Unprofessional sports announcers

[Oscar Madison]

Or Howard Cosell. All retired or dead.

So what you are saying is there are no more good sportscasters left. Just dumb jocks and no talent hack homers.

PS: Scully ain't dead yet. Neither is Brent.

 

[TheBigA]

PS: Scully ain't dead yet. Neither is Brent.

I didn't say they were dead. Read what I wrote.

In another thread you were saying that integrity has left pro sports. Yet you still want broadcasters to sound like they did 50 years ago.

Why not have broadcasters that fit the integrity of the game?

Truthfully I hear a lot of good sportscasters who aren't jocks or homers. No one's mentioned Bob Costas or Mike Tirico.

 

[Oscar Madison]

I didn't say they were dead. Read what I wrote.

In another thread you were saying that integrity has left pro sports. Yet you still want broadcasters to sound like they did 50 years ago.

Why not have broadcasters that fit the integrity of the game?

Truthfully I hear a lot of good sportscasters who aren't jocks or homers. No one's mentioned Bob Costas or Mike Tirico.

I listed four sportscasters. You replied: "All retired or dead."

Real broadcasters, like Humble Howard, did not hesitate to point out when integrity was missing in sports. Maybe integrity is gone now because there are no real broadcasters pointing out that integrity is gone. Now it's all dumb jock comments, puff, hype and root-root-root for the home team.

Are you also saying newscasters should fit the integrity of the political game, too?

 

[TheBigA]

Are you also saying newscasters should fit the integrity of the political game, too?

I'm strictly responding to your post.

As I said, there are lots of non-jocks and non-homers in sports broadcasting. I've already listed a few.

 

[Tibbs4]

I listed four sportscasters. You replied: "All retired or dead."

Real broadcasters, like Humble Howard, did not hesitate to point out when integrity was missing in sports. Maybe integrity is gone now because there are no real broadcasters pointing out that integrity is gone. Now it's all dumb jock comments, puff, hype and root-root-root for the home team.

Are you also saying newscasters should fit the integrity of the political game, too?

A broadcaster (jock, etc.) has to walk the fine line between split second play calling and allowing for proper timing of color. It's not an easy gig. Especially when literally every word will be ripped apart as possibly offensive. When do they have time or enough freedom to try to inject lecturing today's "talent" on the field about how to live? What player who needs to hear that message is going to ever listen? You can't line up enough on air staff to replace each other after every game. The integrity issue is a valid point. I think it has to be demanded by the team leaders and/or owners.

 

[Oscar Madison]

A broadcaster (jock, etc.) has to walk the fine line between split second play calling and allowing for proper timing of color. It's not an easy gig. Especially when literally every word will be ripped apart as possibly offensive. When do they have time or enough freedom to try to inject lecturing today's "talent" on the field about how to live? What player who needs to hear that message is going to ever listen? You can't line up enough on air staff to replace each other after every game. The integrity issue is a valid point. I think it has to be demanded by the team leaders and/or owners.

Leaders and/or owners respond to public opinion. Public opinion is created by good reporting. Leaders and/or owners don't want good reporting. The people in the booth are shills for the team. The team picks and can have them removed (whether or not they are team employees). Step one is making sportscasters independent or leaders and/or owners.

Keep in mind that most sportscasters also do pre and post game shows, and many also do sports reports in local news during the off season. They have plenty of opportunities to "lecture" - but at their peril.

 

[TheBigA]

Step one is making sportscasters independent or leaders and/or owners.

The network broadcasters don't work for the teams.

I disagree with the premise that "public opinion is created by good reporting." A bad team is a bad team. No amount of reporting, good or bad, will change that. People blame a bad team on the coaching and ownership, regardless of what the announcers say. There are more than enough independent reporters covering sports who can provide information not being heard from the team employees. The public is free to believe whoever they choose to believe. That applies to news as well as sports.

 

[Oscar Madison]

The network broadcasters don't work for the teams.

I disagree with the premise that "public opinion is created by good reporting." A bad team is a bad team. No amount of reporting, good or bad, will change that. People blame a bad team on the coaching and ownership, regardless of what the announcers say. There are more than enough independent reporters covering sports who can provide information not being heard from the team employees. The public is free to believe whoever they choose to believe. That applies to news as well as sports.

If the team or league want somebody gone, he's gone.

Reporting on lack of integrity; not on whether a team is winning or losing.

 

[TheBigA]

If the team or league want somebody gone, he's gone.

Reporting on lack of integrity; not on whether a team is winning or losing.

As I said, in today's world, there are lots of people reporting on sports, and lots of ways to do it.

Public opinion is made by whatever or whoever the public chooses to believe, whether it's true or false, substantiated or otherwise.

 

[Tibbs4]

As I said, in today's world, there are lots of people reporting on sports, and lots of ways to do it.

