tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post3917715260856478761..comments2024-02-10T20:49:20.762-05:00Comments on bjkeefe: Some other baseball notes, also from the opening roundbjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-43830335115675024812010-10-14T22:31:19.779-04:002010-10-14T22:31:19.779-04:00Thanks for the comments, y'all. Glad to hear ...Thanks for the comments, y'all. Glad to hear my anti-Joe Buck feelings are becoming a movement! ('course, as long as Fox keeps winning the bid for the World Series …)<br /><br />@ERE: I like the Yankees' radio team okay. I'd call them competent, and I like that a woman is part of the team without it ever having been made into a big deal. But they are not so good that I look forward to them, the way Messer and White were, or later, the way Daron Sutton was on the radio for the Angels. (Or Marv Albert, for the Knicks and Rangers, way back when.)<br /><br />Oddly enough, I can't think that I've ever noticed a Broadway reference from John or Suzyn, but that probably says more about my lack of interest in that subject and consequent lack of attention/retention.<br /><br />It is probably also part of a larger problem I have with baseball on the radio these days, and this is not the fault of these two announcers. I find it, generally, almost unlistenable. I can barely stand the infestation of ads into every second of the game, quite apart from the breaks between innings. ("This call to the bullpen sponsored by," etc.) It's somehow tougher to take on radio than it is on teevee, probably because, in a metaphorical sense, it's a much narrower channel, and not as easy therefore to shut off one part of what's flowing and pay attention to other something else, as when watching the game on television.<br /><br />Anyway, it is the case that I spend most of the time listening to ballgames on the radio trying <em>not</em> to listen, if you see what I mean. I only put them on in the car, these days, and think occasionally with sadness back to the time when the radio people were so good real fans would mute the teevee and have the radio for sound instead.<br /><br />Back to the teevee side: I did not used to mind Michael Kay, but I have started to notice some irritating tics, such as his habit of calling virtually every ground ball a "hot shot," no matter how routine it is, and his cringe-inducing attempt to have a branded home run call ("track … wall … gone!") Itemizing these things makes me sound like a crazy person, perhaps, but when a verbal tic starts to bother me, that's just the way it goes -- it becomes a real distraction that jabs my neck every time it happens, and worse, causes apprehension every time I think it's about to happen.<br /><br />I like Ken Singleton's voice a lot. I think he'd make a fine play-by-play man. John Sterling is a pretty good commentator, and he and Singleton have a pretty pleasant rapport. Paul O'Neill is sometimes good, and never worse than inoffensive. (I think former outfielders generally tend not to make very good color men -- catchers are best, infielders can also be good (Keith Hernandez for the Mets is a good example, Joe Morgan and especially Phil Rizzuto maybe not so much), and pitchers can talk about the game in a different way, but usually considerably more thoughtfully.<br /><br />I think it's also generally true that the less of a star the announcer was as a player, the better he is as an analyst/commentator. This also seems to be true more often than not in other sports, and it also applies when considering managers. I guess the people who were stars in their playing days did not have to spend as much time taking things apart and putting them back together to be able to scratch out a place on the roster. By contrast, those that did have had a couple of decades' head-start in articulating the nearly ineffable.bjkeefehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-67113959241083349782010-10-13T23:56:45.606-04:002010-10-13T23:56:45.606-04:00I refuse to recognize the authority of any Yankee ...I refuse to recognize the authority of any Yankee fan. Otherwise great post! Go Phils!!-- Uncle Eb<br /><br />PS I couldn't agree more about Joe Buck. I had no idea he was a Republican but I'm not surprised at all.<br /><br />PPS Lincecum is art in motion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-53710335055280592552010-10-13T13:11:46.255-04:002010-10-13T13:11:46.255-04:00awesome post.
-joe buck may suck, but at least ch...awesome post.<br /><br />-joe buck may suck, but at least chip "batsman" carey will not be returning. <br /><br />-are you knocking the yanks radio or tv announcers? either way, i disagree. i love michael kay (miss him on the radio), and am a big fan of the john sterling/suzyn waldman pair. broadway references galore...which this musical theater aficionado can't get enough of.E R Ehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17382701940196378937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-89579040936074655112010-10-13T10:56:25.060-04:002010-10-13T10:56:25.060-04:00Your authority is duly noted.
It's like we...Your authority is duly noted.<br /><br />It's like we're in a mind meld on all your observational points, ranging from the actual games, announcers (fuck Buck and love Darling) and even our disdain for the cartoonized vineyard disparager. <br /><br />Lincecum vs. Halladay - be there or be square. Go Yankees.graznoreply@blogger.com