Shut up, Bobby Valentine. Shut up, Bobby Valentine. Shut up, Bobby Valentine. Shut up, Bobby Valentine. Shut up, Bobby Valentine. Shut up.
Exactly.
The downside to the Giants winning the World Series is the fact that they've become hot stuff for the network folks, guaranteeing more appearances on the Saturday Fox broadcasts and the Sunday night ESPN games.
I say "downside" because this means Bay Area viewers lose the capable and comfortable Kruk & Kuip, and get stuck instead with motormouths like Valentine. "Insufferable" is a good place to start when describing this guy. "Ceaseless" is a good place to start when describing his chatter.
The wizards at ESPN decided to empty their broadcast booth of two Hall of Famers (Jon Miller and Joe Morgan) so they could stuff in Dan Shulman, Valentine, and Orel Hershiser. As far as I can tell, Shulman calls a very good game. But it's hard to hear him because Valentine doesn't leave much room (fill-in play-by-play guy Dave O'Brien got the same treatment in last night's Giants-Mets game).
The first couple times I caught this act, I figured somebody upstairs would hear it too and rein Valentine in. No such luck. And it's not just how much Valentine talks; it's often what he says. For example, last night, he took pains to criticize the Giants outfielders for the way they were aligned in a late-inning situation. As a former major league manager, Valentine ought to know that the outfielders don't position themselves; there's a bench coach worrying about those details. For a guy who seems to want to show everyone how much he knows, he misses the mark pretty often.
I have friends who used to cringe when Morgan would mangle the language or launch into another self-serving story. But at least he occasionally shut up.
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2 comments:
Yeah, but, if not for them, us East Coast Giant Fans would get nothing. I feel your pain but I'm just so happy to see the Giants on TV that I don't.
Just mute it and load up the radio broadcast. It's worth the annoyance of TV's 3 second delay.
I always had a tough time understanding why some viewers had such a low opinion of Morgan. When Joe spoke, you could usually learn something. It seems like Bobby V is just filling air time. (And don't get me started about McCarver!)
Hershiser is solid, as are just about any of the ESPN play-by-play guys (although I really miss Jon). Sunday night begs for a two man booth.
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