Playoff Bloglounge: Announcers, Commenators, and Ads–Oh My!

As the playoffs progress, no doubt we’ll all have things to say about the announcers and post-game commentators from time to time. So we decided to set aside some space for that–and, to get things going, we’ve aggregated what a few Umpbumpers have been saying over the past week in comments, emails, and g-chats…and because we hadn’t really talked about the Rays-White Sox series at all yet, I stole some interesting comments from DRaysBay. Thanks, DRaysBay!

ALDS Red Sox-Angels:

Lyndsay: …you know who else sucks? those TBS announcers. um, 1st inning, Lackey gets Ellsbury on, and all of a sudden “we might see a home run derby tonight!” uhhh…huh?? also, who the hell dresses them, clowns? really, Turner Broadcasting? an orange suit that looks like it came from a bin at Goodwill is the best you could do for that guy? I could go on and on…completely ignoring the contributions of Ellsbury at the end of the game, ragging on Lowrie’s error for most of the game, the asshattery of the “manny who?” comment…why can’t Don and the RemDawg cover playoff games for us pleeease? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I know listening to McCarver and Buck makes those guys look like Bill James, but seriously.

Sarah: OMG Lyndsay, I agree so much that I just had to write “OMG.”

Coley: Craig Sager always wears terrible suits. He usually does NBA sideline reporting. Kevin Garnett likes to make fun of him.

Lyndsay: seriously, they need to keep Sager away from Lester – that radiated suit might bring his cancer out of remission.

Sarah: One of the announcers kept calling Lester “Varitek.” As in, “Great curveball by Varitek” and “That’s back-to-back curveballs by Varitek.” Just because Tek is calling the pitches doesn’t mean it’s his great curve! And it was especially irritating because he was just talking about what a genius Tek is, “The professor,” who has “a computer in the back of his brain,” and “now you can see the computer whirring back there,” or whatevs. Apparently Varitek is such a genius that he is both catching and pitching this game! Also, there’s this Jeter ad for Gillette. He’s walking by angry Sox fans and his deodorant is keeping him from sweating, but it is sort of odd since the Yankees didn’t make the playoffs. It seems like Gillette is advocating failure.

Nick: Hahaha. Jeter. Even fans make him sweat!

NLDS Cubs-Dodgers:

Melissa: TBS, has graced Cubs/Dodgers with Dick Stockton. He has lost it, he mangles names and occasionally even forgets where he is. They pair him up with Ron Darling, sorry don’t care to listen to a former Met and Tony Gwynn, who as a broadcaster was a great hitter. Is it asking too much for at least one guy that might be familiar with at least one of the two teams? I was forced to listen to the radio which also sucks because it is so far ahead of the HD feed.

ALDS Rays-White Sox:

Samminator (via DRaysBay): RED SOX BROADCASTER. CALLING THE RAYS GAME??? It’s an outrage. Am I the only one outraged??? Don Orsillo, the REDSOX TV announcer, was selected by TBS to do the TV play-by-play for the Rays playoff game…. That would be like the Braves (also owned by Turner) having a Mets TV announcer call one of their play off games…

NLDS Phillies-Brewers:

Zvee: If you’ve noticed, John Smoltz is in the booth for the Phillies-Brewers series.  As a devout Braves fan, I hate to say this…but Smoltz is probably preparing for life after baseball (playing it, atleast) at this point.  He clearly has an interest as a studio or color guy in a year or two…with that being said, have you liked what you’ve heard from the Smoltz so far?  Also, Granderson is in the studio with Ernie Johnson, Ripken and Eckersley, and Curtis is pretty good.

Coley: I haven’t had much opportunity to listen to Smoltz. I watched much of the first two games in bars or in the newsroom with the sound down. But what I have heard from Smoltz I’ve liked. He seems very knowledgeable.

Alejandro: I asked Mark Bowman what he thought about Smoltz in the booth as his second career and he didn’t see it immediately cuz smoltzy “loves his family” … I think eckersley is a bigger cornball cliché machine than zelasko.

Sarah: But that’s just part of his charm, along with the ’stache and the mullet! The Eck splilts time with Jim Rice doing Red Sox postgame analysis. They are quite the study in contrasts. Eckersley is actually great at analyzing pitching stuff (”I really thought he should have come back with the breaking ball during that count, here’s why,”) but Rice is a sort of amiable train wreck. “When you’re in a one-run game, mistakes like that are going to cost you because there’s no room for mistakes like that in a one-run game, which is why in a one-run game, you just can’t make those kinds of costly mistakes.” All of that said in a rapid monotone like the Micromachines man.

Paul: John Moschitta, where are you now?

Got something on your mind? Don’t hold back!