score was 35-7. (Ron Howard narrator voice: "It was 42-7 at the time.")
SoFlaBear
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HighlandDutch said:

And he just said the score was 35-7. (Ron Howard narrator voice: "It was 42-7 at the time.")
At one point he said "wherever we are." It's Corvallis - he's been there literally dozens of times. I know all the towns start to look the same after a while, but...
SoFlaBear
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Another Bear said:

Joe had a great run, Niners, Cal and a bunch of other stuff.

I'm bringing this up because no one should feel bad for Joe. He had a great career and now it's probably time to hang 'em up.

Besides the competence and slipping stuff, it's time. The new Cal AD has listened to the fans. Knowlton knows the fan experience needs to improve and by extension the whole broadcast crew needs to be updated. Post game show too. Joe and Cupper, they're now the age of current UC student's GREAT-grandparents (maybe great-great-gp). Get the age gap to about parents level or with a generation.
Starkey is ~ 77. Cupper will be 82 this December. I'd say Grandparents or Great Grandparents (not GGP unless we're talking very young parenting).

Kate Scott had really good chemistry with Cupper when they did the postgame show. A Kate/Mike/Joe booth could be interesting.
Another Bear
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I had to run an errand the last 3 mins of the game, so I got in the car and turned on the radio. I have KGO on preset and KALX. Sorry Joe, the kids doing the KALX game broadcast did a better job calling the plays despite the tinny low power broadcast quality. They're the age of Starkey's grandkids.
SoFlaBear
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Another Bear said:

I had to run an errand the last 3 mins of the game, so I got in the car and turned on the radio. I have KGO on preset and KALX. Sorry Joe, the kids doing the KALX game broadcast did a better job calling the plays despite the tinny low power broadcast quality. They're the age of Starkey's grandkids.
Did Roxy start at KALX?
Another Bear
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Yes he did, and Kate Scott did time there too. I don't know who the kids were but they were fundamentally sound. Called the yard markers on the pick 6, and the players. Then I flipped back to Starkey. Seriously, if Pawlawski wasn't on, Joe would founder.
SoFlaBear
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Another Bear said:

Yes he did, and Kate Scott did time there too. I don't know who the kids were but they were fundamentally sound. Called the yard markers on the pick 6, and the players. Then I flipped back to Starkey. Seriously, if Pawlawski wasn't on, Joe would founder.
No doubt (and keep in mind - I like Joe). It kind of sounded like an elderly dad talking to someone and his son gently correcting him as the conversation went along for portions of the game.
LunchTime
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philbert said:

I switched stations during the postgame show when the Cupper started reminiscing about one of his old teams. Truly bad radio.
that's all cupper does. Nothing he says is related to Cal. It's his reminiscing, full time.

Maybe I am thinking if another guy. Whoever the QB from utah is iirc.
muddlehead1
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Joe is not good. But, he did make me (and Pawlawski) chuckle when he shockingly,coherently noted "We're down to just family and friends in the crowd at this point." during the 4th quarter.
YamhillBear
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Somewhat on topic, had a laugh yesterday as the Reser Stadium PA announcer kept misidentifying Patrick Laird as Quentin Tartabull (uses #28 on defense)...
cal83dls79
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SoFlaBear said:

10/20 Cal @ Oregon State

Joe has called Garbers "Bowers" three times that I've counted. He caught himself on one of the three instances.

Were we playing the Cardinal or the Beavs?
SFCityBear
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I guess this is what Cal fans do when they don't have a very good football team - bash the Cal announcers. We even bash them when the Bears win 49-7. I guess we had to find something negative to say, something to complain about, even when Cal wins big. And to bash Starkey and Grosscup just for being old, that's cold. I just hope that all of you who bash these two loyal Cal announcers for being too old to do the job as well as you would like, well, I hope that none of you ever grow old and find the need to continue working at the job you love, either to keep your sanity or put bread on the table, and get forced to retire when you don't want to. Personally, I'm a lot more concerned about all the mistakes that highly trained gifted athletes make on the field of play, and the mistakes that coaches make preparing and managing the play, all of which causes Cal to lose games they could have perhaps won. Neither Joe Starkey or Lee Grosscup ever uttered a single word that caused Cal to lose a game, as far as I know.
oskidunker
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Thank you. Totally agree.
Go Bears!
SoFlaBear
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SFCityBear said:

