Grady Mathews and Billy Incardona are my two of my favorite commentator pairings. As Bobby stated in an earlier post, they have that love / hate relationship going and both seldom ever miss a chance to zing the other. Very entertaining and often very funny as well. Add in the fact that both are pool genius's with very great deliveries and you have a potent pairing.
Nick Varner can be put in with either of those two and you still have commentary as good as it can get. World Championships in 5 different pool disciplines. Can't get better than that. And don't let Nick's easy going manner fool you. He has all the heart and killer instinct in the world. Purdue educated Varner is world class in the booth as well as on the table. These three really are world class and very elite in my opinion. Again, any combo of these 3 are my very favorites.
Jerry Forsyth has the voice and the knowledge to make any match he does all that better, as does Buddy Hall. As a matter of fact, when I was laid up for the first 5 weeks after surgery, I listened to the 2005 World 9 Ball Championships, which was 14 discs long. Jerry did much of the commentating through out thoses matches and what a pleasure it was to listen to his insightful comments.
I for sure miss Bill "Weanie Beanie" Staton and Johnnny "The Velvet Foghorn" Ervolino's commenatry. Two polar opposites birds of a feather....Staton the consumate southern gentleman with a soothing voice, Ervolino the NYCity "bowery boy" with a voice that can't be described, both with a killer hustler's heart.
Ed Sheahan did some very nice work, especially when paired with Grady.
They interact as two old cronies who are having a great time.
Danny DiLiberto knows the game inside and out and has a street smarts that comes acrosss in many of the matches he does.
"Mister Banker" mentioned that he thinks Tony Annigoni is the worst. I happen to agree with him...he's my least favorite. Don Polo once did a match with Grady and sounded like he had a serious case of stage fright.
But Tony adds very little, if anything, to what's going on in the game. He seems to only serve set up or soft ball questions to however he's paired with in the booth. I have hundreds of Accu-Stats and can say that there are several good matches I'd like to buy but won't because Annigoni is one of the commentators.
Jim Wych has definitely grown on me. He knows the game and I'm used to him know. I think when he replaced Grady, that was like trying to follow Muhammad Ali....no way can he compare. But he's gotten better over the years.
Jay Helfert is a top shelf commentator. His voice is that of a friend telling you what's happening and what's going to happen. His stories add color to the matches he does. Jay has seen it all in pooldom, and has done almost as much!
Dallas West and Howard Vickery, I could listen to all the time. They both have that easy going, down home style of delivery that just makes you happy that you're a pool player. Dallas was an exceptional talent and I never figured out why he didn't do more matches.
Mark Wilson is an extremely intelligent man with a great passion for our great sport. My only thing with him is that in every match he's ever done and in every column he's every written, the words "stroke delivery" are used ad nausum. He's seemingly fixated on that one aspect, which albeit is an important one, but he's the only one who seems to always beat the same drum. His way with words is very impressive and he knows the game well. But he seems to have tunnel vision at times with pet tangents.
Jim Rempe and Kim Davenport are two consumate professionals in the booth. Both know the game as well as anybody and both are very firm in their beliefs in how the game should be played. Especially Rempe.
I miss the "older" version of Accu-Stats where Grady or Billy were paired often with Nick or Buddy or Danny D. Two pro players in the booth beats one pro and one professional commentator. And some of the people doing the matches nowadays, especially the "Turning Stone" series, I've never heard of.
I wish that Accu-Stats and Grady could re-unite. I would also like to see our very own Joey Aguzin be given regular duties with Accu-Stats, as he has talent, confidence and knowledge of the game and players to add luster to any match he does.
Bottom line for me is Grady and Billy are my very favorite. Put Nick right there as well. And I don't have enough words of praise and thankfulness for Pat Fleming and his staff for bringing us all these treasures that we now have in our personal collections. I have watched mine over and over and over and have learned much with each viewing. In fact, a few years ago, I started keeping a notebook on the things the pros said in the booth. I even started writing down all the funny things said and stories told that I liked to have them for quick reference.
We lovers of pooldom really have it good since Accu-Stats came into being.
By the way, I would rather listen to Tony Annigoni any day rather than listen to Mitch Laurence shill over and over for the site and venue they're at, the sponsors, the site and venue they're at, the sponsors, etc, etc, etc. A soft spoken Billy Mays. Yuck.
Which, finally leads me to Allen Hopkins, Mitch's partner in many of the ESPN matches. I really enjoy Allen's commentary. His NJ style of speaking (champeen), (shnookered) are down home speak and his knowledge and insightful comments make him in the same class as the Rempe's and Davenport's. And Allen has all the time in the world to speak with you when you approach him. I always wanted to hear him at Accu-Stats paired with Nick Varner or Buddy Hall. That generation of players really had loads of all around talent.
#1. Grady, Billy and Nick
#2. Jerry Forsyth, Buddy Hall, Jay Helfert, Dallas West & Howard Vickery
#3. Jim Rempe, Allen Hopkins, Kim Davenport & Danny DiLiberto.
