I don't get the worship of Miller as a play-by-play god. No denying he has a great voice for broadcasting. His delivery is awful however. Lame jokes. Emphasis on the wrong words in sentences. Listening to the guy puts you to sleep. Boring. Un-inspiring announcing. When Miller gets excited, things get horrid.

One man's opinion.....

That was the biggest Angelos slap in the face to the fans ever.

I always loved his Vin Scully imitation....."and how".

Kevin, I believe it was Dancer and Prancer warming up in the bullpen on that snowy night at Memorial Stadium against the Rangers. I remember the call well, mostly because Tom Marr was laughing so hard he couldn't speak for about an inning.

That's the brilliance of Miller. He made you want to listen to a 10-0 game in the middle of a 100-loss season, and yet he could always capture the significance of the big game. His work in the '89 pennant race was Hall of Fame worthy.

To me, his departure is the worst personnel move of the Angelos era.

You mean the voice that was run out of town by Mr. Angelos. The same way he ran one of the best GM's, Pat Gillick and managers, Davey Johnson out of town. This was the begining of the end of the great Oriole tradition. Shame on you Peter.

I've been listening to Jon since his Oriole days with Joe Angel in the 70's. He has great voice and great personality for the game. He can do Vin Scully's voice too a tee. Congratulations Jon well deserved!

Last season a ball is hit off the scoreboard at Fenway, bouncing off the completed Orioles game..another loss. Miller says, "there's another hit off of Baltimore, and they're not even playing!" Congrats Jon...sorry you got away.

Mojito hit the nail on the head. When Angelos chased Jon Miller out of town as a fan I took that very personally. I should have been listening to Jon Miller for at least another 20 years. I remember being out on the West Coast a couple of years after Jon Miller left. I was playing with the radio, looking for something listenable when out of nowhere I picked up Jon Miller's voice. My first thought was - "I can't believe they broadcast the Orioles all the way out here!" Of course that was quickly followed by the sad realization that it was a Giants game and that Jon Miller would never be ours again.

I will NEVER forgive Angelos for chasing Jon Miller out of town.

I stopped listening to Orioles games on the radio when Jon Miller left.

Agreed completely.

There's always one. Bob probably thinks Ted Williams had a flawed swing and Cy Young was a hack.

Miller makes the game great to listen to. Met him at a book signing and he was very warm and funny. Another King Peter mistake. Are the negative post coming for Angelos law Firm!

it is a true shame that the staff of the sun refuse to ever be critical of the warehouse. miller was run out of town. stand up to the man that has ruined baltimore baseball..give a real unbiased opinion or admit that his advertising dollars hold real opinions captive

To Michael M - I couldn't agree more - anything that keeps Tom Marr off the air for an inning or more is worth an award!

More than anything else that Peter Angelos has done since owning the Orioles, I hate him the most for losing Jon Miller.

Three most painful losses of my life: a girlfriend, the Colts, and Jon Miller.
I know I'll never get the first two back, but I always hold out hope that someday Miller will return to Baltimore.
So knowledgeable. Knew all the nuances to relay to the listener that made the game come alive in the listener's mind. So, so, so observant. His baseball IQ was in the Mensa range. Also, he knew how to call a play as it was happening, thrilling the listener along the way, unlike the present O's radio guys, especially Manfra, who just doesn't have the knack for it. He basically botches the live play and has to recap after the play to clear up all his screw ups. Manfra can make an inside-the-park homerun sound like a routine 4-3 two hopper...and that's not good.

Like the first commenter, I don't understand the worship, either. It seemed that he always wanted to make the broadcast about himself with his jokes and impersonations. Cannot understand why the play-by-play guys have their schticks. That said, I realize that he was popular to many people, and Angelos blew it by sending him walking.

Something that's been missing from every posting about Jon Miller's talents is his tremendous ability to paint a picture of what's going on during the game. That's the primary duty of a radio play-by-play broadcaster, and Miller is superb at it.