I guess this is what Cal fans do when they don't have a very good football team - bash the Cal announcers. We even bash them when the Bears win 49-7. I guess we had to find something negative to say, something to complain about, even when Cal wins big. And to bash Starkey and Grosscup just for being old, that's cold. I just hope that all of you who bash these two loyal Cal announcers for being too old to do the job as well as you would like, well, I hope that none of you ever grow old and find the need to continue working at the job you love, either to keep your sanity or put bread on the table, and get forced to retire when you don't want to. Personally, I'm a lot more concerned about all the mistakes that highly trained gifted athletes make on the field of play, and the mistakes that coaches make preparing and managing the play, all of which causes Cal to lose games they could have perhaps won. Neither Joe Starkey or Lee Grosscup ever uttered a single word that caused Cal to lose a game, as far as I know.
1) "We're all told at some point in time that we can no longer play the children's game, we just don't...we don't know when that's gonna be. Some of us are told at eighteen, some of us are told at forty, but we're all told." - from Moneyball

I'm not questioning whether Joe loves the game. I'm questioning whether he's still capable of playing his position, and suggesting that he now be moved to a more suitable position (i.e. color commentator).

2) I have nothing against old announcers. Bob Uecker is, in my book, the best announcer in MLB. He's 83 (6 years older than Starkey), and has cheated death three times now. He has a "Vin Scully" deal, so he mostly only does home games (call it 80 - 85 games a year) and calls some Spring Training games in Arizona. I've heard Uke get awfully silly - I've never heard him seem to forget what city he's in or get player names wrong.


3) RE: "Personally, I'm a lot more concerned about all the mistakes that highly trained gifted athletes make on the field of play, and the mistakes that coaches make preparing and managing the play, all of which causes Cal to lose games they could have perhaps won. "

Well, it's great you are concerned about that. There are many other threads about that in the growls forum, and you should post those concerns there. This thread (which I did not initiate, BTW) is about Joe Starkey and the Cal radio broadcast. This may come as a shock to you, but in some years, many alumni living outside the Bay Area depend on the radio broadcast to follow the game. Cal is on ESPN & FS1 a lot more than we used to be, but there are still a few games we outsiders don't get. And Pac 12 Network is not a panacea if the Bears are on Pac 12 Bay Area.





SoFlaBear
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LunchTime said:




Maybe I am thinking if another guy. Whoever the QB from utah is iirc.
That would indeed be Lee Grosscup. He played at Utah an is sometimes credited with inventing/being an early adherent to the shuffle pass (a.k.a. the shovel pass). He played Canadian ball and did a stint with the Raiders in the 60s. He did college football announcing at Cal as a color man in the 80s in a two-man booth with Starkey.

More here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Grosscup
philbert
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Ugh. The next time I don't hear the Cupper talk about his Utah teams will be the first. Horrible.
Bear19
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During the OSU game, Joe came up with a description during a play that made me laugh. (Paraphrasing): "They pitch the ball a third time - the band is not on the field, by the way..."

Agree that Joe does not give us a play by play, say with the accuracy of a Ted Robinson, for example, but he's not afraid to say what's on his mind, even if it is critical of the Bears, and he has a very wry sense of humor. I want a new play by play man only when Joe decides to call it quits. I enjoy his broadcasts.

