RadioActive wrote:

Wow. I had actually thought about posting something like this, but never got around to it. Glad to see I'm not the only one who feels this way about the excess verbosity. It's the same when Ben Wagner is behind the mic, although I don't blame him.

Whoever the colour man is on any given night seems to want to make a comment about every single pitch, even if it's completely unnecessary. 

Take a lesson from the late, great Vin Scully. Sometimes less really is more. The crowd noise, the cheering, the sound of the ballpark etc. can often set the scene better than any sentence. There can be a lot of wisdom dispensed in silence.

If the Jays could score as many runs as the words spoken on their radio broadcasts, they would already be running away with their division and a lock for the World Series.

The late great Ernie Harwell was another baseball announcer who only spoke when something was happening on the field. While the batter was awaiting the next pitch, all you heard was the background crowd noise.

As I recall Jerry Howarth was fairly good about allowing for some silence between his commentary.

With purpose in mind, I came to the board and found this post so I could agree with you. What I heard today was really bad. He missed calling a pitch then quickly called a third strike to end the inning. Prior to that he was talking to Madison Shipman about some former Blue Jay.

Call the game! The chit chat is the extra part.

I used to be sympathetic to Wagner working alone. I thought it was unfair to do so. Now I'm thinking it might be the better scenario.

laffin wrote:

Lasted only two innings when I increased the TV volume and turned off the jays radio broadcast.  When Ben Shulman and Blake Murphy are doing the games, there is just too much superfluous talk between pitches giving the impression they must prevent any dead air, when in fact some is welcomed.  I wonder if air checks are done.  If so, in today's radio industry there's probably no one to monitor or even care.  

Last edited by Leslieville Bill (August 26, 2023 6:37 pm)

Ever wonder what really goes on while you're watching a baseball broadcast on TV? A writer for the Score attended one game with the Chicago White Sox announcers and has an inning-by-inning breakdown of everything that happened.

With all the elements involved (including 12 cameras and pages and pages of graphic stats) it's amazing it goes as smoothly as it does, without the viewer being aware of what's going on behind the scenes.

Behind the scenes of 'the show': Deconstructing a baseball telecast