Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Vinny must go

You know? I've been a Los Angeles Dodgers fan for most of my life. I attended my first Dodger game in the early seventies, and, I've been going to games regularly since around 1985. So, you can see, I love the Dodges, but, this has to be said:

Vin Scully, who most people believe is a great announcer has to either retire or work with a partner in the broadcast booth. Since around 1993, the so-called "Greatest Announcer in Sports" has gone rapidly down hill. Not only does he lose track of the action on the field, he routinely mis-identifies players, reports ball/strike counts incorrectly or just generally makes no sense.

Before the 2004 season, the Dodgers acquired Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew, and Derek Lowe. When asked about the players in a spring training interview, Scully's response was "I don't know any of these guys". Wouldn't you think a man who has been broadcasting baseball for over 50 years would know Jeff Kent, who spent several years with the Dodgers biggest rival, the San Francisco Giants and won a league MVP award, and, J.D. Drew who made a big stink of refusing to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies when drafted and Derek Lowe who had just pitched brilliantly for the Boston Red Sox in the previous year's World Series? OK, I understand if he doesn't know much about the players personally, but, shouldn't the best annoucer in the game at least keep track of players from other teams?

Here's another one, a few years ago, Brandon Medders was brought in to pitch in relief for the Arizona Diamondbacks and all Scully can tell us about him is that "Brandon Medders is an accomplished guitarist". Well, that's fine if he's going to serenade Dodger hitters into making outs.