Dick Enberg has been announcing marquee sporting events for five-plus decades, sprinkling his “Oh, my!” catchphrase into the telecasts of eight Super Bowls and numerous golf, tennis and baseball telecasts, too. He’s won 13 Emmy Awards and nine Sportcaster of the Year awards, and has been the baseball play-by-play announcer for the Padres since the 2010 season. Some Padres fans have been displeased with Enberg’s on-air work, however, accusing the 76-year-old of getting too excited when the visiting team does something noteworthy, and of flubbing lines and making mistakes. The Friarhood, a Padres fan site, posted a Facebook poll asking whether the team should bring Enberg back for the 2012 season.
Of 205 votes to date, an overwhelming number (149) said “no.”
“I get the sense,” Steve Adler, founder of The Friarhood, told the San Diego Reader, “that there are more people who feel passionately that they don’t want him back than there are those who feel passionately about him staying….
“I have a lot of respect for what Dick Enberg has done in his career. He is a broadcasting legend and no one wants to take that away from him. The reason for the poll [is] to allow fans to voice their opinions and tell us what they want for the 2012 Padres TV broadcast.”