2012 MLB Season

[njmeadowlanders]

http://www.metstradamusblog.com/2012-articles/june/a-black-and-blue-adrenaline-rush.html

I'm going to admit: I found this to be awesome as a Met fan:

[NJTank]

Remember 2004? That was his tour de force of dumb. You had Brandon Arroyo, "a walk is as good as a home run," "baseball is a game of inch," and god knows what else. How bad can he be now?

He had several "gems" in 2005. "Oswalt is a drop-and-drive pitcher. What is a drop-and-drive pitcher? Well, basically, he drops and drives." There were a bunch more from the ALCS I can't think of off the top of my head.

And of course, more ironic than purely dumb, when talking about Brad Lidge giving up the bomb to Pujols,"I think the taste has left his mouth" with the bat crack of Podsednik's walk-off homer coming a split second after he finished that sentence.

I remember a few gems from 2006

"David Eckstein is like you and me he has 10 little fingers and 10 little toes" and the very informational, "it is raining therefore any ground ball will make the ball get wet."

Speaking of McCarver was is it me or was Jason Bateman in Dodgeball imitating Tim McCarver?

[njmeadowlanders]

Remember 2004? That was his tour de force of dumb. You had Brandon Arroyo, "a walk is as good as a home run," "baseball is a game of inch," and god knows what else. How bad can he be now?

He had several "gems" in 2005. "Oswalt is a drop-and-drive pitcher. What is a drop-and-drive pitcher? Well, basically, he drops and drives." There were a bunch more from the ALCS I can't think of off the top of my head.

And of course, more ironic than purely dumb, when talking about Brad Lidge giving up the bomb to Pujols,"I think the taste has left his mouth" with the bat crack of Podsednik's walk-off homer coming a split second after he finished that sentence.

I remember a few gems from 2006

"David Eckstein is like you and me he has 10 little fingers and 10 little toes" and the very informational, "it is raining therefore any ground ball will make the ball get wet."

Speaking of McCarver was is it me or was Jason Bateman in Dodgeball imitating Tim McCarver?

It's 100% you.

[Kramerica Industries]

Remember 2004? That was his tour de force of dumb. You had Brandon Arroyo, "a walk is as good as a home run," "baseball is a game of inch," and god knows what else. How bad can he be now?

He had several "gems" in 2005. "Oswalt is a drop-and-drive pitcher. What is a drop-and-drive pitcher? Well, basically, he drops and drives." There were a bunch more from the ALCS I can't think of off the top of my head.

And of course, more ironic than purely dumb, when talking about Brad Lidge giving up the bomb to Pujols,"I think the taste has left his mouth" with the bat crack of Podsednik's walk-off homer coming a split second after he finished that sentence.

Not sure I remember McCarver saying that, but Buck immortalized it with his call of the home run.

[Still MIGHTY]

I don't mind Buck on baseball. He does his job perfectly well and is a professional in every sense on a baseball broadcast. If he wasn't with McCarver, I think we'd all have a better opinion of him, strictly on his baseball side.

It's his football calls that piss me off. That Manning-Tyree catch was ruined for me by Buck. "Manning drops back... Manning... escapes... throws down field.... and it is... caught by Tyree..."

[Sport]

Wow look what I started.

Yes, that was a reference to Family Guy, though I guess I butchered it a little bit.

As far as announcers go, this next opinion is highly unpopular in Cincinnati, but I think Marty Brennaman gets worse every year. He's still got that recognizable voice and he is what baseball sounds like to me, but he's a grumpy old man now and you find him on a soapbox about things far too often. He does fewer and fewer games every year and they're starting to phase in Jim Kelch more and more and that's good because I like Kelch. He sounds like a young Vin Scully, but you can tell it's his actual voice and he's not just doing a Vin Scully impression like so many announcers.

[cmm]

I liked McCarver when he was with the Mets; how he was fired from the Mets booth before Fran Healy is beyond me. During his Mets tenure, McCarver would do play-by-play for at least a few innings every game and unlike other analysts, he was more than capable.

[OnWis97]

My unpopular opinion on announcers is that most do fine and few are praiseworthy. We've decided that most national announcers are terrible and that long-time local radio play-by-play guys like Ernie Harwell are/were great. For me, most are just "there". I hate very few and I love very few. Nothing against the recent rash of retiring/dying long-time local announcers, but I think they are over-hyped, particularly when we praise them on a national level; I don't listen to radio games of other teams. And for national guys, I don't hate Joe Buck like I am supposed to (though he totally overreacted to the Randy Moss faux moon) or really anyone else. There are exceptions. Jim Kaat used to do the Twins TV games and then went to the Yankees (still there) and I thought he was quite good. And I also do not like Bill Walton because he hypes big guys/old guys too much. But overall, it's all just "meh".

[STL FANATIC]

http://www.metstradamusblog.com/2012-articles/june/a-black-and-blue-adrenaline-rush.html

I'm going to admit: I found this to be awesome as a Met fan:

I don't mind a good natured back and forth over the thing, but I'm not sure why anyone would legitimately complain about what the Post-Dispatch ran.

