Jon Miller was born on Hamilton Air Force Base and grew up in Hayward, California, listening to Giants announcers Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons on the radio. He attended his first baseball game in 1962, a 19-8 Giants' victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Candlestick Park. As a teenager, Miller played Strat-O-Matic and recorded his own play-by-play into a tape recorder, adding his own crowd noise, vendors, and commercials. After graduating from Hayward High School in 1969, Miller commuted across the bay to take broadcasting classes at the College of San Mateo.
Miller's delivery is notable for his easygoing, sometimes humorous manner and measured use of hyperbole, particularly in banter with his partner sportscasters. He livens up many broadcasts with a few Hawaiian and Japanese phrases spoken with impeccable pronunciation, and has been known to announce a half inning totally in Spanish. It is notable that Miller generally pronounces foreign language names with the source language pronunciation, in contrast with broadcasters who "Americanize" foreign-named players. Miller is also known for his meticulous scorekeeping, having scored over 5,500 games since he started broadcasting. Miller will occasionally quote lines from Shakespeare plays during radio broadcasts. He is well known for his foul ball call, "That ball is fooooul", and his emphatic cries of "Safe!" on close plays and "Two!" for a successful double play. He is also known for his unique pronunciation of the word safe, which sounds more like an umpire's call "tafe!", on plays where a baserunner attempts to slide into a base prior to being tagged out. Early in his career, Miller would punctuate home runs with the signature call, "Tell it goodbye!" (in emulation of longtime Giants announcer Lon Simmons), although he has eschewed this in recent years (although he continues to refer to a home run as a "big fly"). His home run call for Hispanic batters is now punctuated, "Adios, pelota!" Miller is noted in baseball circles for his impersonation of Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully. Miller also imitates Harry Caray, Chuck Thompson, Jack Buck, Al Michaels, Babe Ruth, Bob Sheppard, and Harry Kalas, among others. Asked how he got into broadcasting play by play of baseball games, he recalled being in stands at Candlestick Park as a child and looking into the broadcast booth. In the middle of the at-bat, he watched as the broadcaster consumed a handful of fries and a drink between pitches, thinking, "That is the life for me." While calling games on the radio for the Giants, Miller occasionally introduces himself and his fellow broadcaster(s), followed by the phrase, "your Giants broadcasters". The same is repeated when Miller is on TV, except he replaces the word "broadcasters" with "telecasters." (Miller is referred to by fellow Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow as "The Big Kahuna".) He would use similar terminology for his Sunday Night Baseball telecasts on ESPN ("your Sunday night telecasters") and his World Series broadcasts for ESPN Radio ("your World Series broadcasters").
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Miller's delivery is notable for his easygoing, sometimes humorous manner and measured use of hyperbole, particularly in banter with his partner sportscasters. Miller's delivery is notable for his easygoing, sometimes humorous manner and measured use of hyperbole, Miller's delivery is notable for his easygoing, sometimes humorous manner and measured use of hyperbole, particularly in banter with his partner sportscasters. notable for his easygoing, sometimes humorous manner and measured use of hyperbole, He livens up many broadcasts with a few Hawaiian and Japanese phrases spoken with impeccable pronunciation,
He livens up many broadcasts with a few Hawaiian and Japanese phrases spoken with impeccable pronunciation,