Oh My! Enberg, Madden Get Call

Deciding which of the networks’ play-by-play callers and analysts you like best is a lot like figuring out which side you come down on on the old chicken-and-egg question.

Meaning, to determine whether an announcer is a bigtime player, you must first decide whether his or her presence at a certain event makes it big or if the event itself gives an announcer credibility.

The answer is a combination of the two. Certainly, the better announcers - Brent Musburger and Jerry Glanville notwithstanding - gravitate to the big-time events, and, if they’re worth their salt, like the 11 listed below, put their signatures on them.

Play-by-play

1. Dick Enberg, NBC; 2. Verne Lundquist, CBS/ Turner; 3. Pat Summerall, Fox; 4. Jon Miller, ESPN; 5. (tie) Jim Nantz, CBS; Mike Patrick, ESPN.

Enberg may not have the high profile of his NBC colleagues Bob Costas and Marv Albert, but that doesn’t diminish his immense talent. Sure, you’ve heard his trademark, “Oh, my,” a million times, but it’s often Enberg’s ability to keep quiet and let the moment speak for itself that makes him brilliant.

In addition, Enberg’s versatility allows him to move from things as disparate as Wimbledon and the NFL, and be informative and conversational. And remember how all the golfniks were concerned about his presence at the U.S. Open? Well, they were all silenced by the end of the weekend, as Enberg made an impressive debut.

As a measure of Lundquist’s talent, think of some of the analysts he’s been teamed with over the years, like Quinn Buckner for basketball or Terry Bradshaw for football or Scott Hamilton in figure skating.

Have any of them been any better since they were teamed with Lundquist? The answer is no, and the reason is, Lundquist’s ego allows him to give the vital information, then step aside to first set up the analyst and then let him do his job, which is to explain and entertain. Maybe now that Lundquist is the main man at Turner, people will recognize just how special a talent he is.

Summerall and Miller make this list not just because they are vital parts of terrific teams - Summerall with John Madden on the NFL, Miller with Joe Morgan on “Sunday Night Baseball” - but, like Lundquist, make their partners better than they otherwise might be.

Patrick, who is woefully underrated, can do anything, from the College World Series to NCAA basketball, to keeping Joe Theismann to under a couple of hundred thousand words an hour on NFL football and do it well. Nantz continues to grow as a basketball announcer, even with Billy Packer as his albatross, and is without peer as a golf announcer.

You’ve no doubt noticed the absence of such stalwarts as Costas, Albert and ABC’s Al Michaels. Costas has done very little, if any, play-by-play in the last calendar year, and Michaels and Albert had sub-par years.

Analyst

1. John Madden, Fox; 2. Joe Morgan, ESPN; 3. Dick Vitale. ESPN/ABC; 4. Mary Carillo, CBS; 5. Doug Collins, TNT.

You would think after all these years that Madden’s act would have worn thin, but it hasn’t because Madden has worked hard to keep himself current and fresh.

His sense of wonder about things, both on the field and off, is never forced and still original, and thanks to Summerall, who has a pretty good sense of when to rein him in, Madden never goes out on a limb.

Morgan is the pre-eminent student of the game of all the analysts in any sport. He has likely forgotten more about the strategy and nuances of baseball than many people have ever known and he’s never shy about getting to the point. His only holdup is that his sense of humor or sense of the entertainment value of television is still a work in progress, but he is getting better at it, thanks to Miller, who has done wonders to draw Morgan out.

For many people, there’s no middle ground on Vitale. You either love his act or you want to throw a brick at his grinning visage. The truth is that there really is no act with Vitale. He really does love college basketball, and unless your heart is made of stone, you have to love it too, because he makes you love it. The only downer to Vitale is that his enthusiasm covers a deep pool of knowledge.

John McEnroe is wrong. Carillo really does know tennis, men’s and women’s, and she is extremely adept at getting to the finer points of the game. A couple of weeks ago, during Monica Seles’ return exhibition with Martina Navratilova, Carillo noted that Navratilova had always had trouble with Seles’ return, because Seles, like Navratilova is left-handed, unlike most of the other women on the tour. Maybe you knew that, but it was nice to be reminded.

NBA nights on TNT are going to be a lot less interesting now that Collins has returned to coaching. The former Bulls mentor, turned Detroit leader, dissected end-of-game strategy better than anybody on the basketball beat.