I sent this to Fox Sports. I doubt that they care but I had to vent:
Jeff Torborg is a bad announcer. Now, that’s not the worst thing in the world. But he is a bad announcer who not only has no real connection to the Braves franchise, he is a bad announcer who DOES have connections to division rivals (the Marlins and Expos/Nationals) and ex-rivals (the Dodgers). And he keeps talking about these connections while the game is going on.
But the worst part is that he continually talks about things that happened forty years ago with the Dodgers of the sixties, things that happened before most of the audience was even born. Nobody cares. Even the people who were around then don’t care, because they aren’t Dodger fans. Sandy Koufax simply isn’t relevant to us.
Fox once had a rule that announcers weren’t allowed to do this, that anyone who turned a baseball game into a continual nostalgia-fest for the “good old days” would be told to shut up or leave. What happened to that rule?
Note that I’ve done a little organization of the blogroll to the left. If you’re a regular commenter, have a website, and it’s not linked, let me know.
If anyone’s interested, I’m doing PBP of high school football at 8:30 ET tonight at http://www.mix967online.com (scroll to the bottom for a live link) and my halftime preview of tomorrow’s CFB games will be at halftime, somewhere around 9:20-9:30 ET.
I think the worst Torborg moment was the recent McCann mishap. In case you don’t remember, Jeff Francoeur threw home on a play at the plate, and McCann took his eye off the throw for a moment to glance at the runner and consequently missed the ball. Torborg would not shut up about it or his personal method of handling that play. The next half inning, after the commercial break, he was still talking about it. At one point he even said, “I don’t want to harp on this, but…,” and he proceded to harp on it.
I don’t mind anecdotes so long as they’re moderately interesting and short. I cannot stand the way announcers will beat a dead horse and try to figure out as many ways to say the same thing as possible.
I never listen to Torborg, so I have no idea how annoying he really is, but I don’t mind nostalgia if it’s doled out at the right time and in the right measures.
Don Sutton never played for the Braves, but I like his perspective because he never overdoes it. You feel like he’s letting you in on a secret, as opposed to blathering about something that he thinks is interesting because it happened to him. Same thing with Jim Kaat and the Yankees (plus, he’s the only Yankee announcer who actually tells the truth). Of course, Torborg wasn’t as good as those guys, so maybe that has something to do with his spiel.
Nice letter on Torborg. I’m hoping Charlie Manual, Frank Robinson, or Joe Girardi gets fired this offseason and Torborg gets hired to replace them. Then we can have the double satisfaction of beating division rivals and making Torborg shut up. Torborg has been so bad recently that even I have had to turn on the radio broadcast even though I find watching a game on TV while listening to the same game on the radio to be disconcerting.
I could never stand Sutton, and am glad I am only very occasionally exposed to Torborg. Surely, Braves Nation can produce one or two competent announcers. Otherwise, who will be able to endure our broadcasts when Skip retires?
1914 Update:
Boston Braves 75-55 (–)
NY Giants 72-59 (3.5 GB)
St. Louis Cardinals 71-62 (5.5)
Chicago Cubs 71-63 (6)
Pittsburgh Pirates 62-68 (13)
Philadelphia Phillies 61-71 (15)
Brooklyn Robins 58-73 (17.5)
Cincinnati Reds 56-75 (19.5)
Today’s Game:
Brooklyn 211 000 010- 5 15 2 LP- Rucker
Boston 025 000 00x – 7 7 1 WP- James
Giants lose in Philly, 4-3. Magic number 21.
According to the New York Times, “The Boston management is now ready to start making reservations for a world’s series against the Mack men.” The latter are the Philadelphia Athletics, who enjoy an 8-game lead in the AL with 20 games to play.
(And note the phrasing “world’s series,” consistently used by the Times. World Series wouldn’t be standardized as the championship’s name for several more years. And it had nothing to do with the New York World newspaper.)
off work today. If anyone cares turn on MTV Cribs, they are about to show Andruw’s house. It will be the last one on this episode I think
CSG was right. I was surprised at the square footage (I think it was 25,000) and that he doesn’t seem to use all that much of it- he has a formal living room his family only uses to open Christmas presents and a bathtub he’s only been in once (he and Nicole prefer the shower). Not all that much stocked in the kitchen, Coke, Red Bull, a little food from the supermarket. Several cars and an SUV, all colored silver gray.
