1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Broadcasters not mentioning a no-hitter in progress

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Boozeman, May 4, 2012.

  1. MTM

    MTM Well-Known Member

    A broadcasters job is to tell the audience what is happening, and these two hacks failed miserably.

    I'm with Boozeman, if I was flipping channels and saw 9-0 up in the little scorebox, I would have kept flipping and missed it.

    And who the hell is Victor Rojas to make that decision? It's surprising that a team in the No. 2 media market has not had a quality PBP guy since Dick Enberg and Bob Starr in the early 1980s.
     
  2. As The Crow Flies

    As The Crow Flies Active Member

    I'm OK with avoiding the term "no-hitter" -- baseball has all kinds of these weird (sometimes dumb) unspoken rules and for a lot of people that's what makes the sport endearing. But as a few have said, there are dozens of ways to get around it and still keep the audience informed of what's going on. If Rojas didn't do that, then he failed at his job.
     
  3. SoCalDude

    SoCalDude Active Member

    One of the guys on talk radio, Petros, I think, made an interesting point comparing it to a guy who has made a lot of free throws in a row. Petros was blasting the Angels announcers for not mentioning it.
    He added that announcers never hesitate to say Joe Blow has made 55 free throws in a row. Oh, he missed, I must have jinxed him. Ha ha ha ha.
     
  4. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    Diane Pucin had a similar story in Friday's Times. Here's two of the better quotes:

    First, from Jon Miller of the Giants, late of ESPN:
    And Charley Steiner from the Dodgers:
    http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-0504-no-hit-announcers-20120504,0,5311872.story
     
  5. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    He'd quote Tennyson, or else read from the voluminous cheat sheets that are prepared for him.
     
  6. FishHack76

    FishHack76 Active Member

    I think a couple run-ins with the law took care of that.
     
  7. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty New Member

    a player's first consideration should be his teammate throwing the no-hitter ... avoid a jinx like the plague.
    a "broadcast journalist's" first consideration should be his/her customer, the audience.
    fanbois running wild.
     
  8. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    I like the way he handled it.
     
  9. daytonadan1983

    daytonadan1983 Well-Known Member

    And if the game were being played in South Park, Colorado, would we be asking "What Would Brian Boitano Do?"...

    In an earlier thread, I mentioned I took over calling a no-no on our webcast because the student finally succumbed to his night at the club the previous evening. Yes, I said the word no-no at the start of each inning and said something along the lines of "If you appreciate the traditions and superstitons of baseball, just click on the live stats link. If you don't have live stats, hang around..." Not would Vin Scully would do, but I damn sure am not Vin Scully...

    During football season, we had an ESPNU announcer blow a touchdown call in one of our games. The blown call got more coverage from the "media covering the media media" than the actual touchdown, or God forbid, the kid who overcame two knee surgeries to get back into the game and be able to make the catch.

    For the love of me, I just don't understand why sports media likes to call out other sports media these days. That was space that could have been used better. And I was always taught the media is never the story.
     
  10. Shoeless Joe

    Shoeless Joe Active Member

    I don't care what the Angels broadcast team did or didn't do, but you let some dumbass in a baseball press box say "boy, this game is moving along fast" and see how quickly he gets cussed!
     
  11. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    If its in a casual conversation, maybe not.
     
  12. PaperClip529

    PaperClip529 Active Member

    I don't have a problem with this and I think this criticism is a little silly.

    My guess is that the majority of this television viewing audience knew what was going on. People had probably been watching the game in its entirety, heard about the no-hit effort on the Internet or, if they tuned in late, stuck around for long enough to see the between-inning graphics.

    I don't buy this "If I tune in and it's 9-0, I'm switching the channel" argument. If you aren't patient enough to stick around for a half-inning to see that graphic, my guess is that you probably wouldn't be patient enough to stick around to hear a so-called good announcer mention the no-hit effort, at best, once an inning (are we expecting the announcers to say something after every batter?). That's not on the announcers.

    If an announcer doesn't want to mention a no-hitter, who cares? If he wants to be superstitious, let him. If someone wants to use code words, cool. It's not a big deal.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page