Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Posnanski: Jeff Francoeur and ANT
(joeposnanski.blogspot.com)
posted 17 hours ago by RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) to announcers, bob kennedy, derek jeter, jeff francoeur, joe posnanski, tim tebow
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56 comment(s)
Also known as THE WILL TO WIN.
The other day, I was watching the visiting announcing crew call a Kansas City Royals game, when Jeff Francoeur came to the plate. Before it even began, I knew what was coming. The announcers started to praise Francoeur. You know, it was all the usual stuff—great leader, plays terrific defense, bat coming around, wonderful guy. And, suddenly, a question came to mind.
What player in baseball do you think has the most ANT—Announcer Nonsense Talk—spoken about them? ...Read More...
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1 2 >Tangerines have a case.
Harry Caray might have been close to the top on the criteria used in said study, but he got a lot of criticism for dissing Cubs players when they made a mistake.
Yeah. It's like watching the game alongside a very enthusiastic fan.
It irks me when ordinary fans refer to the team they root for as "we" or "us," as some people around here do, and I kinda wish Harrelson wouldn't do that. But rooting for the team you cover is A-OK by me.
Now blueberries make sense, but someone explain gooseberries to me!
Also, I think that the scale as presented overweights the first person plural. If you've decided to do that, of course you're going to do it repeatedly so I think subsequent uses after the first should be regressed somewhat.
That's not a bug. It's a feature.
Ron Santo was this way - absolutely 100% a fan in the booth. His anguished groans at every Cub failure are etched in my memory, right along side Harry's "aw he POPPPPPPPED it up" whenever a Cub in the 1980s popped out with men on base.
Given that Hawk won in a rout, it wouldn't make a difference, but I think a true accounting would also have to take points away from the total for criticizing the home team. In that Sox booth, I assume that's what Stone is there for, given that he never really held back when he was with the Cubs booth (and it helped get him fired).
Stretch!
The Angels announcers always have to say "big fly" when an Angels player hits a HR which I find annoying for some reason... but not as annoying as Hudler was (or is to Royals fans now)
Or have it fall short of the wall?
Or go foul?
If so, how does he handle it?
Wonder Dog is so bad he takes the joy out of a Hawk Harrelson thread.
Which would you rather hear?
"You can put it on the board -- YES!"
or
"Pilot to bombardier -- open up the bomb bay doors!"
That part of Harrelson is fine with me. Homerism is just a style to me, you can do it well or badly.
The more objectionable part of Hawk is 1) his ######## and pouting at umpires or perceived lack of "playing the game right," 2) his lack of understanding of what wins baseball games (he loves smallball tactics), 3) his overreliance on catchphrases (I think it's time for a Simpsons-style "Hawk 3000").
But overall, when I watch a Sox game on mlb.tv, I always listen to him instead of the opposing team announcers.
I think it's called a 'peel'.
In the games that I've seen, he usually waits until the ball is safely over the wall before starting his spiel. So it's not like Berman and his "back back back back", where it might be back back back to the left fielder 20 feet in front of the warning track.
I do too, out of curiosity. I think I would hate it if he did my team's games.
Let me put it this way: I dumped MLB.TV because the announcers for every team with the exception of the White Sox, Red Sox, and Dodgers just plain suck. Maybe I'm used to Harrelson, Santo, Brickhouse, Harry Caray, etc. but baseball needs enthusiasm out of their announcers and there is too darned little of it.
Personally, as a non-Sox fan, I kinda like him.
Opposition hits a bloop single: "Great pitch, that's a shame for <A's pitcher>, do everything right and just get unlucky"
A's hit a bloop single: "Great at-bat by <A's hitter>, manages to fight it off and dump it into right field, great piece of hitting there, going with the pitch"
Hearing him say so many good things about bad A's plays/players enrages me more than any opposition announcer ever could.
Not the same, but for the last out of games now (Sox wins, of course), his new catchphrase is "And this game is....OVAH!" Last night, the last out of the game was a grounder to Hudson at 2b that he bobbled, and the catchphrase went "And this game is...bobbled. OVAH" I laughed.
The more objectionable part of Hawk is 1) his ######## and pouting at umpires or perceived lack of "playing the game right," 2) his lack of understanding of what wins baseball games (he loves smallball tactics), 3) his overreliance on catchphrases (I think it's time for a Simpsons-style "Hawk 3000").
He's started keeping imaginary scores, and updates you on that. Like last night, there was a blown out call that cost the Sox a run. At the end of the inning, he said something like "It's 1-0 Cleveland, but it should be 1-1." He gave that updated score multiple times until the Sox took the lead.
Basically a good local announcer is hard and roots for the local team while being as impartial as possible when it comes to the other team. One thing you don't see is an announcer rooting for the local team and ripping the other team, that is something that should be frowned upon, and also blind homerism should be frowned upon.
The most objectionable part of Hawk (which your first point touches on) is that he's an unlikeable, unpleasant person to have to spend three hours with. Everything else is window dressing.
His constant whining about balls and strikes has made him unlistenable.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned an incident sometime within the last three years. It was repeated with Hawk's call several times on ESPN and MLB Network. I think a left fielder robbed a home run from a White Sox player. Harrelson just said,"No! No! No!" as if a rogue robot was destroying his golf clubs.
I have MLB Extra Innings and avoid Hawk and Mark Grace whenever possible. The Rays are on the unbiased end but Dewayne Staats ends every loss with,"We hope you enjoyed the broadcast if not the result." I realize I'm more offended by stupid rather than mere bias.
With MLB.tv and Extra Innings, more out-of-town fans have access to other teams' announcers on both TV and radio. It's too much to hope that this might weed out the extreme homers.
I still wish they would've kept John Rooney after the '05 season though. Ed Farmer & DJ have this weird, goofy kind of chemistry but Farmer's so damn dry it gets annoying sometime.
I think the old Rizzuto/White/Messer broadcast team did a great job of striking this balance. Rizzuto was the unabashed homer, but always in a pleasant, funny way. He never ####### or criticized. White was the straight-man foil to Rizzuto, and Messer was the bland professional.
Dan McLaughlin's "Look what I found!" every single time a pitcher successfully fields a comebacker always makes me cringe.
I thought Messah was FAR more biased than the Scooter. Rizzuto unabashedly rooted for the Yankees but he would at least acknowledge good plays by the other team and admit when the Yankees were the beneficiary of a bad call. Messer never did either
The ultimate in this was Fosse making excuses for Moss not catching that easy ground ball on Saturday in the 14th that would have gotten the A's out of the inning. Cue shot my ass.
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