Completely informing people who are listening but can't see the game as it proceeds requires an intricate knowledge of the game to identify accurately what's happening and a quit wit and great skill with language to immediately describe it.

I have been listening to baseball on the radio since 1948. Jon Miller is absolutely at the top of the list of those who can paint a picture, actually a motion picture, of a baseball game as it happens. Any humor Miller might add to the broadcast is icing--very tasty icing--on the cake.

When I listen to Jon Miller's play-by-play, I can truly say, as the song goes, "I saw it on the radio".

What I like best about Jon Miller is his ability to describe the action on the field with a clarity that no other announcer remotely approaches. As opposed to all the other announcers (except Joe Angel at times) Miller as a radio announcer never leaves you wondering what the hell just happened on the field. You know where the ball went, how the runners are advancing around the bases, how and where the defenders are trying to get them out. With the others you know the ball was hit, but rarely anything else until the play is completed. They don't give you the chance to picture the action on the field in your mind. That's the pleasure of listening to this master announcer. He is supremely worthy of this award, and I can't wait to hear his acceptance speech at Cooperstown.

I did some research and discovered that Jon's contract with the Giants will expire in 2012. That will give him 16 years broadcasting the Giants...the longest tenure with one team of his career. If we're lucky, by then King Peter will have sold the O's and Miller might be enticed to end his broadcasting career back in Baltimore. Oh please let it be so.

I remember listening to Jon Miller annoucing O's games as a thirteen year old new immigrant. That was one of the ways that helped me learn English and at the same time making me a diehard O's fan. Almost 30 years later. I don't follow the O's or baseball anymore. Thank you Peter Angelo.

I used to live next to Jon. He was the most unassuming, pleasant and of course talented person you could ever meet. Quite a loss for the Orioles.

thompson and miller real broadcasters

I sure hope the "duke of york" is right. Maybe then the Orioles that we used to know and love will return.I seriously doubt it though!!!!!!!!!

When he left, we should have realized that it was the beginning of the end for the once proud franchise known as the Baltimore Orioles.

Matt, Jon didn't start broadcasting O's games until 1983, and Joe Angel came even later.
About Jon's impersonations: I listened to many, if not most of his broadcasts in Baltimore, and I can remember only a handful of times he did impersonations. He certainly did not do them as often as some seem to think.
He described the action better than anyone I've ever heard. His call of the Jeffrey Maier catch is a classic because he saw, from a hundred yards away what the umpire couldn't see from just a few feet, that Maier had interfered with Tony Tarasco's attempt to catch the ball.
Jon Miller is a lot of things, but he has never been boring. And his knowledge of the game and his respect for the history and traditions of the game were evident in his brilliant work.

I used to travel a lot for a living, and I would always try to find a ball game to listen to on long drives in other states. I heard most of the big league play-by-play guys during the 80s and 90s, and Miller was clearly the best in my estimation.

I also remember getting in a rental car in Orlando and dialing across this guy who sounded a lot like Joe Angel, but with this strange Cuban accent. It turned out it *was* Joe Angel. That was how he did Marlins' games, sounding like a basso Ricky Ricardo with some 'splainin to do. It was a little strange, even from a native of Bogota.

I remember listenening to Miller and Angel and some nights when they got going I was more interested in the side stories in between pitches than the game itself. Great radio entertainer!

When Jon Miller is calling the ballgame, he is one of the best there ever was; however, during his tenure with the Os he would from time to time forget that the game was the most important thing and inject 'way too much of himself into the broadcast, telling long stories, calling a half inning totally in Spanish, interrupting his broadcast partner, and generally turning the game into the Miller show. I disagree with some that he only did this when the game was a blowout -- it seems to me that sometimes he did it just because the mood struck him. That is not respecting the game. I recall WJZ's John Buren commenting when the news broke that Miller was leaving that he would have enjoyed his play-by-play so much more if he would just "call the ball."

