Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Curse of Eric Collins (2010)

Rookie Dodger broadcaster Eric "Gus Johnson" Collins started out his Dodger career last year 0-2 in his first two games. However, to his credit, he was able to turn it around and end the season 21-20 (the Dodgers 2009 press release says Collins would cover 38 games, but I can't figure out which east-of-Colorado road series he didn't call). The Dodgers ended up losing only four of the 13 series that Collins called in 2009.

This year, Collins has already surpassed that total, as the Dodgers have lost all five road series in which they've played. And Collins was behind the microphone for all of them. In fact, the only series that they've won all year have been called by Vin Scully on television.

Coincidence?

(Somewhere, Rick Monday and Charley Steiner are making themselves giggle.)

photo: Life

9 comments:

Small Sample Size said...

Dude looks like Jon Favreau's lil brother.

Josh S. said...

He doesn't even live in L.A.!

They just need to move Steiner back to TV for the East of the Rockies games. Monday can do those games on the radio alone.

Poor Jerry Reuss, a significant part of Dodger history, got let go to make room for this schmuck. Interestingly enough, his name (but not his bio) is still at the bottom of the Dodgers' broadcasters page. (The page hasn't been updated since the beginning of the 09 season.)

Frank Macomber said...

Needs more Ross Porter.

NicJ said...

Is Rex Hudler still unemployed? Someone give him a call.

Steve Sax said...

@Josh S: Collins' bio hasn't been updated, but isn't Vin's updated to reflect his 60th?

Josh S. said...

@Sax: Nope. The page says "Entering an unprecedented 60th season". He just celebrated his 60th Anniversary (60 years: 1950-2010), but this is the beginning of his 61st season.

Think of it like birthdays. When you turn 30, you're entering your 31st year.

dsheridan88 said...

Something I always post in hopes someone will run with it:
Why can't they make Vin's TV cast available at the stadium on radio? They do it at the gym with low powered signals...it would be a fitting tribute, and I bet you would hear tons of fans with radios.

TWO:DO NOT MOVE STEINER BACK TO TV!!!!
He is flat out horrible. Yeah, I know, "No one is Vin." THat doesn't mean you have to get someone with the exact opposite approach to everything that makes us love Vin. He anticipates action, often wrongly, won't stop incessant jabbering on things unrelated to the game, and laughs at his own stupid jokes, often for minutes at a time. Give a younger guy a shot, someone who knows they are following a legend. Don't forget...that is how Vin started.

Steve Sax said...

@dsheridan88: There is something that is pathetic-funny, however, when you're trying to figure out what is going on in the game, and Charley and Rick are just giggling, so you have no other choice (if radio is your only option) but to listen to the crowd noise to guess the action.

Sometimes I think those two bring up feathers up to the broadcast booth and just start tickling each other when the game gets slow.

Fred's Brim said...

to follow on with what dsheridan88 said, I would love the option of getting just crowd noise.

We had one of those huge satellite dishes back in the day and it was always awesome to get one of the "wild feeds" of a game. It would be the game sent on some random satellite channel. So ESPN's wednesday night game would come through on a completely different satellite than the one regular ESPN was on. And sometimes it would just be the picture and stadium sounds, no announcers and, many times, no commercials. They would often have the cameras on way before gametime and you could watch the crowd fill in and see all of the stuff that happened before the game. You could also see what the cameramen were looking at before games, mostly buxom chippies