Public opinion is made by whatever or whoever the public chooses to believe, whether it's true or false, substantiated or otherwise.

BigA - did we drink the same Kool-Aid? We now agree on two things in 2016? LOL. If a person is going to report on the status of most professional sports teams integrity, then public opinion will shut them down from all the complaints about (you fill in the blank.) Or the team will handle it....and probably not on one knee.

 

[Rollo-Smokes]

And you avoid obnoxious no-talent hacks like Harry Caray.

Do your homework on Harry. Most of us remember his later years on WGN-TV with the Cubs, when his focus and timing were no longer sharp. A far cry from his younger days in the Cardinals' booth with Jack Buck. Go find an aircheck of a Cards game on KMOX with Caray and Buck from the 1960s if you can. Or watch the 1968 World Series, which featured Harry in the NBC television booth when the Cards were on the road in Detroit.

Just remember–not every P-B-P guy was as lucky as Vin Scully or Ernie Harwell, both of whom were able to effectively work into their late 80s.

 

[KeithE4]

And you avoid obnoxious no-talent hacks like Harry Caray.

Do your homework on Harry. Most of us remember his later years on WGN-TV with the Cubs, when his focus and timing were no longer sharp. A far cry from his younger days in the Cardinals' booth with Jack Buck. Go find an aircheck of a Cards game on KMOX with Caray and Buck from the 1960s if you can. Or watch the 1968 World Series, which featured Harry in the NBC television booth when the Cards were on the road in Detroit.

Just remember–not every P-B-P guy was as lucky as Vin Scully or Ernie Harwell, both of whom were able to effectively work into their late 80s.

Harry Caray before his 1987 stroke, at age 73, was one of the best baseball announcers ever. Maybe not quite up there with Vin and Ernie, but easily one of the top 5.

 

[Oscar Madison]

Do your homework on Harry. Most of us remember his later years on WGN-TV with the Cubs, when his focus and timing were no longer sharp. A far cry from his younger days in the Cardinals' booth with Jack Buck. Go find an aircheck of a Cards game on KMOX with Caray and Buck from the 1960s if you can. Or watch the 1968 World Series, which featured Harry in the NBC television booth when the Cards were on the road in Detroit.

Just remember–not every P-B-P guy was as lucky as Vin Scully or Ernie Harwell, both of whom were able to effectively work into their late 80s.

My first "exposure" to Harry was the 1968 World Series - St. Louis and Detroit. Harry was shilling for St. Louis during the regular season and NBC let him do the series. He was the most obnoxious, over the top cheerleader I ever heard. Some homers - those with talent and ability - can be interesting, amusing and likeable. Like Mel Allen. He called the game cleanly but if you listened carefully, you could tell whether the Yankees were winning or losing and by how much. But not Harry. And this was on a network series broadcast, not the local St. Louis station which carried the Cards' games. He went way beyond inappropriate. I hated him at first listen and found him more contemptible as time went on. I'd like to hear an air-check of him calling for the Cubbies against the Cards, after he switched teams (three times). I'm sure he was a blatant calling against the Cards as he had ever been when he worked for them. There's a word for people like Harry. Santa says it three times.

 

[KeithE4]

My first "exposure" to Harry was the 1968 World Series - St. Louis and Detroit. Harry was shilling for St. Louis during the regular season and NBC let him do the series. He was the most obnoxious, over the top cheerleader I ever heard. Some homers - those with talent and ability - can be interesting, amusing and likeable. Like Mel Allen. He called the game cleanly but if you listened carefully, you could tell whether the Yankees were winning or losing and by how much. But not Harry. And this was on a network series broadcast, not the local St. Louis station which carried the Cards' games. He went way beyond inappropriate. I hated him at first listen and found him more contemptible as time went on. I'd like to hear an air-check of him calling for the Cubbies against the Cards, after he switched teams (three times). I'm sure he was a blatant calling against the Cards as he had ever been when he worked for them. There's a word for people like Harry. Santa says it three times.

In most cases, announcers are paid by the teams, not the flagship stations. Harry Caray was an exception when he called White Sox and Cubs games (in both cases, he was a WGN employee), but not while with the Cards and A's. Despite being an employee of Anheuser-Busch, who owned the Cardinals, he still called them as he saw them -- something that drove players nuts sometimes. But his main job was to sell Cardinal baseball and Busch beer, not necessarily in that order. In Chicago, he was even more of a homer, but the Sox and Cubs did not pay his salary. But he still called them as he saw them.

You would really hate listening to most NFL radio broadcasts. Those are one of the two broadcast entities (preseason TV is the other) that are controlled by the teams rather than the league itself, and they expect their announcers to be unabashed shills in most cases.

 

[oldvnewschool]

I agree, it's not unprofessional to make fun of the team's uniforms. Making fun of an athlete and doing it in a mean-spirited way and not respecting them vice versa, that's unprofessional.