I prefer Rick Ball to Shorthouse and wish he had somehow received the Canucks job. His voice is much better than Shorty. Oh well it is good that he will become more well known. He was great as the BC Lions play by play guy too before he moved to Calgary.
“So there are lots of reasons to be excited about this new job. But a huge negative is leaving Calgary, because I love it here. This has become home. It’s been 10 years. I love the people I’ve worked with. The Flames have been amazing. If not for something like this to come along, I was more than happy to work here until I retired. But sometimes you get a chance to do something like this and it’s just too good to pass up.
“It wasn’t an easy decision. The toughest part is leaving Calgary, for sure.”
Quote:
Ball, who hails originally from Kelowna and was previously the voice of the Vancouver Canucks, doesn’t have a social-media presence, but he wasn’t oblivious Thursday to the widespread well-wishes from Flames fans.
“I’d gladly do this if nobody was listening. I just love what I do,” Ball said. “And the fact that people watched and enjoyed it, it means a ton to me. People have been sending me screenshots of some Twitter stuff and it really does mean a lot that people feel that way about what me and Kelly and Greg Millen and Cassie and Ryan Leslie, back to Roger Millions before that, all the people that I’ve worked with over the years …
“It just means a lot to me that what we did for a decade means a lot to other people. It’s been overwhelming.”
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Bartlett who did the ECF is good and is Ball, but Ball and Millen as a team were the best commentators for watching a game that there is, and it's not close after having listend to the US guys in TNT and all the other Canadian regional guys.
McDonough/Ferraro are every bit as good as Ball/Millen.
Slight edge to Ball for PBP, Ferraro is better as colour.
Would much prefer to listen to the HNIC panel vs Levy/Messier/PK. PK is pretty insufferable most of the time.
__________________ It's only game. Why you heff to be mad?
Whoever's running HNIC dropped the.., er, initiative, big time here. Ball should have been the #1 heir apparent for national broadcasts for years to come.
Yeah this really sucks.
I'm all for scouring the AHL and CHL for unrecognized talent as a replacement rather than draw from the existing shallow pool.
Disappointing, but not at all surprising. He was always too good for a market like Calgary, and with the team entering an extended phase of losing with no exciting talent on the way, makes total sense for him to go to a major market with the game’s next superstar. Staying here would have felt like Paul McCartney playing show tunes for the local nursing home.