Having said that, I still believe that when he WAS calling the play, he was and is, as another poster remarked, an artist. You always knew the game situation when he was at his best. You never had to wait to hear the score (the story is that he keeps a 3-minute egg timer with him in the booth and interjects the inning and score whenever the sand runs out). His work on National TV is impeccable.

Despite my negative comments, for me he's the third best I ever heard behind only Ernie Harwell and the best ever, the late, great Chuck Thompson -- and not too far behind at that.

I used to love listening to Jon and sadly now only on Sundays with Joe Morgan. But I don't think Angelos "let" him go. I think his contract was up and he wanted to return to the Giants where he was before going to the O's.
I agree with every comment on how Angelos has screwed up the "magic" that WAS the Orioles. If it was one monent the Oriole Magic died, I think we would all agree that it started when Jeffrey Maeir interfered with Tarrasco. Then "King Peter" fires Johnson? When the O's play the Angels (I live a five minute drive from the Big A), I'm always wearing my orange and black and my 2131 towel.
Since the play by play guy (Rory Markis, aged only 54) here just died, I actually was wondering if Jon could move south for the Angels' games.

Jon Miller the radio guy and Jon Miller the Sunday Night Baseball guy seem to be two different entities. I have problems with the latter, but the former is truly superb. For those that have only heard him on SNB, they're not getting the full perspective on what a talent he is.

When Jon first came to the O's from Boston in 83 I thought he was great. But he evolved into a a pampas blow hard on the air that made himself a more important than the games he was calling.

I first heard Jon Miller, and being so disappointed when I read in a local newspaper, almost as an ordinary transaction, that He'd gone to the Giants. He makes the game come alive--hopefully He'll come back as will Oriole Majic

My favorite Jon Miller story came when he was with the Red Sox. He claimed he knew some Spanish and jumped for an inning on the Spanish network. He showed off to the other announcers and thought he said, "The Red Sox are losing and I am sad.'' The announcers backed down for a second looking worried. At the commercial break, Miller asked what was wrong with him being sad that they were losing. They laughed for a minute and told him he actually said, "The Red Sox are losing and I'm dangerous.'' What a wonderful guy and brilliant announcer that the Orioles had.

I don't know if it was the baseball or Miller or both but even if the o's were down and it was the last out of the game I did not want to turn it off. I was a kid who was supposed to be asleep, and I remember Miller would say, "(player) is in the on-deck circle, he WOULD be next..." In my memory, he seemed to have kept the game fun to listen to and there would still be tension and drama. There was still the possibility that the O's might come back... and that was '86 - '88... I don't want to make him out to be a bigger than he was, but I really do miss him and I think a lot of people would have loved to have been able to listen to him. I was a kid, but for some reason I think it was known that he was special, and I was proud to have him as my own here in Baltimore. The sport has changed so much, become a joke, so maybe it wouldn't have been as great as I would like to believe if he had still been here. But I don't like to listen or watch him on EspnRadio and Espn because I feel like he was supposed to be mine, ours.

I dearly miss Jon Miller. I love the fact that we have Joe Angel on the radio, though. His voice is as close to Jon's as we're going to get, and I really enjoy it.

I too stopped listening to Orioles games on the radio when Jon Miller left.

Losing Miller was Peter Angelos' biggest mistake, mainly because it's the only one that can never be corrected. I'm a MacPhail believer and think the team can soon at least be as good as it was in the mid-'90s. But they'll never sound as good again, because there aren't 3 broadcasters out there as good as Miller. Vin Scully is in his class; I'm not sure if anyone else is.

At least we don't have the insipid Jim Hunter as lead announcer anymore. But where is the next announcing great? Odds are that he will not be found at the Yard.

Jon Miller was a true gem on the mic. No matter how good or bad the Orioles were, they were fun to listen to anytime he and Joe Angel were calling the game. He also taught me most everything I know about the game's history.

Between the dozen years of losing, the proliferation of steroids/HGH, and the anticompetitive team salary imbalances, I don't find the game fun anymore, so I don't think I'll ever bother to listen to another game on the radio. Probably the only person who could bring me back is Jon Miller.