FanPost

Love to watch…but can no longer listen.

Like many others I am pleasantly surprised this year watching the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim play real baseball. My preseason thoughts of another year of Scioscia-ball were gloomy. To be a bit more specific, I am a Trout junkie. I have learned to estimate when he is batting and make sure I’m on the game. You might say how does that make you an Angel fan? Well, baseball is a team game and this team [and manager] better hope and pray that Mike Trout remains healthy, else all goes to shit quicker than you can say "turn the page". My game surfing is the result of what follows:

A baseball fan might be accused of sitting in front of a television watching paint dry. True baseball fans know that is not the case. Watching paint dry is watching golf. Yes, baseball is a slow paced game. But sitting back and taking the time to enjoy the game is one of the games most enduring qualities. Part of a baseball fan’s understanding of the game is that the game never truly stops, there is something happening all the time. A fan learns to appreciate that, he learns to guess, hope and he creates an inner dialog that keeps him attentive.

With MLB, ESPN, Fox and all, we are fortunate to be able to watch any number of games and sometimes all the same time. Sadly, I can no longer listen [as a baseball fan] an Angel broadcast.

Victor.

Victor is listening to paint dry. He speaks in phrases containing no more than seven or eight words. No three phases ever [almost ever] join together tracking an original thought. His voice carries something that strikes me as wanting to be quick and cute. Victor sadly reminds me of a bad, very bad, math teacher I once had. He spouts numbers, lots of numbers, there is usually at least one or two numbers in every phrase. There is little or no story line.

But it all gets worse and faster than a Garret Richards fastball.

Gubicza

Imagine as a fan you turn on the tube to enjoy an Angel game and Victor welcomes you. Faster than the nine-second-satellite delay, Gubbles starts SHOUTING at you using four or five hundred words, emphasis on every third or fourth word minus all periods or commas, all in less than thirty seconds! Shit! You sit for a while thinking maybe you’ve already had too much beer. You get wiry. You squirm in your seat. You say, WTF was that? You are slow but you learn over time to have the remote in your hand and mute the sound when you can guess Victor’s three phrases are finished or, worse, you go to another game until you deem it safe.

You've learned that during the game Gubbles might have two or three comments that are not insufferable. A too poor percentage. As the "color" commentator, he is supposed to explain what might have just happened. Oh…he does…! He does !! He interjects his comments the split second Victor reaches seven or eight words and he keeps going almost until the next pitch. Is he doing play by play? He barely shuts up, Victor says "downstairs, one and two", and Gubbles is back SCREAMING about the physics, geometry, and the kinesiology of EVERY F’N PITCH. Now no disrespect here, well ok, some disrespect, it is clear Gubbles would have to Google those sciences but that doesn’t stop his incessant lectures of each pitch noseamtwoseamfourseamslidercutter, or where the pitch should go, middleinmiddleouthighinofftheplate, and where the batter would or should hit it, leftcenterrightcenterupthemiddle, and if Gubicza were pitching where the pitch should have gone or what pitch he would throw next. IdgohighandinsideorlowandawayNoquestion.

I am thinking backdoor slider. Can somebody shut the fuck up? Give me a baseball break.

Both.

Aside Victor and Gubbles being hired as "circus shills" here is the real problem. Ninety percent of the time the television audience is ignored. Ninety percent of the time we hear a conversation between broadcasters, one not directed toward the audience. The overwhelming majority of the game’s conversation is about pitches and pitching. Too often, and increasingly, they get off and do not even talk about the game, the stadium, or baseball itself. It is ha ha and chuckles. If a guest is in their booth, screw the game. When they have a guest the director of the broadcast must be in the john or else sleeping. The game is also visually ignored for what have you been doing since you were last seen as a celebrity?

Admittedly, see above, watching baseball is a subjective, a kind of personal activity shared on television at the same time with millions of people. The evaluation of what you want to hear and what you would rather not hear is very much subjective. To each ear their own.

So, not to be accused as being totally negative, I'll be constructive: I think Victor has it in him to do the broadcast alone. I remember Rory Markas doing it alone. Victor is not and will never be Rory and would have initial and serious problems broadcasting alone. But doing the game alone, like standing in the batters box, would require Victor to do something he never displays doing on current broadcasts. Preparation.

Imagine having job jetting [on a comfortable charter] around the country, staying in high-end hotels, eating good food and being in the company of a likable professional baseball team…and doing NO preparation! Victor tells you what’s on the screen, adds the math- which sits on a computer display next to him- and nothing much else. Having him in the booth alone would require him to prepare to speak to his audience. He would be less paint drying or he would be "sent down".

Locally, the Angel’s television audience has increased by about 30,000 viewers per game this year. You might think those numbers alone discount the above stated concerns. If you believe that then you, like me, do not have Time Warner Cable. We are minions in Arte's wet dream. The Angels ARE the only game in town.

All of us hear what we want to hear. I am just tired of hearing what I don’t want to hear.

Scioscia aside, let’s hope for a playoff berth this year, sound down.




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