video of Rooney's call of Pham's Grand Slam last night

[Spider John]

Hard to believe he's been with the Cards since 2006. I love the passion he has for big moments. We are lucky to have him.

[Radbird]

That was fun to watch from the booth’s perspective.

[CardsofSTL]

I like when something fun happens and Rooney raises his T Rex arms

[Joe Shlabotnik]

I like when something fun happens and Rooney raises his T Rex arms

[CardsofSTL]

I like when something fun happens and Rooney raises his T Rex arms

But I said fun

[JCShutout]

I really love listening to Rooney. I hope he’s with us for a long time.

[haltz]

Another fun one

[AdmiralKird]

Hard to believe he's been with the Cards since 2006. I love the passion he has for big moments. We are lucky to have him.

As someone who at times does recordings, it really helps to use your hands to talk (at least for me). For some reason if I just speak in front of the mic like I would normally talk, half my sentences turn into word salad, or I get really dyslexic. Throw my hands up, and it instantly comes out clean and exuberant.

My guess is that's what Rooney is doing here to do a better call as a performative announcer, as much as he might have been excited. Really neat to see this call from the booth.

[go birds]

supposedly john rooney is a grade-a [expletive]

[sighyoung]

I liked the video because it showed, among other things, both broadcasters pausing to let the crowd's reactions be part of the entire call. Very nicely done call there.

Rooney has always struck me as a seasoned professional, if a little bland to me, but that's a matter of personal taste. He's certainly a solid play-by-play announcer. At times, he gets too excited about drives that die short of the warning track.

I also tend to respect anyone that Shannon could work with. I still remember Red Rush as part of the KMOX broadcast in the 1984 season. Rush was corny and not really as knowledgeable as he should have been about baseball, given his experience broadcasting for the White Sox and A's.

A year later, I remember Shannon talking with Buck on a Cardinals broadcast in 1985 about an unnamed announcer who didn't know the rule book, and needed Shannon to explain to him such things as the infield-fly rule. I'm sure that was Rush.

As for Rooney's interpersonal skills, whether he's bad or good, it's hard to top the reputations of either Buck or Shannon.