"What's with all the dumb baseball commentary on TV?"

[Electron Blue]

From Slate.com

 

During the baseball playoffs, the best place to see comprehensive highlights of all the games is ESPN's Baseball Tonight. Just make sure to watch with the sound off, lest lead analyst John Kruk pulverize the parts of your brain responsible for logical reasoning. Kruk is a champion of the indefensible, the nonsensical, and the utterly pointless who once called Placido Polanco the toughest out in the American League (he isn't) and said that Brett Myers' arrest for hitting his wife in the face would "propel him to stand up and be the ace of [the Phillies'] staff" (it didn't, which is probably a good thing). Last week, Kruk's SportsCenter segment on the Tampa Bay Rays concluded with the meaningful observation that they are "a special team that can do special things."

 

Not an amazing article, but I always like seeing a somewhat high-profile acknowledgment of the awfulness of ESPN and so many individual people in baseball. It's thesis, though, is to really draw comparisons to football analysis, which he claims is far more intellectual.

[Post Count Padder]

It's hard to find good commentary anymore.

[anabiono]

i don't really disagree with the comment on the rays...they seem to be wearing a magic hat of sorts this year, not saying they are not good, but they kind of remind me of the 2005 white sox a little bit

 

and yes, i like commas

[SouthSideRyan]

How bout dumb baseball commentary on radio and in the newspaper? Idiots reign supreme when it comes to sports. Edited October 17, 2008 by SouthSideRyan

[Jon]

Can I go back to 2002 when I didn't know better and didn't have high expectations for the Cubs?

[Sammys Boombox]

I have XM Radio and mlb.tv. I have heard nearly every TV and radio announcing duo in baseball. There just aren't very many good ones.

 

It's pretty sad actually.

 

Outside of the Brewers and Cubs TV and radio, the NL Central is just terrible.

[Electron Blue]

It's hard to find good commentary anymore.

 

Obviously the article makes the case that there is more quality, generally speaking, among football announcers. I don't know if that's really true or not, since I'm not a big football watcher . . . But partly, I feel, I DO think football analysts are better, because they always teach me more. Frankly, there's very little that the average baseball analyst ever adds to my baseball knowledge base -- I honestly already know so much that their meager attempts at depth aren't good enough, whereas my average-ish football knowledge allows me to be taught and impressed more easily.

[Brett]

All I know is I wait patiently all year for October... so I can be enlightened by the magic that is Tim McCarver.

[Mugged By Fluffy]

All I know is I wait patiently all year for October... so I can be enlightened by the magic that is Tim McCarver.

 

No Mariano Rivera, no Yankees, no Manny Ramirez and maybe even no Red Sox...........What will McCarver have to talk about?

[jersey cubs fan]

All I know is I wait patiently all year for October... so I can be enlightened by the magic that is Tim McCarver.

 

No Mariano Rivera, no Yankees, no Manny Ramirez and maybe even no Red Sox...........What will McCarver have to talk about?

 

Each and everyone of those topics, at least once.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

he'll even bring up the Mets a time or two

[TruffleShuffle]

wait john kruk seriously said that brett myers' arrest for beating his wife would cause him to make the next step and become the staff ace? in what world is there a cause and effect there???

[laurens]

wait john kruk seriously said that brett myers' arrest for beating his wife would cause him to make the next step and become the staff ace? in what world is there a cause and effect there???

 

Yeah. That's worse than anything HCCF has ever said.

[Balsa]

Can I go back to 2002 when I didn't know better and didn't have high expectations for the Cubs?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3023/2959527697_5abb15de49.jpg?v=0

I'm so there.