“Now get the hell out of here,” he says at the end. But he says it in the nicest way.
TEH BRASVE SHOULD HVE NEVER SCRWEWED WITH JAMES DOBSON!! NOW THEY FEELING GODS RATH !!!!!!!!11
Yet again being a blog pimp:
http://www.torborgwatch.blogspot.com/
Nice blog, Dan. I’ve been reading firejoemorgan.com for a while and was wondering when somebody would do the same for Torborg. I was shocked when I read the Torborg wikipedia entry to see he actually has a fan club. Who are those people and what is wrong with them??
“Nice blog, Dan.”
Thanks.
Anyone see how Adam LaRoche is now the team leader in batting average on Yahoo? Who would have predicted that in April?
That’s a bit misleading since it doesn’t count McCann and Diaz due to number of at bats.
I might be walking into a hornets nest even saying this, maybe I’m a total freak, but am I the only person who doesn’t really notice announcers during televised sporting events? I never seem to notice them one way or the other. Whether they are pro my team, anti my team – I never can tell; they’re just faceless voices that my brain halfway hears as my eyes watch the television. Just my 2 cents.
hazeman,
You are not alone. I do not care about announcers—ever. Why? Because nobody has a gun to your head & says you have to listen. Why put up with something that you don’t have to, and then complain about it? Plus, if they say something stupid, I just think, “Whatever.”
When the Braves are on ESPN, for example, I have the WSB radio telecast on the Internet. Could care less what Joe Morgan has to say.
No Jeff Torborg today, Ron Gant is there instead.
And Cormier quickly puts the Braves in a hole.
Ah, there’s the Cormier we all know and loathe.
And the Frenchy too.
4-0 in the first with Dontrelle Willis pitching like he is, it’s already over. I hate Cormier. If the Braves can win one of these three and keep the Marlins out of the playoffs, I’ll consider it a victory.
Thank you, Marcus.
Marcus!
How exactly did Frenchy screw up Ross’ single?
He let it go under his glove when it was rolling, playing it too aggressively, making it an inside the park homerun.
Cormier walks the opposing pitcher. That’s just nasty.
Man that Uggla guy just eats us alive.
-n
And with two outs, the walk to the pitcher shows why it’s sacreligous among pitching coaches.
Thanks Bobby for still giving Cormier starts too.
Maybe my email worked!
Little-known fact: In medieval France, a “cormier” was a peasant who was employed by a knight to wear armor, stand very still, and let the knight hit him over and over with mace and broadsword.
Wow, if Cormier didn’t give up six runs in two innings, the Braves would be really doing nicely now.
Ron Gant: You thought it was going to be a pitchers’ duel and…..
Pitchers duel? With Lance Cormier on the mound?
Well, you know, Cormier did have that one good start, which leads Gant to reason, that every game from now on with Cormier would be, you guessed it, a pitcher’s duel. Another argument, I guess, to ububba’s wise council to refrain from listening (not that I can since I don’t have Fox or TS and I’m way to cheap to pay for mlb.tv). But then in the spirit of such broadcasters, I’d like to tell you all about [insert long, boring story about listening to a game in the 70s with little or no relevance to the discussion going on here]. So, there you go.
The whole team needs the doghouse tonight. I think the Braves may have broken the NL record for most swings at ball four in a single game.
Well, that’s that. .500 was just a dream…
This team smells worse than the Fresh Kills landfill in New York.
Now I’m really itching to start the all-time Braves sim tournament but I can’t until the Braves lose 82 games. That’s the cut-off point to get them out of the top 64 Braves teams of all time.
Pew. That must be stinky.
Not much has changed, I guess.
“Now I’m really itching to start the all-time Braves sim tournament…”
What is that?
Great email Mac