Courtesy the Baltimore Sun

(January 26, 2011) I made a point Tuesday of recognizing my colleague Jeff Zrebiec as the 2010 Maryland Sportswriter of the Year as chosen by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

I was remiss in not immediately mentioning that the same organization named WBAL Radio’s Keith Mills as Maryland’s 2010 Sportscaster of the Year.

As someone who grew up in Baltimore, Mills always will be remembered in my mind’s eye as part of an excellent 1-2 punch with the fantastic Scott Garceau on WMAR-TV. They really seemed to work well together; Garceau, the polished, gracious professional and Mills, the Brooklyn Park Everyman who you half-expected to high five the camera when things were going well in the Charm City sporting world.

Mills’ personal struggles, which have been well documented, cost him that job at WMAR. And there was a time when many of us thought he was done in this business, especially in Baltimore. But to Mills' credit he never shied away from his prescription medication addiction, telling his story countless times while juggling a return to the business he loved.

WBAL gave him a shot at redemption and now he has been named by his peers as the top sportscaster in Maryland. Frankly speaking, that’s one helluva comeback story. If Mills were an athlete, he’d be featured in national magazines. Instead, he gets a few paragraphs in a blog about a fake bar. Tough life for us media hacks. But sincere congratulations to Mills, who deserves some good press.

It got me thinking: Who is Baltimore’s best TV sportscaster? It’s an open-ended question; one that maybe should have parameters. But I'm not going to do that. You can define “sportscaster” however you want. You can include local TV sports anchors, cable TV show hosts and, yes, those who call Orioles and Ravens games on TV can count, too. This is Orioles Insider after all. So Gary Thorne or Jon Miller or even Jim Palmer can be in play, if you like.

We’ve discussed writers and radio broadcasters at this joint before and it has been fun. So let’s tackle this one.

Here’s my opinion: When I think of Baltimore play-by-play announcers I think of Chuck Thompson. When I think of Baltimore sportswriters I think of John Steadman. So when I think of Baltimore TV sportscasters, I go old school, think local news and choose the guy that defined it for so many years and for so many generations on WBAL.

My nominee is Vince Bagli, who for decades was the guy to watch on local TV newscasts as well as the color man for Colts games alongside Thompson. When the Colts moved in 1984, Bagli was like Baltimore’s angry, grieving uncle, explaining to the rest of the family about the untimely death of a loved one.

Like Steadman and Thompson, he’s a quality person, too (even though he is, unfortunately, a Loyola High grad. I try not to hold that against him).

There are many of you who are too young to remember Vince talking sports nightly. But I want to hear your thoughts, too. Is Garceau the guy you think of when you think Baltimore sportscaster? Is it Mark Viviano or Bruce Cunningham?

Or do you want to grab someone from Baltimore’s past that went elsewhere? ESPN’s John Saunders for instance. You tell me.

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