Rick Reilly: An Aficionado of Idiocy
Ah, the traditions of Home Run Derby: tape measure home runs, the sight of kids trampling each other while shagging balls in the outfield, and listening to Chris Berman's annoying and incessant "back back back" call 100+ times (does he know it's a home run derby?!?).
Add to those fun traditions a new one: amongst the 7 gazillion announcers/analysts ESPN has at the derby is Rick Reilly, who came to ESPN from Sports Illustrated earlier this year. Reilly has since proven he can be just as stupid on TV as he was in print.
Case in point from tonight's home run derby: a good 20-25 minutes after Josh Hamilton launched 28 bombs in the first round to break Bobby Abreu's record of 24, Reilly decided to add his analysis. "I'm sort of an aficionado of this home run derby thing, and I think that was clearly the greatest home run derby performance ever..." (emphasis mine).
Reilly "thinks" this is the greatest performance ever? And he has to declare himself a sort-of-aficionado in order to make this bold declaration, after nearly a half an hour of everyone else saying the same thing?
Rick, let me help you with this: Hamilton hit 28 homers. The record was 24. Therefore, it was the greatest performance in a home run derby. Is that too hard to understand?
Reilly also went on to rehash Hamilton's story, which was mentioned about 125,000 times (I may be exaggerating), ending with "it's a lousy night to be an atheist."
It's also a lousy night to be someone who watches the Home Run Derby with the sound on.
Add to those fun traditions a new one: amongst the 7 gazillion announcers/analysts ESPN has at the derby is Rick Reilly, who came to ESPN from Sports Illustrated earlier this year. Reilly has since proven he can be just as stupid on TV as he was in print.
Case in point from tonight's home run derby: a good 20-25 minutes after Josh Hamilton launched 28 bombs in the first round to break Bobby Abreu's record of 24, Reilly decided to add his analysis. "I'm sort of an aficionado of this home run derby thing, and I think that was clearly the greatest home run derby performance ever..." (emphasis mine).
Reilly "thinks" this is the greatest performance ever? And he has to declare himself a sort-of-aficionado in order to make this bold declaration, after nearly a half an hour of everyone else saying the same thing?
Rick, let me help you with this: Hamilton hit 28 homers. The record was 24. Therefore, it was the greatest performance in a home run derby. Is that too hard to understand?
Reilly also went on to rehash Hamilton's story, which was mentioned about 125,000 times (I may be exaggerating), ending with "it's a lousy night to be an atheist."
It's also a lousy night to be someone who watches the Home Run Derby with the sound on.
Labels: atheism, Chris Berman, Home Run Derby, Rick Reilly
posted by Slut Bunwalla at
10:42 PM
1 Comments:
I get why the Home Run Derby is generally regarded as more entertaining than the All-Star Game by fans, but ESPN really needs to bring some better people to the plate.
Between Berman spouting, "back back back" incessantly, people unable to pronounce names and Rick Reilly proving ESPN were idiots for sign him away from SI and THEN putting him on television, plus throw in commentators such as Joe Morgan and Rick Sutcliffe and it is just sad. ESPN has so much clout in the sports realm, but they put the crappiest people in front of the cameras.
At least they will continue to provide us a load of content for our site.
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