So I turn on ESPN's Monday Night Baseball this evening for a traditional rivalry contest between two of the National League's more popular clubs in the Mets and the Cardinals, and I'm excited.
I'm always excited when the Mets play on national television, but I'm especially excited this evening because John Maine is on the hill, one of the Mets' most consistent starters this season.
But to my dismay, as has become custom far too often this season, the Mets fail to show up to the ballpark, and get annihilated by a Cardinals team chock full of 5'8 no-names who bust their butt on every play, and conduct themselves as if its the ninth inning of a game seven.
But aside from my disappointment from the result of this game, I'm almost as disappointed with the coverage of this nationally televised game.
Now I know that Dan Shulman is probably better known for his prowess calling the NBA with the venerable Hubie Brown. Steve Phillips is a former GM who's used to giving analysis and anecdotes on ESPN's Baseball Tonight, and Orel Hershiser is a former pitcher who alternates between calling life-changing events like the College World Series and Little League World Series. But to be completely frank, these gentlemen were absolutely horrendous tonight, and I had to put the TV on mute on more than one occasion.
Yes, this game was not a particularly close contest, and the Mets played with as much life as David Wells after a night makin it rain at Bungalow 8.
But I calculated an eight-minute span in the second inning of this game where Shulman, Phillips and Hershiser discussed the after-effects of concussions in professional sports, not even limiting their discussion to the Mets' Ryan Church. As this was occurring, Endy Chavez gave the Mets their first hit of the game on a line single to right. This "concussion" conversation (which almost gave me one) continued as Brian Schneider fouled off seven consecutive pitches, after finally reaching base. John Maine was the next hitter up, and made the final out as abruptly as one might expect.
But never once did Shulman call the action on the field during both Chavez' and Schneider at bats. They were concentrating on a relatively inconsequential, and irrelevant human interest story far more than they were concentrating on the actual game action.
Now I understand that these "nationally televised games" give a chance for fair-weather sports fans and fans of other teams to catch a glimpse of teams and players they've seen on a limited basis up to this point in the season, but the job of a sports caster is to call the action in the game.
Period.
Shulman failed to do that for an eight-minute span during the second inning of this game...and this result hadn't even become a blowout yet.
The point being that there are far too many pointless diatribes being discussed during telecasts of professional sporting events these days. Whatever happened to just calling the action, and concentrating on the events directly pertinent to the game and its overall outcome?
Human interest stories are interesting every so often, especially in the latter innings of blowout ballgames. But these guys get paid FAR too much money NOT to call the baseball game, and need to give the viewer the action as it occurs on the ball field.
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6 months ago
Don't take for granted your SNY's broadcast. Most teams' stink.
6 months ago
It's the same thing with Joe Morgan and John Miller, they continue to talk about insignificant topics that have little relevancy to the actual game being played.
SNY's Keith, Ron, and Gary are definitely top 3 in the Major League for sports casting. It's always enjoyable to listen to their input about the current situations the Mets find themselves in, that's why I usually don't watch games on national TV if they are also broadcasted on SNY.
6 months ago
Not for nothing, but I'm watching the game tonight (currently in rain delay), and Gary, Ron and Keith have been talking for about 1.5 hrs straight (with picture graphs to support their discussions) about how starting pitching has changed over the last few decades. I'm not complaining; I find it extremely interesting. But this is the Mets own broadcast team without any national interests, and they're telling stories - much longer than 8 minutes.
I think part of a broadcast is keeping the audience's mind working. You have to call the action - yes. And it was wrong of Shulman and Hershiser to not even quickly interject with comments about the action (assuming that's what happened based on your post). But at the end of the day, discussions about more general baseball matters enhance a broadcast.
Additionally, I'm not so sure it's an announcer's job, in 2008, to just call a game. It's an announcers job to get good ratings and keep eyes glued to the television. And while us NYM fans may want to hear more about Ryan Church and the detailed action of the game for 8 minutes straight, viewers outside of these 100 miles would rather hear about concussions as they relate to baseball in general.
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