2022 MLB Season (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

Frankly, I think David Cone is better than Keith or Ron. All three are really good. I'm not a fan of Gary Cohen. Perhaps, it's the Yankee fan in me.

 

[Osato]

Frankly, I think David Cone is better than Keith or Ron. All three are really good. I'm not a fan of Gary Cohen. Perhaps, it's the Yankee fan in me.

I’ll have to give them another listen. Is Cone always on the tv broadcasts?

 

[TonyD]

Only thing I like about the AppleTV+ broadcasts so far is they seem impervious to the usual blackout restrictions for local home teams unlike MLB.TV streaming, but that's probably because they're apparently covering the whole production end-to-end w/ whatever agreement they have w/ MLB (and the covered teams) unlike MLB.TV...

Besides the generally awful, gabfest analyses, if you can call them analyses at all, I also find their choice of extremely minimal on-screen stats/info/updates (in favor of the kinds of context-lacking, probability figures) rather annoying.

_Man_

The Apple broadcast is a national and exclusive broadcast, that’s why it’s not blacked out.
Similar to the espn Sunday night games and the Fox Saturday afternoon games.

As for the Mets announcers and this is coming from a Phillies fan, I think they’re the best team on the air not including the Phillies.
To me they seem fair and mostly unbiased and never have a problem criticizing the Mets when it’s warranted.

My only bother is the home run call by Cohen.
It’s a direct borrow from the great Harry Kalas and it doesn’t sound natural or Organic.

Oh one edit
Cone is not good. Don’t like him at all.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I’ll have to give them another listen. Is Cone always on the tv broadcasts?

Not always also he does ESPN Sunday night broadcasts now.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Missed your question. Sorry!

My dad didn’t follow sports and I grew up in the 1980s when the Mets had a lot of stars.

I saw the Mets play a doubleheader live in 1987 in Atlanta too. I’ve just stuck with them all of these years.

That's probably kinda like how I became a Dallas Cowboys fan growing up despite living here in NYC (after immigrating here from Hong Kong back in the late-70's)...

Like most people outside the USA, my father was mostly only interested in soccer, and that was not a thing over here back then, except maybe in some schools farther away from major cities I guess.

Interestingly, I became somewhat interested in the game of baseball even back in Hong Kong, not because of the real (pro) game, but because of some fictional/fantastical Japanese TV shows that were imported to HK (like a lot of other things because HK-ers have long been big fans of Japanese imports). Think Shaolin Soccer, but some Japanese variation w/ baseball instead (and like all such imports, dubbed in Cantonese).

I never actually watched (or played) any real baseball games (or learn/knew the rules), not even the Japanese (or Taiwanese?) ones, until moving here...

_Man_

 

[Osato]

Not always also he does ESPN Sunday night broadcasts now.

I saw that Cone is doing some ESPN games too. I don’t currently have ESPN so I’ll have to try and catch him on a Yankees broadcast.

One broadcaster I don’t care for is John Smoktz. He always sounds bored at the game. He does have good insight at times though.

Al Leiter is another commentator that I enjoy listening to.

One other baseball note. I’m reading”If They Don’t Win It’s A Shame” a book about the 1997 Florida Marlins. I’m enjoying it so far.

 

[Osato]

That's probably kinda like how I became a Dallas Cowboys fan growing up despite living here in NYC (after immigrating here from Hong Kong back in the late-70's)...

Like most people outside the USA, my father was mostly only interested in soccer, and that was not a thing over here back then, except maybe in some schools farther away from major cities I guess.

Interestingly, I became somewhat interested in the game of baseball even back in Hong Kong, not because of the real (pro) game, but because of some fictional/fantastical Japanese TV shows that were imported to HK (like a lot of other things because HK-ers have long been big fans of Japanese imports). Think Shaolin Soccer, but some Japanese variation w/ baseball instead (and like all such imports, dubbed in Cantonese).

I never actually watched (or played) any real baseball games (or learn/knew the rules), not even the Japanese (or Taiwanese?) ones, until moving here...

_Man_

Very similar! For the NBA I became a Suns fan. My mom did live in Tucson for a number of years though.
So I did have a bit of connection to Arizona pro and college teams too.

These days I really just enjoy the Mets and baseball overall. The NFL and NBA I don’t really watch anymore. Same with college sports.

The Mets are in Atlanta in July and August. I have tickets for an august game. I may try and see one in July too.

It’s amazing how well the Mets are playing this year.

I don’t take it for granted though. On the radio today they talked about all of the NL teams that went to the playoffs last year. The Dodgers and Giants both won over 100 games and both didn’t make it to the World Series.

The Braves did it with 88. Dodgers and Astros injuries plus some amazing career years from some of the Braves players helped them win. Even without Acuna.

Some of the Dodgers hitters are really struggling. Muncy, turner, smith and bellinger. I just saw that Betts will miss some time too.

For an 80s Mets fan like me there’s only one Mookie. Betts is a fantastic player though.

 

[MartinP.]

Speaking of broadcasters, not on the East Coast, I do like the Dodgers broadcasters, Joe Davis and Orel Hershiser, but somehow Joe Davis has gotten side contracts with Fox - he'll be doing the World Series (I don't know what his Dodgers contract has been or is now) so there's been some shell game rearranging off and on all year. One week they had Dontrelle WIllis on the team and he was quite good. Sometimes Erik Karros has been another. The radio team I also like quite a bit, Rick Monday and Charley Steiner.

