I was irritated like never before watching Adrian Gonzalez in the ASG Home Run Derby and it wasn't because of his power outage. This post is essentially the same one I posted at Gaslamp Ball earlier tonight...with a couple of enhancements.I'll preface this complaint by saying that I am aware that the Home Run Derby is an exhibition within an exhibition that masquerades as something meaningful.......so who really cares.
However:
ESPN's coverage of Adrian's Derby ABs was a complete joke!
It was an uneventful performance that only lasted a shade under five minutes and you wouldn't have even known that Adrian Gonzalez was batting if that idiot Chris Berman hadn't stopped yapping his gums 35 seconds into Adrian's AB.
- First 35 seconds of AGon Derby AB consists of Berman talking about the Cardinals.
- AGon intro then lasts 7 seconds followed by quick segue back to Joe Buck.
- Joe Buck says how excited he is to see Adrian's performance in the Derby as well as in the ASG tomorrow because "Adrian Gonzalez is the best player you've never heard of.".......and as the last syllable rolls off of Buck's tongue, Berman jumps all over him with, "What was it like to be Jack Buck's son?".
- The Buck/Berman/Morgan/Phillips Love-Fest went on for the next 4 1/2 minutes while Adrian Gonzalez innocently slapped line drives around Busch. Adrian made his tenth out , took a seat, and toweled off......and then 30 seconds after he had finished, Berman acknowledged that Adrian had actually completed his turn in the competition.
Now if Adrian had started hitting some bombs perhaps the whole Jack Buck Love Fest / "St. Louis Cardinal Nation" History Lesson would have been brought to an end but here's my issue:
Joe Buck told a national audience that Adrian Gonzalez IS the best player you've never heard of and how he couldn't wait to watch him.....and then spent the next 5 minutes looking at the ESPN Desk waxing poetic about the Cardinal's rich history in the Midwest. Anyone on ESPN will also tell you that Adrian IS the best player you've never heard of.......yet they never took the opportunity to talk about him in front of a captive audience.
I'm not really surprised but what a fu@*ing joke!
In the meantime here's some YouTube fueled hatred:
Chris Berman's nicknames and HR calls were cool....when I was 12. Now he's a douchey caricature of himself.
This is arguably one of the best plays in Super Bowl history. Would you know it from the Joe Buck call?
Chris Berman and Joe Buck.....dickheads.
Very funny. I missed his turn. Here, let me calm you down:
ReplyDeleteYou're in San Diego, right? What's the temp there? 85 with 0 humidity right? Perfect.
The St Louisian's gotta go overboard for the Cards - that's all they've got, plus they have to wallow in their own sweat watching games in 85° with 100% humidity every day. No matter how fast you knock down the cold frosty buds, you'll still have sweat dripping down your back.
I noticed that they really didn't pay much attention to Gonzalez as well. Could they have not saved that lovefest when there was downtime in the broadcast? Was it really necessary to talk about the "tradition of St. Louis" while one of the hitters was at the plate? Give each guy the respect they deserve and save the love fest for the commercial break.
ReplyDeleteI won't begrudge St. Louis their moment and truthfully I want to hear the story behind the Cardinals. I love baseball history....but give Adrian his due at a time when ALL baseball fans are watching.
ReplyDeleteTo carry on with a story without giving him a timely introduction or farewell was ridiculous. It's like those times you walk into a customer service situation and the two employees are in the middle of a conversation and they completely ignore you, continuing on with their little story.
I don't GIVE A FUCK how much Joe Morgan loved Jack Buck.
We lead the league in inferiority complexes.
ReplyDeleteIt was the Home Run Derby, it's not as if they can fill a lot of empty time with play-by-play, and give a biography of every player participating.
Like many things, if Adrian Gonzalez had done well, there would have been much more time and reason to discuss his accomplishments.
Every fan always thinks that their favorite player didn't get enough attention.
I think you are grasping at straws on this one.
MH
ReplyDeleteDid you watch Adrian's AB?