In New York the story is the no-hitter.

In St. Louis the story is that the Cardinals got no-hit, but it came with the help of a really bad call. Headlines are supposed to grab the attention of a reader and give some insight into the story. "NO-HITTER*" was the perfect headline for that audience. I don't believe any story in the paper actually suggested that there should be an asterisk in the books or anything.

I could discuss it further, but it's probably not worthy it. I enjoyed the back-and-forth between the papers, though. That's always fun.

[BJBerthiaume]

Doc Emrick should just be forced to announce every sporting event from now until the end of the world. Then we wouldn't have these announcer problems.

[Cujo]

Doc Emrick should just be forced to announce every sporting event from now until the end of the world. Then we wouldn't have these announcer problems.

Whatever happened to people sayin Gus Johnson was the GOAT?

[Eye]

Doc Emrick should just be forced to announce every sporting event from now until the end of the world. Then we wouldn't have these announcer problems.

Whatever happened to people sayin Gus Johnson was the GOAT?

Johnson sucks.

[The_Admiral]

Doc Emrick should just be forced to announce every sporting event from now until the end of the world. Then we wouldn't have these announcer problems.

I prefer announcers who don't mangle syntax and have aphasic episodes.

[mania]

Hey Oakland... you have a baseball game tonight.

[FiddySicks]

Wasn't McCarver a fairly competent broadcaster at one point? I've seen a few snippets of games he was calling where he didn't appear to be an addled, ill-prepared fool. Of course, the entire Fox presentation is so terrible that no one can be good; trying to step out of the morass just somehow pulls you in deeper.

He probably was, but I'm not old enough to remember it. But he's been doing it for so long at the highest level, that I imagine at some point he earned it. He's also not as bad as people make him out to be (few announcers are). My quote comes from Family Guy, I don't know if McCarthy was going for the same thing, but I assume he was. So that's an exaggeration of anything he'd actually say.

He says some silly things and is no wordsmith, but he's still got decent insights into games.

One of the favorite pastimes of the modern day sports fan is to hate on announcers, though. If you're not talking about a play-by-play guy over 60 who you've been told repeatedly is a legend, then surely whoever you're talking about is awful.

Vin Scully, Dick Enberg, Jack Buck (deceased), Harry Kalas (deceased). There's a few others I'm leaving out, because I'm not in their market or old, but those are basically the only good announcers ever. Everyone else is awful. People tell me repeatedly.

I'm not on that bandwagon. I think there's a lot of great announcers right now who should some day be held in similar regard (but I don't know if the negative culture will ever allow it).

Joe Buck, Bob Costas, Dan Schulman (finally getting a bigger role with ESPN--he's great). I think they're all fantastic calling games, and I think there's a reason why they're at the pinnacle of their industry. You don't get and remain there without talent.

It also occurs on a local level. I don't know if it's that way in everyone else's locales, but in St. Louis, people love to rip on our announcing team (though Hrabosky may deserve it). I think they've got a star in Dan McLaughlin (if he can maintain his sobriety), but there's a large continent of fans who think he's terrible.

Now, Tim McCarver isn't a play-by-play guy, and in truth, I could do without his oddities (though I like him ok), but it was a great jumping off point for a rant.

My dad was in boot camp with Tim McCarver at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where Tim was the troop leader among cadets. My dad said he was just as indecipherable then as he is now.

[The_Admiral]

"The thing about a gun is that it's not the bullet that kills you, it's the effects of that bullet."

Fort Leonard Wood! I know that area. It's one of the most godforsaken places I've ever been.

[NEW.ERA]

The draft was tonight.

Cue the crickets...

[FiddySicks]

"The thing about a gun is that it's not the bullet that kills you, it's the effects of that bullet."

Fort Leonard Wood! I know that area. It's one of the most godforsaken places I've ever been.

Otherwise lovingly known as America's a$$hole.

[Kramerica Industries]

Don't look now!

Jarrod Parker of the A's is six outs away from the next best thing to a perfect game...

(I'm too much of an ass to call it what it really is, when it's not completed.)

EDIT: Oof, 107 pitches thrown, though. This is a young arm too - acquired in the Trevor Cahill deal. Oakland would probably be wise not to chance it. Unlike Citi Field, there's basically no one at the Coliseum who would see this live.

[Shumway]

Don't look now!

Jarrod Parker of the A's is six outs away from the next best thing to a perfect game...

(I'm too much of an ass to call it what it really is, when it's not completed.)

EDIT: Oof, 107 pitches thrown, though. This is a young arm too - acquired in the Trevor Cahill deal. Oakland would probably be wise not to chance it. Unlike Citi Field, there's basically no one at the Coliseum who would see this live.

A young arm coming off Tommy John surgery (well, in 2010), in fact.

Edit: Michael Young ends it.