The Dodgers have now played two spring training games, and the expected "Hu's on First" joke has now been told by (at least) two different teams of announcers when shortstop Chin Lung Hu reached base. I'm sure this will eventually get old, but right now I am still extremely amused by it.
Note: I have some movie and concert reviews that I'll post at some point, but given the extreme grant proposal situation, I need to do stuff like that (and letters of recommendation for my students) when I am typing lots of text. I'll sneak a few potentially longer bits in here, and then things should calm down a bit after a couple of weeks (so that I can reduce how much time I do work at night).
1 day ago
5 comments:
The first broadcast I thought it really got old quickly, but the in the second one (for me, that was the espn tv broadcast via mlb.com, theoretically there were two radio broadcasts of the same game) it was actually funny. The weird thing is that that ESPN broadcast really sucked. I couldn't stand the announcers, they were always going off on random tangents and I swear there was one inning where none of the batters were even mentioned. I much preferred the radio play by play of the day before, where they actually identified the pitch types, locations, and when someone got substituted for, you actually heard about it. /rant off. It was nice to see the game though!
(Sorry, if it's unclear: "it" in my previous post is the "Hu's on First" jokes that Mason refers to. :)
Of course, we're all going to need to get used to this if Hu has a long career. :)
I actually like the play-by-play announcer (Gary Thorn) in the ESPN game. I've heard him announce games numerous times over the years and I think he's pretty decent and maybe even one of the better ones out there. The problem was twofold: (1) having three-four people in the booth at once is way too many and (2) John Kruk and Steve Phillips are both awful announcers. Peter Gammons was in the booth for a little while during the game, and he is an excellent journalist. As a broadcaster, the key thing is to listen to his insights (which are often spectacular) but when he's helping to broadcast a game, it is clear that he's a journalist masquerading as a broadcaster. The proper way to utilize his talents during a game is to pan to him at points where it doesn't distract from the action. Also, I suspect that ESPN was purposely focusing away from the action per se more because it was a spring training game rather than a regular season game, so part of the issue you mention will hopefully be a little less extreme when the action heats up.
Sounds like it may be a passing problem then. I wasn't sure if the 3-4 they had the whole time was usual or not, but it sure got annoying. :/ Haven't had the chance to check out any of today's games, but I may watch the Dodgers one later and see if that announcing crew is better. :)
Sadly it was the Mets announcing team (Keith Hernandez and I forgot who else), who are atrocious. Hernandez is particularly bad. They also told the 'Hu's on first' joke, so now that's three broadcasts and the joke by all three teams. I can't wait until the regular season starts and I'll get to hear Vin Scully again...
Most ESPN broadcasts have two people, some of which have occasional (but not constant) commentary on the 'hot stove league' (trade rumors and other inside analysis) by Peter Gammons. Some of their announcers are better than others, but they're just about all better than Phillips and Kruk. Jon Miller is a particularly good play-by-play guy (he's almost always paired with Joe Morgan) and Rick Sutcliffe is a particularly good commentator.
I haven't been able to focus on the game while it's on as closely as I'd like because I've been working on my grant proposal at the same time. It is nice to have it on the left side of my screen while I'm going through the pain, but it will be even better when things calm down and I can watch games more leisurely.
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