He's stood by Cal while experiencing the same frustrations that all of us have, and imo is as much a Bear as any one of us.
HoopDreams
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I enjoy Joe and Grosscup

not for their play by play ... because it can be frustrating waiting for Joe to say how many yards a play got, but because they are true blues and for their good banter back and forth, and their sense of humor

but I prefer Pawoloski who also is a true blue and much more insightful about the play
GivemTheAxe
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HoopDreams said:

I enjoy Joe and Grosscup

not for their play by play ... because it can be frustrating waiting for Joe to say how many yards a play got, but because they are true blues and for their good banter back and forth, and their sense of humor

but I prefer Pawoloski who also is a true blue and much more insightful about the play

I agree about Pawlowski (sp?). He has some of the best insight on the plays especially on the plays by the QB. He explains why the play worked, why it didn't work, what might be done to deal with it in the future, what was possibly going though the minds of the players involved during the play.
joe amos yaks
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Mike Pawlawski.
Former Cal QB.
"Paw_law_ski"
Be more STRONG like Cal, Joe Starkey, and the Cupper.
Go Bears!
"Those who say don't know, and those who know don't say." - LT
AunBear89
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SFCityBear said:

I guess this is what Cal fans do when they don't have a very good football team - bash the Cal announcers. We even bash them when the Bears win 49-7. I guess we had to find something negative to say, something to complain about, even when Cal wins big. And to bash Starkey and Grosscup just for being old, that's cold. I just hope that all of you who bash these two loyal Cal announcers for being too old to do the job as well as you would like, well, I hope that none of you ever grow old and find the need to continue working at the job you love, either to keep your sanity or put bread on the table, and get forced to retire when you don't want to. Personally, I'm a lot more concerned about all the mistakes that highly trained gifted athletes make on the field of play, and the mistakes that coaches make preparing and managing the play, all of which causes Cal to lose games they could have perhaps won. Neither Joe Starkey or Lee Grosscup ever uttered a single word that caused Cal to lose a game, as far as I know.
It has absolutely NOTHING to do with age - but nice straw man...

Starkey has SUCKED as play-by-play caller for Cal games since day one. You need look no further than his radio call of The Play from 36 years ago! Many of you Ol' Blues LOVE that call because you are so used to hearing it as you watch the video at the same time. As a narration of the video it works OK - but as a play-by-play call it is entirely useless.

A play-by-play radio call has to paint a mental picture for the fans listening who can't see the game. Starkey's calls have never done this. If anything, they obscure what is happening as he provides inaccurate down, distance, score and names. He. is. hot. garbage. as a play-by-play radio man. Always has been. Nothing to do with age other than his advancing age only exaggerates the problems that have been there all along.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." -- (maybe) Benjamin Disraeli, popularized by Mark Twain
joe amos yaks
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SFCityBear said:

Bud Foster was an excellent announcer. Bill King was the best announcer in the Bay Area I've heard in my lifetime.

One thing for sure, you could bring either Foster or Bill King in here to announce Cal football games, and it wouldn't help the team to play better. Not one bit.
The great Bud Foster did the Cal football and basketball games and Oakland Oaks baseball. He was our El Cerrito neighbor at that time with a very nice family.

Bud was a very good guy (white hair and all) and an excellent announcer; however, as his age progressed he became a little "erratic" -- for lack of a more appropriate word.

Younger folks won't remember how the radio broadcasts of games were presented, but it was much different than it has been for the last 50 years.

As for the team's performance and our broadcast/color commentary . . . well, yes, I agree, it wouldn't help to put lipstick on the pigskin.

BTW--How many Rose Bowls have we been to in the last 50+years?
"Those who say don't know, and those who know don't say." - LT
SFCityBear
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AunBear89 said:

SFCityBear said:

I guess this is what Cal fans do when they don't have a very good football team - bash the Cal announcers. We even bash them when the Bears win 49-7. I guess we had to find something negative to say, something to complain about, even when Cal wins big. And to bash Starkey and Grosscup just for being old, that's cold. I just hope that all of you who bash these two loyal Cal announcers for being too old to do the job as well as you would like, well, I hope that none of you ever grow old and find the need to continue working at the job you love, either to keep your sanity or put bread on the table, and get forced to retire when you don't want to. Personally, I'm a lot more concerned about all the mistakes that highly trained gifted athletes make on the field of play, and the mistakes that coaches make preparing and managing the play, all of which causes Cal to lose games they could have perhaps won. Neither Joe Starkey or Lee Grosscup ever uttered a single word that caused Cal to lose a game, as far as I know.
It has absolutely NOTHING to do with age - but nice straw man...

