Commentary
Sports on the Air: Listing some pet peeves
Another week, another trio of annoyances from a guy who prides himself on having a little Larry David ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") in him.
First up is Fox, which is carrying the World Series between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies. Does it really have to clutter the TV screen to tell us that we're watching Game One or who is leading the series and it is on Fox?
If I don't know where the series stands, I'm dumber than some of the umpires' calls.
Speaking of which, here's another annoyance. I hated it Thursday when Fox bolted for a commercial after a close play at first ended a Phillies inning, and didn't show us until after the commercial the call was blown. I thought the call was blown before the commercial. By waiting until after the commercial, Fox couldn't carry the resulting umpires' conference live.
Oh, well, at least announcers Tim McCarver and Joe Buck haven't been annoying. Yet. McCarver actually astutely called out Phillies manager Charlie Manuel for failing to call a hit-and-run before a double play ended a Phillies inning.
Now on to the Buffalo Sabres, MSG and Time Warner Cable. How hard can it be to make sure that the call of Sabres announcers Rick Jeanneret and Harry Neale lands on the standard definition MSG channel when New York area games are also being carried on MSG HD?
It took an annoying amount of time Wednesday to get rid of New Jersey announcer Mike Emrick on the standard feed during the Sabres' 4-1 victory.
But enough about my annoyances. As promised, here are your edited annoyances.
J.C., Buffalo: 1.) Contrived and propped up records and streaks. Anyone can dig into stat books and find combinations of things that never happened before.
2.) On ESPN they'll leave a graphic up forever, or too brief to even read it.
3.) Analysts (usually former athletes) whose commentary is a syntax and grammatical calamity.
4.) Inviting celebrities to share opinions or even pick games.
5.) Broadcasters blasting players, but then fawning over them once they become colleagues.
Dear J.C.: Boy, you make me seem like a Pollyanna.
T.K., Boston, N.Y.: 1.) My biggest peeve is the bump music (jingles?) before they give some sort of announcement. Very often it is so loud that it makes it difficult to clearly hear the announcements. ... It just drives me crazy.
2.) Too many promos for prime-time shows. Seems they are always touted for most anticipated, most watched, etc., and then many are canned within a few weeks.
3.) Way too much scrolled info. ... It's very distracting and takes away from enjoyment of the game.
Dear T.K.: I wish many of those shows were canceled in a few weeks.
Cal, Medina: 1.) The panther sound bite on "Schopp and the Bulldog" — completely worthless, annoying and juvenile.
2.) The way that Bulldog cannot say a complete sentence and takes forever to say his point, e.g., "What I think, and when I say "think' I mean when I do my best to come up with something, if I can phrase it right, 'cuz I don't want to imply something that I don't think, not that I don't imply that anyway, and there's nothing wrong with implying, so if anyone wants to go ahead and imply then it is all right with me, but just about anything is OK with me ...," and on, and on, and on.
3.) Any time that both Schopp and Bulldog work together on a show. ... Their show is much better and runs more smoothly when one is on vacation.
I don't hate them and I do listen to them. It's just that these three things drive me nuts!
Dear Cal: Great imitation of Bulldog.
J.M.: I'll tell you what annoys me: throwback jerseys. They are confusing as heck and most of them are ugly. (They were changed for a reason.) Prime case in point: Jets-Titans game. ... The Titans wore Houston Oilers jerseys and the Jets wore New York Titans jerseys. Talk about convoluted!
The NFL should leave the uniforms alone and leave the ugly outfits to hockey.
Dear J.M.: Can't believe you didn't mention the Broncos' throwbacks.
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