Alpha Wolf
Administrator
Posted 9 months ago
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Via Awful Announcing, here at the high, err, lowlights from the announcing booth yesterday:
Where's Juan Pablo Montoya?....perhaps he's out getting a taco"- Bob Griese
"Arkansas shot their wad last week."- Lee Corso (via Joe)
"That is a phone booth fight. What would you do in a phone booth fight."- Chris Spielman
"I would knee cap you."- Dave Pasch
(via 9er)
"Randy Edsall going for it on third-and-3."- Clay Matvick (via Tully)
"This is the point in the game where they squeeze the life out of you, like a python wrapped around your body" - Doc Walker (via JGreul)
"Ron Guenther the Illinois A.D. said Ron Turner will be the head coach next year"- Pam Ward
"U mean Ron Zook"- Ray Bentley
"Oh yea, Ron Zook, Ron Turner is the other Ron"- Pam Ward
TheCOWDOG
Member
Posted 9 months ago
#
Alpha, what Griese said was sooo wrong. Montoya is Colombian, not Mexican. He clearly was out having an empanada, jeez.
When Corso came out with his beauty, Herbie freaked out. " Shot their...,I don't believe you just..." All the while laughing like hell.
The look on my 17 yr. old daughter's face was priceless with that scrunched up WTF pose frozen on it.
I said," Kate, back it Corso's day it meant you just spent every last dime."
By the look on Lee's mug the whole time, he clearly didn't get the moment.
Bob Griese's Taco Comment:
http://www.thewizofodds.com/the_wiz_of_odds/2009/10/bob-grieses-taco-comment.html
Sporting News with videos: Griese, Corso, Raycom Stage Comedy of Errors in Early Game Coverage
ncsufan13
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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"Hello. My name is Juan Pablo Montoya. You mocked my dinner. Prepare to die."
TOBtime
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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Who is the clown who announces the ACC games - Doc Walker? I had to laugh when he said
" Virginia is giving up yards but they're doing it with manhood". As opposed to giving up yards without manhood? If you give up yards AT ALL as a defense does it matter? Or maybe he thinks it's better to get the ball shoved down your throat (as GT did to UVA) vs. a passing attack scoring every 3-5 plays. The guy should worry less about being one of the "fellaz" and more about being a commentator.
Wulfpack
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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Doc Walker is a horrendously bad announcer. It makes you wonder what in the hell Raycom sees in him. I watched some of App State's game yesterday and Sam Wyche (the former Bengals coach) was announcing. He wasn't great, but he was significantly better than Doc. Can't they find someone better? Do they care?
PackerInRussia
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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Griese should have referenced the actual comment in his apology just to show how dumb and oversensitive all this is. Something like, "I apologize for making such an insensitive remark. To claim or even suggest that Juan Pablo Montoya eats tacos was clearly out of line." I know I'm probably "missing the point," but I still think the whole thing's dumb. Yeah, he probably shouldn't have said it, but a total of 3 public apologies (his on-air apology, ESPN's apology, and his own second apology later on)? Did he later go and beat the man or something? We expect less from convicted criminals. What an overreaction.
Noah
Member
Posted 9 months ago
#
Being an announcer or color guy is a fairly privileged position. I imagine most people would like to make it through their games without having to listen to the equivalent of fried-chicken-and-watermelon jokes.
And if Griese doesn't want to spend the REST OF HIS LIFE explaining why he said that, he will apologize as many times as the networks demand.
As far as the whole "oversensitive" part, need I remind you of the complete and total meltdown half of this country had when a portion of Janet Jackson's titty was exposed for a billionth of a second?
I'm assuming that most of us don't like racist comments and think titties are just fine. And yet...
john of sparta
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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+1 Noah. Griese could be replaced by three color guys
At Less Total Cost to the network. this kind of thing gives
the accountants and legal counsel a justification to "right-size"
operations. the male Latino demographic is the media prize.
Mike
Member
Posted 9 months ago
#
Doc Walker is SOOOO bad he should not even be included in the awkward announcer moments. I think the only reason he still has a job is to make Steve Martin look good. Scary thing is I think the comedian Steve Martin would do a better job doing play by play for football. Both of these guys are terrible and very appropriate for the quality of play in the ACC.
Par Shooter
Member
Posted 9 months ago
#
Martin and Walker truly form the worst announcing team, for any sport, in the history of the universe. How can anybody from Raycom watch one of their games and not just cringe? They are so bad that the ACC office should step in and demand their release just to spare the league of being associated with them.
Their only redeeming value is as a source of joke/ridicule. Our group still says "that guy's gonna play on Sunday's" anytime a guy makes a halfway decent play in one of our home games. This is due to Walker's propensity (at least in past years) to say that about nearly everybody on the field. Hell, I remember a guy booming a punt a few years back and Walker immediately proclaimed he'd "play on Sundays".
NCSU88
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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I remember some years back when, as a test, sports were broadcast without commentators. Obviously it did not go over well. Raycom could try that angle. My all time favorite announcer is Curt Gowdy. Keith Jackson and Merlin Olsen were awesome as well. Back in the day...
JasonP
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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Is anyone able to sync up radio broadcasts of games with the action on TV? In the recent past broadcasters delayed the signal so fans couldn't do this, as most radio broadcasting is miles better than what the big boys give you on the tube.
Alpha Wolf
Administrator
Posted 9 months ago
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If you turn of your front and center speakers when a game is 5.1 surround, you will almost always not hear the announcers. That's the old "Get Rid of Dickie Vitale" trick.
