Wednesday, August 31, 2011

If Every Dodgers Broadcaster Is Returning, WTF Was The Point Of That Controversial Survey In The First Place

Leave it to the Dodgers. They get everyone all fired up over a survey sent to season ticketholders about the broadcasting teams--and then decide to bring everyone back anyway:

LOS ANGELES -- Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrin announced their plans to return for the 2012 season over the weekend. The rest of the Dodgers' broadcast team followed suit on Tuesday.

In a press release, the club announced the entire eight-man broadcast team will return for next season.

On the radio, Rick Monday enters his 19th season behind the mic with the Dodgers' supporting play-by-play man Charley Steiner, who will be in his eighth season calling games for Los Angeles.

Former Dodger Steve Lyons and play-by-play man Eric Collins, who fill in for Scully for road games in cities outside the National League West, also return for their eighth and fourth seasons, respectively, with the club.In a press release, the club announced the entire eight-man broadcast team will return for next season.

Fernando Valenzuela and Pepe Yñiguez return behind the mic to help Jarrin call the games in Spanish. For Valenzuela, the former Cy Young and 20-game winner with the Dodgers, it's his ninth season calling games, while Yñiguez will step to the mic for his 15th year.

Congratulations to the whole Dodgers broadcasting team, not all of whom I think is doing a great job. If I had to lay out the achilles heel of our broadcasters, they often (collectively):

  • fail to discern fly balls from home runs;
  • start giggling uncontrollably, at the cost of game play-by-play;
  • forget to tell the score too often (isn't that what egg timers are for?);
  • insist upon calling players by the infant-level convention [First Name + "y"];
  • are better known for on-field incidents (flag-saving, pants-dropping) rather than career achievements;
  • oftentimes, don't provide insight incremental to what we're seeing in the stadium or watching on TV.

I've got nothing against any of the broadcasting team members (and as a Dodger fan I think Vin Scully is a deity). But surely, this franchise deserves the league's best. That should be the standard for judgment, and not some capricious online survey to season ticket holders.

2 comments:

Kyle Baker said...

You left out digressing into comparison of current game observation into comparison of one's own mediocre at best career (Lyons).

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

The survey was probably just a formality that Simers (who else?) blew out of proportion.