From the sidebar at IndyCar.com.
Cheever joins Indy broadcast teamFolks like Curt Cavin have been touting the (ahem) outspoken Cheever as a better alternative to the current color commentator, so now we’re going to get to see if he’ll be the real deal on LIVE TV. We’ll start the over/under on Andretti family complements from Cheever at zero.
Eddie Cheever Jr., the 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner, will join former IndyCar Series driver Scott Goodyear and Marty Reid as an analyst in the booth for ESPN on ABC's broadcast of the 92nd Indianapolis 500 on May 25. He'll also be a commentator during coverage of time trials (May 10-11 and 17-18) as well as Carb Day May 23.
"Although I will miss sitting on the grid, I hear the view from the announcer's booth is pretty good," Cheever said.
Jamie Little will join the pit reporter team of Jack Arute, Vince Welch and Brienne Pedigo, while Brent Musburger will host the telecast.
UPDATE: A solid point from Will at Is It May Yet?:
Personally, I’ve always found Cheever fascinating. That said, he is trying to fill some pretty large shoes. Following in the footsteps of Open Wheel Legend Russell W. Wallace, who was once named The Most Brilliant Man on Earth or Mars or Any Other Planet You Can Name Except Pluto because Pluto is not a Planet. Oh wait, Rusty Wallace was a moron, sucked, and had no knowledge of open wheel racing whatsoever. Welcome Aboard, Eddie!
What's the over/under for how many times Cheever mentions his 500 win? ;-)
As an Andretti fan I can't wait for this. The man will be brilliantly insufferable, and more importantly won't compare a front engine heavy slow POS to a light weight rear engine precision machine. If he's good any chance of getting him full time?
No Rusty Wallace = Win
This is a great choice !
I think Ed did one of the USGP's and was great !
what's Sam Posey doing these days? Hire him and Bobby Unser.
Now there was a pair ....
Anyone is better than Rusty wallace, but Cheever is as dry and boring as Goodyear. Jon Beekhuis was the proper choice.
Goodyear ticking, jesus what about Reid's ticking clock....
They are both utterly terrible.
I go to races just so I dont have to listen... no kidding.
No Jerry Punch, no Rusty Wallace. Sounds like a plus to me.
Indy fans, be glad you didn't have to put up with him for an entire season. We were stuck with him, Jamie Little, Mike Massarro, Suzy Kolber, Jerry Punch, Andy Petree and Dave Burns through all 33 of the Busch Series races and the final 16 NASCAR Winston Cup (yeah, I know, Sprint Cup) Series races last year.
ESPN was truly the worst, most intolerable, awful network ever last year. I love Rusty as a driver, but he sucks as a commentator. I'd rather have 4 hours of Gopher Cam.
Marty and Scott are great commentators, although I wish ESPN would move Marty over to Nationwide coverage to get some races off of Jerry. You could tell Dr. Punch was burned out by the time they got to Kansas.
ESPN's also got a huge assett in Allen Bestwick. I think he's the most underused personality over there at ESPN/ABC. I grew up listening to the races on MRN, and Allen and Eli Gold made the call. They're commentary is timeless. MRN's not the same. ESPN's not the same, and TNT's not the same without Allen giving the call.
Y'all can have Jamie Little. No fight there, she's a huge assett to the IRL coverage, but she sucks over on the NASCAR end. ESPN should swap Jamie and Brienne Pedigo. I think Brienne would be a better assett over on the NASCAR side. Jack Arute's way better than Mike Massaro. They need to lose him - he sucks.
I love ESPN's IndyCar coverage. I wish their NASCAR coverage was as good.
now its not fair to say that cheevers are simply anti-Andretti
I mean his nephew learned from the old man and is willing to punt his own teammate now thats spreading the love
It will be interesting to if Eddie is in lockstep with all the Andretti III propaganda sure to ensue.
Cheever was always good for the colorful comment as a driver, we'll see how he does in the booth. Race announcing is a brutally hard job. 99% of us would suck big time at it, myself right up at the front of that line. The only real answer is .......... Derek Daly.
Oh god. Please, no. Not Derek Daly. I hope I never have to hear him talk "kers" again.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If they could EVER get Mike Joy away from NASCAR on Fox, I've always liked his style of calling a race. He has just enough of the down-home approachable touch, while still sounding like he knows what he's talking about.
Oh, and as for Sam Posey, I'd love to see it, but isn't he suffering from Parkinson's? That's make it really tough. That voice, though, was a constant though a youth spent watching racing with my dad.