[NU Sports] Rant on broadcasting: (Was: White Sox vs. . . . Everyone)

Wed Jun 28 12:23:27 CDT 2006

Yeah, as someone who spent a summer in the minors broadcasting baseball and loves to hear (and critique) broadcasters around the country, I've never heard a worse announcing team than Hawk Harrelson and Darren Jackson.

  They say "we" on the air -- a MAJOR pet peeve of mine (as a player once told Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman after he said "we sure played well today," "how many guys did YOU strike out?") -- and Hawk's home run call is unprofessional and makes me cringe every time I hear it.

  But it's more than that, and I can extend this criticism in general to a lot of play-by-play folks ... it's not just the rooting on the air, but the tone of voice when the other team gets a big hit or big out.  Talk about letting paint dry -- the calls are so flat..."high fly, left field, gone.  Sox lose."  Or worse, "uh oh, there's trouble...Sox lose."  How bout raising your voice for an important moment in the game?  Keep some hollowness in your voice, since you DO work for the other team ... but make it a hollow excitement.

  Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now.  Never get a radio guy started on other radio guys...

  -- Ben

"John A. DeGroat" <johnadeg at bellatlantic.net> wrote:
  If there is a worse announcing team than the one the White Sox have, I 
don't know who it is. They are the most biased announcers that I have 
ever heard and I've heard Rizzuto, Bob Prince and a few other homers in 
my time. I sort of liked watching the White Sox do well last year but 
couldn't stand the announcers so would hit the mute button.

John DeGroat

Joe Thiegs wrote:

> 
>
>As far as your misplaced loyalties, I will refrain from criticizing the
>masochistic fetish that is being a Cub's fan. Chicago is slowly discovering
>that there is a difference between soap opera and baseball. Though I doubt
>that those addicted to the Cubs will ever recover, you've already discovered
>that the next generation of baseball fans prefer the 
> 
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Sox.
>^^^^
>
>
>Yikes! I hope not! I'll stage an intervention if I ever see symptoms of
>that affliction in my kids. :) In the case of our very young friend, I'm
>afraid it is a hereditary condition. Probably incurable. I just pray he
>can grow up to lead an otherwise normal, productive, healthy life....
>
>FWIW, I consider the Sox to be a JV version of the Yankees (my second
>most-disliked team!). Overpaid, boorish players (okay, just about all major
>leaguers are overpaid, but relatively speaking, I mean); arrogant owners;
>fans with chips on their shoulders who treat fans of any other team with
>disdain; etc.
>
>I don't experience too much pain from being a Cubs fan. For one thing, they
>are my secondary team and I have been rooting for them only about half my
>life, so I don't feel quite the same emotional ups and downs that I do
>depending on the Twins' performance. I just enjoy watching the Cubbies and
>remembering great times at and around Wrigley during college and the couple
>of years after. Secondly, I don't let my expectations for the Cubs get too
>tremendously high--kind of like being an NU fan before 1996. When I was at
>NU, I had fun at the football games win or lose, and I didn't get too
>depressed if we lost because that was what I expected. Conversely, when we
>won it was a huge thrill. Since the 1995 season and the Rose Bowl (my
>senior year), however, my expectations have changed, and now I actually get
>upset when we lose. You know, I'm not sure which is a healthier mentality.
>:)
>
>-Joe
>
>P.S. I'm sure Jeff knows, but for any wryness-impaired list members, my
>comments equating being a White Sox fan with having a medical condition are
>nothing more than a little tongue-in-cheek intra-conference ribbing.
>Probably.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
>Behalf Of Joe Thiegs
>Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 2:20 PM
>To: 'Ben Adler'; nwu-sports at tssi.com
>Subject: RE: [NU Sports] Mariotti web site
>
>No, Ozzie bought "jaythe[something you can get in trouble for calling
>someone].com". :) Honestly, I had heard snippets about a Guillen-Mariotti
>feud over the past few days but never heard what started it. I did a little
>research today and found out. Two interesting points I noticed from the
>blog entries (deadspin.com and jaythejoke.com):
>
>1) It seems that most of the public hatred is being directed at Mariotti,
>when he was the target of Ozzie's outburst. People don't seem to be as
>riled up about what Ozzie said as I might expect.
>
>2) Here's an excerpt from a Phil Arvia column in the Daily Southtown:
>
>"In the span of 102 seconds, Guillen leveled 25 words one generally cannot
>read in a family newspaper at the Sun-Times' Jay Mariotti.
>
>For those scoring at home, there were 14 variations of the f-word, five
>s-words, three a-words, a b-word, a G.D. and the straw that broke the
>camel's back, a three-letter reference either to Mariotti's sexuality or
>British slang for a cigarette."
>
>Is no one complaining about the other 24 vulgarities?
>
>Because the White Sox are the natural enemies of both my AL team (the Twins)
>and my NL team (the Cubs), of course it follows that they are my least
>favorite team and I root hard for them to lose all of the time--the single
>exception being in last season's World Series, in which I wanted them to
>uphold the honor of the AL Central--and Guillen as manager makes it that
>much easier. FWIW, one of my four-year-old son's favorite playmates
>(probably his favorite) is the four-year-old son of one of our best NU
>friends (my wife's former apartment-mate and sorority sister) and her
>husband. Both parents grew up in a town southwest of Chicago, and live in
>that vicinity now, so unfortunately we only get to see them a couple of
>times a year. They came to visit us for a long weekend last month, and my
>son's friend showed up wearing *gasp* a White Sox cap. I still let my son
>play with him, though, and allowed their family to stay at our home anyway,
>despite some personal discomfort (he did take the hat off inside the house).
>Just to let you know how magnanimous I can be. ;)
>
>-Joe
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
>Behalf Of Ben Adler
>Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 12:46 PM
>To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
>Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Mariotti web site
>
>Did Ozzie Guillen buy the domain name?
>
>Jonathan Michael Hawkins wrote: LOL!
>
>Here's the Trib article that let the city know about this incredibly amusing
>web site:
>
>http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/chi-0606270164jun27,1
>,1156673.story?coll=chi-sportsnew-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
>
>
>Jonathan
>
>On Tue, 27 Jun 2006, MHRJGScott at aol.com wrote:
> 
>
>>Dedicated to the hatred of all things Mariotti:
>>jaythejoke.com
>> 
>>
>
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