 

[MartinP.]

[...] when the top of the 7th inning came on, they started with a couple highlights of other games in progress; when they got to the game at hand, the first batter had already been up and out and the second had one strike already. (I looked up the play by play between the two batters and five pitches had been thrown.) None of the three commentators even mentioned what happened with the first batter and they were still talking about something else unrelated to the game at hand. To me this is unacceptable.

No one mentioned this, but I wouldn't think any of you approve of this. Yes? No?

 

[MartinP.]

Some of the Dodgers hitters are really struggling. Muncy, turner, smith and bellinger. I just saw that Betts will miss some time too.

J. Turner but not T. Turner!

Mookie Betts out, yes...ugh...headline today...

'Big blow' for LA: Betts (cracked rib) placed on IL​

Looks like that collision that happened (never should've happened) in the first inning/first batter in Tyler Anderson's almost no hitter game is looming larger:

Taylor Ward, the very first Angels batter in the first inning, got a hit that was accurately changed to an error because somehow Mookie and Bellinger collided on a routine catch in the outfield.

 

[Osato]

Speaking of broadcasters, not on the East Coast, I do like the Dodgers broadcasters, Joe Davis and Orel Hershiser, but somehow Joe Davis has gotten side contracts with Fox - he'll be doing the World Series (I don't know what his Dodgers contract has been or is now) so there's been some shell game rearranging off and on all year. One week they had Dontrelle WIllis on the team and he was quite good. Sometimes Erik Karros has been another. The radio team I also like quite a bit, Rick Monday and Charley Steiner.

I don’t think I’ve heard Joe Davis call a game yet.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I don’t think I’ve heard Joe Davis call a game yet.

He's the Fox announcer that has replaced Joe Buck.

 

[Osato]

He's the Fox announcer that has replaced Joe Buck.

Got it. I’ll have to see when fox is airing games.

 

[Malcolm R]

This annoyance in the broadcast booth seems to be spreading. The group on NESN is starting to do this more and more with Red Sox games, too. Inviting a 3rd person into the booth just causes more distractions than anything.

It's almost like they think the game is not the central entertainment draw any more, and they think the booth personalities have to whoop it up to provide further entertainment. Just annoying, IMO. I want to watch the game, not listen to a bunch of obnoxious "guests" bluster on about things not related to the game I'm watching.

 

[MartinP.]

Is anyone aware of any MLB broadcasts, national or local, or even on radio, that just has one voice, one person broadcasting? Oh how I miss Vin Scully!

 

[MartinP.]

^^^

Dodgers pulled out a series win from the Braves last night in their first extra innings win (!) of the year. My favorite Dodger, Chris Taylor, wasn't even in the lineup, but was put in at the top of the 9th and got a hit. But the pivotal move was then stealing second which enabled him to tie the game when Trayce Thompson singled, and then when Taylor doubled in the 11th which allowed Bellinger to score the go-ahead run.

Don't know what they said, but Freeman and Olson had a short chat when Olson arrived on first base in the bottom of the 10th. Interesting series with Freeman and Kimbrel (most saves in a Braves uniform) having been with Atlanta and last year Pederson and now Kenley Jansen with the Braves (most saves with the Dodgers). I tell you, it was great to be on the other side of one of Kenley's blown saves last night. He was a great closer and his record with saves was stellar, but when he had blown saves they were always memorably spectacular at the worst possible times.

 

[TonyD]

I just don’t understand why teams allow a runner to walk to that next base like the Braves did last night in the 9th when they allowed Taylor to take second with a runner on third and 2 outs. It was scored as a steal but it was more The Braves just let him go to second without trying to keep him on first. Indifference
The next batter singled and 2 runs scored. Tied the game.

 

[MartinP.]

^^^

It was the top of the 9th and two batters had struck out. Perhaps Snitker, after how the Dodgers had been silent all night at that point, thought they could get that one more out. Perhaps Snitker thought Jansen knew Lux and Taylor enough to get them out. Then Lux singled. Then Taylor singled. Trayce Thompson, just called to the Dodgers, probably wasn't thought much of to get a third single in that inning. The win probability when he came up to bat for Atlanta was still 93.7%.

Like I said, Jansen's saves, blown or not, have always been classic. Getting the first two outs immediately and then...a long stretch of nail biting and angst, regardless of the outcome.

The official scorer must have thought there was a reason to credit Taylor with a steal. I can't find any writing or video clips mentioning the ruling. Defensive indifference, as you know is: An official scoring judgement in which a runner is not credited with a stolen base because the team playing the field did not try to stop the steal. This typically occurs late in a game when the fielding team is winning by at least two runs. Normally in those positions things like that do get called offensive indifference.

 

[David Norman]

Given Jansen's complete inability to keep a runner at 1st and teh well below average Atl catcher Caught Stealing rate it's probably pretty irrelevant if they throw through anyway. Probably 5x higher chance at an error than having a runner thrown out anyway.

Having the 1st Baseman in a position to even hold a runner increases the likely chance at a ball getting through that side of infield.

Fielder Indiffence also has at least a bit of Game Significance subjectivity, Same play with a 3-4 run lead is far more likely to not be credited as a steal. Moving the tying or goahead run into scoring position is a lot more significant than a runner whose isolated run means nothing

 

[Osato]

Mets on Apple TV tonight. My wife made me turn the announcers off…..

Funny!