Pam Ward: She gone

[Sam Mills 51]

Better tennis broadcaster than Mary Carillo? No chance.

I didn't think Pam Ward was particularly bad, certainly not enough to warrant a change. All sorts of other crappy talking heads will continue to work. Was Ward extraordinary? No. But there's more than a faint note of truth in that a play-by-play person is at the center of the traffic circle keeping the broadcast moving along and doesn't make it about him/herself.

 

[young-gun11]

I never hear her because I'm too busy listening to (what used to be) the three Dave's. Now I am stuck with Andre Ware at 11:21 a.m.

 

[jackfinarelli]

I never understood why she is so polarizing. You either love her or hate her. There doesn't seem to be much in between.

I really like her. She gives the down and distance. She tells you what happened. She doesn't get in the way of the game. I always thought she was the perfect play by play announcer.

AMEN!

 

[dixiehack]

My screwup on Carillo. As punishment, I will be bumped down to a thread covering Illinois-Troy.

 

[dooley_womack1]

I'm indifferent about Ms. Ward, but LOL to the suggestion that she was better at her job than Spencer Hall is at his.

Agreed. Ward made too many mistakes which detracted from the game, but Hall is a spectacular writer. Maybe that wasn't his finest piece, but he is tremendous, as his body of work shows.

Would love to see something backing that up. That sample is typical slacker-in-the-basement snark.

 

[Van Lingle Mungo]

I'm indifferent about Ms. Ward, but LOL to the suggestion that she was better at her job than Spencer Hall is at his.

Agreed. Ward made too many mistakes which detracted from the game, but Hall is a spectacular writer. Maybe that wasn't his finest piece, but he is tremendous, as his body of work shows.

Would love to see something backing that up. That sample is typical slacker-in-the-basement snark.

I've always liked this.

That January, while waiting for a winter that never came, I watched the 1993 Sugar Bowl with my whole family in the room. It might be the last time I can remember us all sitting down to watch a football game together, all in the same place. Lamar Thomas ran a perfect nine route deep out of Miami territory. Keith Jackson clearly mentions the penalty flag early in the call, but Lamar Thomas did not have an in-form KJ in his ear telling him that this play was pretend, fake, ersatz, done before it ever started. He kept running.

George Teague kept running, too. He didn't know none of this counted, either.

It is still the single most breathtaking play I have ever seen not because of the raw athleticism, but because it was never over for George Teague. To hell with the flags, or the angles, or the score: if Lamar Thomas were streaking toward an endzone a thousand miles away, guided toward it only by the sun, the stars, and a compass in his soul pointing towards the goal line, George Teague would have found him and stolen the ball and run the other way until he died exhausted and alone.

It happened on a down that appears in no stat line, no sheet of formal records. The turf is Astroturf, the game a glorified exhibition put on by a corporation hiding under the guise of a non-profit, involving players likely violating the rules of amateurism, beaming through satellites to flicker on the television of a fake house in a fake neighborhood in a fake state to a family in the last stages of living under the same roof. And yet it still stops my heart when I watch it. George Teague doesn't give a **** what down it is. He gets the ball, or he dies.

http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2011/9/1/2377214/gods-away-on-business

 

[BigRed]

I'm indifferent about Ms. Ward, but LOL to the suggestion that she was better at her job than Spencer Hall is at his.

Agreed. Ward made too many mistakes which detracted from the game, but Hall is a spectacular writer. Maybe that wasn't his finest piece, but he is tremendous, as his body of work shows.

Would love to see something backing that up. That sample is typical slacker-in-the-basement snark.

Try this on for size. Or, you know, follow his work rather than judging him by one blog post.
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2012/4/3/2922545/notable-dogs-in-college-football-and-elsewhere

 

[Double Down]

Dooley will simply reject whatever we offer since it will almost certainly be dismissed as hipster rambling, but for anyone with a more open mind, Spencer can flat out write.

Here he is on the feel of New Orleans during the National Championship game.

http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/2012/1/10/2691744/new-orleans-bcs-championship-college-football-season

 

[armageddon]

You can critique her work all long day. It has been my experience that when someone says it isn't one thing, it usually is exactly that.

Pam Ward is a middle of the road announcer. That's it.

Thanks for the green light.

Pam is a gracious individual who never reminded me in subtle or not-so-subtle ways she works for ESPN and I don't.

Always enjoyed seeing her around.

That said, if you studied her work closely (hint, hint) it wasn't up to snuff.

Feel free to dismiss my opinion by calling me a hater/sexist/caveman.

 

[jr/shotglass]

You can critique her work all long day. It has been my experience that when someone says it isn't one thing, it usually is exactly that.

Pam Ward is a middle of the road announcer. That's it.

Thanks for the green light.

Pam is a gracious individual who never reminded me in subtle or not-so-subtle ways she works for ESPN and I don't.

Always enjoyed seeing her around.

That said, if you studied her work closely (hint, hint) it wasn't up to snuff.

Feel free to dismiss my opinion by calling me a hater/sexist/caveman.

No, you can't be a caveman. I'm a caveman.

 

[txsportsscribe]

i obviously knew this had nothing to do with her but seeing my ***** sister-in-law's name in the title, along with "she gone" brought tears of wishful happiness to my eyes

 

[JosephC.Myers]

She struck me as middle of the road. Not awesome, not bad (I've definitely heard worse). As many games on as many networks as ESPN has, surely there was (or is) a spot for her somewhere.

 

[jr/shotglass]

I hear the Ocho has an opening for pxp on the midget weightlifting nationals.

 

[Watcher]

The best way I can put it -- she did not have the ability to make big moments in a game sound big.

And please, all, let's not pre-empt that by saying there are no big moments in an Indiana-Minnesota game. There are if that's the game you want to see.

She did the exact same thing that all the other pxp announcers do in big moments in terms of words, voice inflection and level of excitement. Not every person uses Gus Johnson levels to show excitement. So what you really mean is that her voice/style wasn't able to make YOU feel the big moments in a game. That's your problem, not hers.

If you want to make an issue over one mistake in a 3+ hour game then every pxp is guilty of idiocy. I found her work to be acceptable for a national broadcast. And as a long-time Big 10 viewer (taped every game for later viewing), I found that most of the stuff on sites like Awful Announcing took a lot of liberties with what was actually said especially about Ward. It became a game to see how often and how creatively she could be insulted in various forums.

 

[jr/shotglass]

OK. I'm betting I've seen about as much Big Ten over recent years as you, and I thought she was terrible. Which isn't particularly creative, I know. And I've never questioned her accuracy, although others obviously have. I just found her delivery to be grating.

To each their own -- although you sound like you're following the "Stop Bashing The Poor Lady!" camp.

 

[Watcher]

OK. I'm betting I've seen about as much Big Ten over recent years as you, and I thought she was terrible. Which isn't particularly creative, I know. And I've never questioned her accuracy, although others obviously have. I just found her delivery to be grating.

To each their own -- although you sound like you're following the "Stop Bashing The Poor Lady!" camp.

If she or anyone else makes a legitimate mistake, bash away. But fair and accurate.

 

[JosephC.Myers]

OK. I'm betting I've seen about as much Big Ten over recent years as you, and I thought she was terrible. Which isn't particularly creative, I know. And I've never questioned her accuracy, although others obviously have. I just found her delivery to be grating.

To each their own -- although you sound like you're following the "Stop Bashing The Poor Lady!" camp.

If she or anyone else makes a legitimate mistake, bash away. But fair and accurate.

Yeah, my judgment of her is based on her abilities, regardless of gender. If someone stinks, whether the announcer is male or female, I'm going to say they stink.