Slap of the stick to Sioux7NationalTitles. One of the faces to Golden Gopher Hockey is no longer, Frank "the Rug" Mazzocco Will no longer be doing play by play for Gopher Hockey on Fox Sports Net.
This doesn’t come as a surprise because Frank is one of the most grating biased play by play announcers to ever step into a broadcast booth for college hockey, I would also say that he does do a good job fanning the flames of discontent between the Gophers and various WCHA fans bases around the league. When the Gophers were winning Frank became more unbearable and irritating. The only play by play announcer that I can find any more irritating or obnoxious is Hockey East homer Bob Norton.
I am disappointed because I do like Woog’s analysis and he was a balance to the obnoxious Frank "the Rug" Mazzocco so it does come as a bit of a shock. Anthony LaPanta is a decent play by play announcer and will be more objective and less of a homer. We won't hear about the opposition team getting lucky, the refs blowing calls nor will we hear about any more bow tie cross checks. Glad about the move, it was long time and and today is a good day for hockey in the Midwest.
Longtime Gophers men’s hockey announcers Frank Mazzocco and Doug Woog no longer will be paired in the booth come next season.
Mike Dimond, the senior vice president and general manager of Fox Sports North, said Friday that Mazzocco’s contract won’t be renewed and Woog will have a new role on the telecasts in 2010-11.
"Doug's a valuable member of our team and has been an instrumental part of Gophers hockey for a long, long time," Dimond said. "We are working with Doug to try to identify the best role for him and don’t have it determined yet. Sometimes we may have a three-man booth [with Woog in it] and sometimes he may be on the pregame.”
Dimond said that Anthony LaPanta will take over the play-by-play duties but that no decision has been made on an analyst. Dimond called LaPanta “the face,” of Fox Sports North, adding, “he’s ready to take on the next step of his career and do a great job as the play-by-play announcer for Gophers hockey."
[Red Star and Sickle]
Take him with a grain of salt Goon! He was great and a bit eccentric. I will miss him as I imagine his replacement will be a more mainstream bore who probably knows less about the game.
ReplyDeleteIf you read the comments section of the article in Strib you will see he was quite popular with Gopher fans.
Was he perfect? No. Is he entertaining? For sure!!!
I agree, as a Sioux fan I hated Frank but at the same time he added something to the rivalry and I appreciated that. He was part of their team, when we won we beat Frank too.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is anything wrong with being a homer either. Sure it was tough to listen to him sometimes, but we all would have loved him if he was cheering for the Sioux.
I thought Frank and Doug did a great job calling games at the five this year too. If anything they were biased for the Sioux.
I can't believe I'm going to say this but Frank you will be missed.
LaPanta may not be a true homer but he is an idiot and I disagree, he is a terrible play by play guy. I would like to see Wally Shaver and Glen Sonmor who do the radio play by play take over on tv but Glen might still have a bit of an alcohol problem. FSN pretty much just sucks in general for all their sports besides the Twins.
ReplyDeleteYou gotta be jokin'. Wally and Glen are pathetic. Their radio description of a hockey game paints a picture in your mind of a squadron of hairy brutes pillaging the courageous and virtuous Gophers while the officials look into the stands at the coeds. However, as the Gopher season descended into disaster they had to give up the charade and move on to other things.
ReplyDeleteA sad day whenever anyone loses his job; and as the Gopher's pbp man, if he made Sioux fans hate him, well, then he did a good job. The same can be said of the Wooger (whether lit or sober). Hockey has been their lives and anyone should hate to see this happen.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think these two did a fine job with the Sioux at this year's Final Five (from what I saw on the dish). And they even did a respectable job the week before in Grand Forks. They were Gopher fans and that's what they were paid to be.