Without any delay, here's what I learned this week:
The Dallas Cowboys have gone from America's Team to America's Most Wanted Team
When you're trusting Carl Pavano to do anything more than keep the ice cold, you're in a world of hurt.
A big pay day in radio is no longer dependent on your knowledge of sports or even your command of the English language.
That threesome of Kennedy, Hughes, and Joba that was supposed to anchor Yankee playoff hopes this season? Its yielded exactly 2 wins.
Anyone under 45 should stop reading right now and go look up Warren Spahn's career pitching stats.
Say it with me: Twins manager Ron Gardenhire is Manager of the Year.
The Cat in The Hat still holds up over time. God bless Thing One and Thing Two.
Fantasy Football commences in less than three weeks. You could do a lot worse than going running back, running back in the draft.
People do care about the Olympics proving that live programming trumps Summertime reality bullshit and reruns.
If there's a god in heaven, Hillary Clinton tears apart the Democratic National Convention delegate by delegate. (That's for next week's What I Learned)
Friday, August 22, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Worst Sports Broadcasting Cliches
I have a confession to make. I'm a sports broadcasting snob. I'm sure you've heard of coffee snobs, beer snobs and car snobs. My friend Gooch is a tennis snob, if you can imagine such a thing. The sports broadcast, and the way it comes out, matters to me. My friend McCracken and I recently developed a list of the worst cliches:
6.) When a broadcaster says a team has won its first ever championship. Makes me ask, "What is an ever championship?" Besides, when did "first ever" become a necessary synonym for "first"? First means first. It doesn't mean, "First of a short time period going back to a time you and I can remember, such that if we mean to include all of a franchise's history we need to specify by saying 'first ever.'
5.) Invariably when a pitcher does damage with the bat he's always "helping his own cause." ESPN uses this one a lot.
4.) The score is tied at "2 and 2" A simple "the score is tied at 2" will suffice. No need to get cute.
3.) When football analysts break down a big game at the opening of the telecast, you just know some fool is going to say, "It's going to come down to turnovers" Doesn't it always?
2.) It's not really a cliche but if the game involves a great player, Tom Brady, Albert Pujols or Vlad Guerrero for example, the color analyst openly fellates him. Worse, he rarely, if ever, plays for your team.
1.) Phrases such as "The Big Dance" or the "Second Season". Sentences such as "You can throw those regular season records out the window" usually follow. I'd like to send the broadcaster who uttered it to follow.
Stay tuned for What We Learned Friday....
(I'm sure you have your own list. Email me at caseysboy69@yahoo.com with yours and I'll post the best.)
6.) When a broadcaster says a team has won its first ever championship. Makes me ask, "What is an ever championship?" Besides, when did "first ever" become a necessary synonym for "first"? First means first. It doesn't mean, "First of a short time period going back to a time you and I can remember, such that if we mean to include all of a franchise's history we need to specify by saying 'first ever.'
5.) Invariably when a pitcher does damage with the bat he's always "helping his own cause." ESPN uses this one a lot.
4.) The score is tied at "2 and 2" A simple "the score is tied at 2" will suffice. No need to get cute.
3.) When football analysts break down a big game at the opening of the telecast, you just know some fool is going to say, "It's going to come down to turnovers" Doesn't it always?
2.) It's not really a cliche but if the game involves a great player, Tom Brady, Albert Pujols or Vlad Guerrero for example, the color analyst openly fellates him. Worse, he rarely, if ever, plays for your team.
1.) Phrases such as "The Big Dance" or the "Second Season". Sentences such as "You can throw those regular season records out the window" usually follow. I'd like to send the broadcaster who uttered it to follow.
Stay tuned for What We Learned Friday....
(I'm sure you have your own list. Email me at caseysboy69@yahoo.com with yours and I'll post the best.)
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Off Year for Sterling....
If you think the Yankees have played badly this season, check out John Sterling, the voice of the Yankees. If they kept statistics for such things as broadcasting, Sterling would be mired in one of those Oh-for-Tino slumps. Remember those?
In Saturday's 15-6 win over the lowly Royals, Sterling went into full wig-out mode when he incorrectly called a homerun by Xavier Nady. "X Marks the Spot," proclaimed the avuncular Sterling. Sounded like classic Sterling. But the homer itself had been hit by rookie Cody Ransom. In fact, Sterling was so out-of-it he didn't correct himself until his Yankee companera, Suzyn Waldman, chimed in: "Uh, John, that was actually Cody Ransom's first major league homer."
Now, everyone can have a bad game. But Sterling, it seems, has had more than his share of gaffes this year. Remember how he similarly called Cabrera's wall-clanging double earlier in the year: "The Melkman delivers.....a double." Classic.
Of course, there was also the New York Post item that noted that Sterling was one of the worst offenders of etiquette in the Yankee clubhouse. Yup, power-mongering the help and worse, double-dipping the ice cream using his finger. Gross.
I'm a huge Sterling fan because, more often than not, he fulfills one of the chief tenets of a baseball broadcaster: to entertain. Of course, more than a few baseball purists would call me crazy like my friend McCracken. An old school guy, McCracken is more of a play it down the road broadcaster (but always call it correctly). I'd rather chalk it up to the uninspiring baseball being played out in front of him.
In Saturday's 15-6 win over the lowly Royals, Sterling went into full wig-out mode when he incorrectly called a homerun by Xavier Nady. "X Marks the Spot," proclaimed the avuncular Sterling. Sounded like classic Sterling. But the homer itself had been hit by rookie Cody Ransom. In fact, Sterling was so out-of-it he didn't correct himself until his Yankee companera, Suzyn Waldman, chimed in: "Uh, John, that was actually Cody Ransom's first major league homer."
Now, everyone can have a bad game. But Sterling, it seems, has had more than his share of gaffes this year. Remember how he similarly called Cabrera's wall-clanging double earlier in the year: "The Melkman delivers.....a double." Classic.
Of course, there was also the New York Post item that noted that Sterling was one of the worst offenders of etiquette in the Yankee clubhouse. Yup, power-mongering the help and worse, double-dipping the ice cream using his finger. Gross.
I'm a huge Sterling fan because, more often than not, he fulfills one of the chief tenets of a baseball broadcaster: to entertain. Of course, more than a few baseball purists would call me crazy like my friend McCracken. An old school guy, McCracken is more of a play it down the road broadcaster (but always call it correctly). I'd rather chalk it up to the uninspiring baseball being played out in front of him.
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