Starkey has SUCKED as play-by-play caller for Cal games since day one. You need look no further than his radio call of The Play from 36 years ago! Many of you Ol' Blues LOVE that call because you are so used to hearing it as you watch the video at the same time. As a narration of the video it works OK - but as a play-by-play call it is entirely useless.

A play-by-play radio call has to paint a mental picture for the fans listening who can't see the game. Starkey's calls have never done this. If anything, they obscure what is happening as he provides inaccurate down, distance, score and names. He. is. hot. garbage. as a play-by-play radio man. Always has been. Nothing to do with age other than his advancing age only exaggerates the problems that have been there all along.
Did you just arrive on this thread? I did not make age a straw man at all. Go back and read the entire thread. There are a number of posts written here by fans who specifically state that old age is at least part of the reason that they want Starkey and Cupper gone. And there are several fans here who imply that old age is at least part of the reason they also want Starkey and Cupper gone. But I never said this is ONLY about age.

I don't disagree that both Starkey and Cupper make a lot of mistakes and get off topic too often. (I do think that Starkey could greatly benefit by having a spotter it can't be that Cal is too cheap to pay one, because they ought to be able to find a student willing to do it. But then again, maybe Starkey refuses to use a spotter.)

My issue is with the negativity among Cal fans, who bash their coaches, their players (all of whom are kids), and their announcers. What is the objective? To get coaches fired, get players kicked off the team, or to discourage recruits from coming? And our announcers have been bashed for many years. Why?

I find most broadcasting of NFL and MLB games to be pretty good. Mostly accurate and on topic. But I don't enjoy watching or listening to college games announced by self-serving announcers who could care less. Young or old, they drift off topic and they make plenty of mistakes, whether it is ABC, Fox, ESPN, or PAC12 networks. If you think Starkey and Cupper are bad, I wonder what these young incompetent announcers will be like when they get older. Basketball, football is all the same crummy coverage. Not all of it, but too much for my tastes.

With Cal's football and basketball teams often being as bad as they are, I think we should count ourselves lucky to have radio broadcasts of Cal games available at all any more, especially on a major radio network station. So I'll be pleased that I can still turn on my radio and hear Cal games on the radio, and I will bear with Starkey and Cupper, until they leave, and not cry about it one bit.





85Bear
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SFCityBear said:

(I do think that Starkey could greatly benefit by having a spotter it can't be that Cal is too cheap to pay one, because they ought to be able to find a student willing to do it. But then again, maybe Starkey refuses to use a spotter.)
I do seem to recall in past years' radio broadcasts, as Joe was signing off, he'd go through his acknowledgments (producer, etc.) and one of the people he'd list is the spotter. I vaguely remember the spotter also had the surname of Starkey, so I assumed it was someone related to Joe. I don't know if he still uses a spotter or not as I haven't listened to the radio broadcasts in recent years.
johngalenhoward
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+1.
johngalenhoward
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Bear19 said:

During the OSU game, Joe came up with a description during a play that made me laugh. (Paraphrasing): "They pitch the ball a third time - the band is not on the field, by the way..."

Agree that Joe does not give us a play by play, say with the accuracy of a Ted Robinson, for example, but he's not afraid to say what's on his mind, even if it is critical of the Bears, and he has a very wry sense of humor. I want a new play by play man only when Joe decides to call it quits. I enjoy his broadcasts.

He's stood by Cal while experiencing the same frustrations that all of us have, and imo is as much a Bear as any one of us.


+1. Joe is clearly one of us and I love his emotion and sense of humor. He's not perfect, but I'm a fan. Pawlawski is fantastic and hopefully the job is his when Joe is ready to hang it up.

As for Cupper, maybe its nostalgia, but I like hearing him on air. Not sure why, but when I'm bummed after a loss I find his commentary strangely soothing. Anything to help the pain.
 
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