And don’t forget my special guest on CenterStage tonight will be will be that hip-breaking comedian, Homer Noodleman!
As the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network’s 10th anniversary season begins Friday in Tampa with the Bombers’ opener, its voices may be going in with added pressure and something to prove.
Early last month, the network’s president Tracy Dolgin called YES “a homer network.” He said he used the word “homer” “proudly,” as “opposed to a journalist fearing” the word.
“When you’re watching a game (on YES),” Dolgin told Newsday, “I’m very proud to say we’re rooting for the home team on our air.”
...We do know other baseball voices who are outraged over Dolgin portraying his announcers as cheerleaders. They figure a few of their peers at YES are ticked off, too.
“How could they not be. The guy they work for doesn’t care about their reputations. He made them look like a bunch of subservient jackasses,” said a baseball broadcaster who wanted to remain anonymous.
“I know some of those guys (at YES) and I know they are very good at what they do,” he said. “Unfortunately, they are managed from the top down by people who sometimes don’t have their priorities straight.”
Don’t look for any of the YES broadcasters to start gratuitously bashing Yankee players just to prove a point. Yet it would not be surprising to see them ratchet up the scrutiny — dwell on the negative more than usual — especially if the Yankees get off slow.
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1. Jose Can Still Seabiscuit Posted: April 06, 2012 at 08:44 AM (#4099210)The less said about the Yankee radio broadcasts the better.
EDIT: Agree with MCoA on the YES TV announcers, and on the Yankees radio team.
EDIT: coke to Matt
Hmm, you sound like you live within range of the Nats broadcasts.
I don't watch Sportscenter anymore, so I can't say if your observation is correct, but YES does seems to have higher quality feeds than many other channels so that might be why they use them.
Get rid of Kay. Pare down the 25 man announcer roster to just two guys (one of them being Singleton) and remind them that there is a game going on and to STFU once in a while. Ditch the sideline reporter(s)...and this might be true.
It is my experience that this statement is true of pretty much every team in baseball. Well, not the Dodgers when Vin is on but that's like complaining that not every shortstop is Honus Wagner good. Sideline reporters are useless and even the best announcers feel the need to be heard. Understanding when to shut the hell up seems to be a difficult thing for announcers.
This possibly makes me a bad person: I was watching the Dodgers game last night and didn't previously have too much experience with Vin Scully. Does he ever stop talking, ever, for even a second? This is the standard of excellence in baseball broadcasting?
Come to think of it, most TV broadcasters from other teams appear to fellate Jeter with greater frequency than Kay and his sidekicks.
Kay is the least common denominator and could be easily jettisoned. Prior to anything else you've written I still contend they are in the top three local broadcasts in the market. (I say this as having spent three seasons listening to every feed every night for work.)
It's depressing that the model for broadcasting baseball (and most sports) has become the anchor-and-committee style, rather than the storyteller style. So you get guys like Kay, whose job is mostly to manage all the moving parts of the broadcast, secondarily to narrate events as they happen, and any actual narrative construction beyond that isn't really in view. He sees his job as anchoring the broadcast rather than broadcasting the game, as do most play-by-play guys these day. I don't like Kay - he seems like talk radio ate his soul. But I think I prefer him to Dave Matthews superfan Don Orsillo, who likewise sees his job as anchoring the broadcast rather than broadcasting the game, but further seems himself as, well, not exactly a stand-up comic, but more like the emcee for ladies night at the Chuckle Hut on Thursdays.
I'm not a big Kay fan, but he's adequate, and to be honest YES could do much worse and probably would if Kay was shown the door. I wouldn't miss Flaherty if he left, but the rest of the YES team is pretty good. Singleton is probably my favorite of the bunch, although O'Neill is a lot of fun in small doses.
"Robinson Cano is better than Rod Carew!"
"Mark Teixeira is a lock for the HOF!"
But nothing tops Jack Curry from last year...
"I saw Robbie Cano without his shirt on...he's winning the MVP this season!"
He's a great storyteller and I think talks over the game less than anyone you'll ever hear so even when he is talking a bit it's less intrusive. YMMV
Most Voluptuous Player?
IIRC, Scully's a bit of a different situation, given he's doing the radio and TV broadcast (at least for the first few innings, I think). He painys the picture with words and doesn't rely on visuals or the graphics-heavy production of TV broadcasts these days. His work is awesomely quaint at times -- last night, the TV feed is showing the Home Depot starting lineups, and he never mentions the words "Home Depot." (However, he made some really odd errors, like referring to Jim Rivera and whatnot.)
Most Voluptuous Player?
Most Valuable Pectoral.
It's the legacy of radio (Kay is a radio guy too) - can't have any dead air. Personally, I like announcers who can keep a narrative going and don't just wait to react to what happens on the field, but I understand why, if you're watching TV, you might not like it.
I'm not a big Kay fan, but he's adequate, and to be honest YES could do much worse and probably would if Kay was shown the door. I wouldn't miss Flaherty if he left, but the rest of the YES team is pretty good. Singleton is probably my favorite of the bunch, although O'Neill is a lot of fun in small doses.
Kay's best talent is keeping his color partner involved and having a real conversation, so it means the broadcast rises and falls with whoever the color man is that day. Singleton is a pro, Leiter is great, Cone is smart but unpolished, O'Neill is fun but doesn't really care very much, Flaherty is just dull.
More Valuable: Pedroia
Having watched too-many away-team broadcasts on MLB.tv and such, the homerism is really grating. Perfectly happy for the announcing team to root openly for the team they cover, so long as they can stay objective about what happens on the field. Almost none of them can.
MOST VOLUMINOUS PIMPLES, MR PRESIDENT
The thought of more than one Hawk Harrelson is horrifying. (Is that where the phrase "excessive vomitting" came from?) And yes, I will be listening to Hawk in a couple of hours. When (if?) Hawk passes on I will be tempted to yell, HE GONE!!
I caught a few innings of the Dodger game on TV thinking I was going to just flip around (Knicks and Rangers were both playing) but stayed on the game just to hear Vin Scully. The guy's a national treasure.
I used to love when O'Neil sounded like he wanted to kill Michael Kay. I usually agreed with him.
He's on one of the MLBN studio shows, but still does some games for YES.
Yeah, a few years back, O'Neill used to talk to Kay as though he were pissing on him from a great height. Made for very enjoyable TV watching, but he's toned it down a bit lately. Pity really.
We should take up a collection to get that on his tombstone.
I didn't think it was possible, but this makes me like Vin Scully even more than before.
Bud should just suspend the game now and move the team to NJ for the season.
I agree with your 2nd point anyway.
Yeah I was flipping around and noticed the game was on and then realized it was Scully. For some reason I found myself appreciating the way he says "ball four" - it's like audio honey.
And why is the Yankee chat thread never used?
It was a sell-out (well in advance), today's is as well.
There should be a study done someday comparing crowd shots of different stadiums 'sell-outs'. It sure seems like Fenway* has more people in their seats at first pitch than other stadiums. But it might be memory bias.
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