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Thorne 1985 and WHN (Split from Lamar 1985)

G-Fafif Sep 10 2012 06:56 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Sep 10 2012 12:43 PM

Profile of O's NY connections in Times delves into Gary Thorne's history in the Mets' booth, particularly his reverence for the Voice of the New York Mets. In a season when the Orioles are surprising everyone by making a run at the Yankees, Thorne and Showalter have notable New York links. They made their major league debuts in New York: Showalter as the Yankees’ manager in the mid-1990s and Thorne during two terms as a Mets broadcaster from 1985 to 2002. Between them, they own one World Series ring — Thorne’s, from the Mets’ 1986 championship, a team primed to win and, therefore, as he put it last Thursday, “180 degrees different” from the current Orioles club. Only two current Baltimore players — Tommy Hunter and Jim Thome (on the disabled list) — have played in a World Series. When center fielder Adam Jones joined the Orioles four years ago, he noticed Thorne’s 1986 Series ring and told him he wanted one, too, Thorne said. Now that does not seem so far-fetched a notion, although Thorne laughed off the idea that he had imported some good luck from his time with the Mets, who hardly seem that fortunate these days. [...] Thorne began his major league career as a broadcaster with the Mets in 1985 and remembers Davey Johnson, who was then managing the club and is now steering the Washington Nationals to the postseason, allowing him to shag fly balls during that initial spring training. Working alongside Bob Murphy with the Mets helped his career greatly, Thorne said. “Bob taught me a lot, but he taught me most about focus,” Thorne said before departing for the first of two Ripken ceremonies. “He was amazing. He just never wandered.” Whenever Murphy called a game, Thorne said, it was impossible to tell whether the score was 20-0 or 1-0. “You were getting the same good information, the same good description, the same picture being painted of the game,” Thorne said. Also, each week, Thorne "puts on a souvenir of his Mets years: the pin issued the night in 1997 that Major League Baseball retired Jackie Robinson’s No. 42," wearing it in appreciation of what Robinson went through "to make possible what so many benefited from.”

Frayed Knot Sep 10 2012 07:06 AM Re: Thorne 1985 and WHN

My one overriding concern with Thorne (and this goes especially for his hockey announcing) has always been his penchant for treating the first goal/run of the game as if it were the WS/SC game-winner. Geez, Gary, calm down, it's only 1-to-nothing in a regular season game -- and I know you didn't learn THAT from Bob Murphy! Other than that, he's always had the voice, the game knowledge, the rhythm for both hockey and baseball. But the problem becomes, once you go that high for something relatively common, where are you going to go when you do have to call the championship moment?