FSN Promotes LaPanta and Hanneman

2004-2008 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you watch enough of Fox Sports North, you'll notice how little turnover there is for the play-by-play announcers who cover the teams:  Dick Bremer for the Twins (who's been there since the channel was known as MSC), Dan Terhaar for the Wild, Tom Hanneman for the Timberwolves, Marney Gellner for the Lynx and Anthony LaPanta for University of Minnesota men's hockey.

Until now.  Terhaar was let go after seven seasons and was replaced by LaPanta, while Hanneman becomes a studio host for FSN.

The decision to trade in Terhaar for LaPanta raised a lot of eyebrows.  Did the Wild really look at all the other candidates for that position, or were they swayed by their TV partner pushing their own guy?  And what's with all the hate for LaPanta by disappointed hockey fans who wanted someone else?  If years of calling college and high school hockey games is any indication, LaPanta is much better suited to be an NHL voice than Terhaar was.

If you really want to know who hockey fans should direct their ire at, it's analysts Mike Greenlay and Kevin Gorg.  Granted, most announcing teams at the local level tend to be biased, since their paychecks come from the teams they cover.  But Greenlay and Gorg deserve special mention.  Greenlay never met a Wild penalty or an official's call that he liked.  And Gorg just runs off at the mouth, especially in those segments between periods that rip off "Pardon The Interruption".

Hanneman had been working on Wolves telecasts in one form or another since the team was founded in 1989, most recently as its play-by-play guy.  Before that, he was a weekend sports anchor at WCCO (Channel 4).  So this is not new territory for Hanneman, who should be better suited for this job than at his last one, sounding like a weekend sports anchor who just happened to call NBA basketball.

Now FSN has two openings for play-by-play:  one for the Wolves, and the other for Gopher hockey.  Presumably, they'll be filled by someone currently working in college sports, and who has a Minnesota connection of some kind.  If they had any aspirations of working for the networks, they wouldn't be applying here.

A couple of other things to address about FSN before we go:

• Anybody who takes the Gopher hockey job will likely have a short-term gig.  After next season, the Gophers will be leaving the WCHA for the new Big Ten hockey conference.  What kind of coverage FSN will have depends on what the Big Ten Network decides to do.
• You'll notice that there's the Fox Sports North Girls, who are two young women who do on-air promotions for the network.  For those of you with long memories, the TV show "Star Search"  used to have a category called "Spokesmodels", and that's what these women are doing.  Other than that, what else?
• FSN now has an alternate channel to handle two games that are played at the same time, without having to tape-delay one or losing the other.  Now if they could only stick to one channel without forcing people to find it on their website . . .

UPDATE:  Whoever wins the Wolves job will be working more games on TV next season, thanks to the team's improved play.  In addition to FSN running 50 games, at least 20 more will be seen on WFTC (Channel 29), who's returning as the Wolves' broadcast TV partner after a year off.  Then there's the possibility of national TV appearances on either ESPN or TNT, which is something that hasn't happened in years.