MatSci94
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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We used to watch on TV and listen to the radio when I was growing up. There was a slight delay as the TV signal had 2 sat bounces (remote to studio, studio to cable povider) while the radio had one (just to studio). At some point (late 80's?) they added a couple of seconds to the delay on WPTF so it would sync with the TV better. The problem now is that there are so many more setups, and DVR units add several seconds to the signal. It is almost enough for me to watch a play on our upstairs TV (no converter) walk down and watch the same play on the DVRed TV (set to live).
Is it possible to rig up something to add a delay to the radio signal or the speaker signal?
A year or two ago during the ACC tournament Raycom was having trouble with their audio feed and there was no sound from the announcers. But you could still hear all the ambient sounds, the PA announcer, the shoes squeaking, etc. It was exactly what you would hear if you were actually at the game and it was a refreshing change. I wish they could come up with a way to make this an option sort of like the different audio tracks on DVDs or the SAP button.
Alpha Wolf
Administrator
Posted 9 months ago
#
^ See the 5.1 surround trick WV Wolf.
It worked last year for me. Haven't tried to silence Doc Walker yet this year.
ThomYorkepack
Member
Posted 9 months ago
#
Corso can just blame everything on being: (a) old, and (b) having a stroke. Kinda like the Seinfeld episode where Uncle Leo was busted for shoplifting. "I'm an old man!"
Griese has no defense other than "I went out drinking with my son Brian last night and was still hammered off my @ss during the broadcast".
Thanks for the tip Alpha, I'll have to give that a try.
dwr93
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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If the comment was about an italian guy eating pasta (ala Dick Vitale) would he have had to apologize, a german eating sauerkraut...
g6bentgrass
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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^ Agreed dwr. Bob Griese has gotten suspended for his comment. I know there has to be a line drawn somewhere on what you can and can't say on the air. But hasn't this one crossed the line?
howlie
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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"We did pretty good out there today, when you consider we had to substitute a GERMAN on the DL."
section2chuck
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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Doc Walker called this one player a "Baller In-waiting"
ldr of the pk 75
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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dwr93 ^ If the comment was about an italian guy eating pasta (ala Dick Vitale) would he have had to apologize, a german eating sauerkraut...
There is no place for racism, but what we mistake as racism today comes into question. We seem to be overly politically correct and no one but no one has any sense of humor anymore.
No one would say anything about Italians eating pasta. Or being involved in the mafia for that matter, which is referenced all the time. Is it because they are of white complexsion that makes it seemingly ok?
I was with a group last night for MNF, we're all 60'ish. Someone mentioned a comedy skit on Saturday Night Live in the early years. Garrett Morris who is black and Fran Tarkenton white did a bit about why there were no black quarterbacks in the NFL. The punchline came down to something like "because at halftime they'd all be out eating fried chicken"
That could never fly today, but the rap/hip hop scene is full of blacks throwing around the n word, calling women bitches, whores, and everyone else mf's.
Frankly, the politically correct people in charge of these situations sicken me with the kiss up.
You can have humor about people and not be racist. Hell if we can't laugh about ourselves this country has no chance at relationship amongst all the peoples.
BJD95
Administrator
Posted 9 months ago
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If he sincerely apologized (as I believe he did), then suspension goes too far. We all say dumb shit that we didn't mean any harm by.
ncsufan13
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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^ You guys are seriously underestimating the gravity of joking about a taco.
tjfoose1
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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Double standards are rampant throughout the media and the PC crowds.
Noah
Member
Posted 9 months ago
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It's not political correctness, it's protecting one's own economic interests. Nothing more. ABC doesn't give two craps about anything more than the bottom line.
And for what it's worth, my first time ever hearing Vitale was back in 1983. Back then, they used to do dual broadcasts for basketball games. There was a local and a national feed. So if you lived in the SE, you'd hear whoever did the Raycom broadcasts and if you lived in NY, you'd get the ESPN feed. If you lived in the local region, the ESPN feed was blacked out...and for you whippersnappers, they actually BLACKED it out. If you turned over to ESPN (and you had to actually turn a dial back in those days! Thus the expression, "turned over"), you just got a black screen.
ESPN didn't have enough original programming to fill their slate, so they re-ran a lot of stuff. In 1983, ESPN didn't show live college football. They showed tape-delayed games. They did the same thing with NBA games and they would re-air college basketball games. (This was an improvement from the previous years when they would simply go to a title screen and Muzak during the day)
So, we beat UNC 70-63 (this is the game featuring Lowe's famous between-the-legs pass to Bailey and the dunk overrrrr....Perkins?). I'm watching the re-broadcast and late in the game, we've got the lead and we're going to win...and there's a timeout. Vitale spent the entire timeout crooning, "There's James T. Valvano! You've won the game, Jimmy! You don't need to worrrrrry! You get to go home to Pam tonight and cook some lasagna! You get some linguini and some clams! You get some canoli, tonight, baaaaaybeeeeeee!"
This goes on. And on. And on. And on.
I was 10 years old when I'm watching this, so it's not like I have any taste or manners at all. I mean, Cannonball Run.....TWO! was funny to me when I was 10 years old. And even then, I recognized how obnoxious and tasteless Vitale was behaving. I probably would have had difficulty putting in words and expressing it, but even as a 10 year old, I knew that Vitale needed to take a heapin', helpin' teaspoon of shut-the-f*ck-up.
What Griese did isn't the equivalent of burning a cross on someone's yard. It's not even in the same universe. It's not the same as Al Campanis saying black people couldn't be decent managers or executives or Jimmy The Greek saying that black people couldn't be quarterbacks.
It's just obnoxious and it's beneath Griese and ABC and we should expect better.
