Rah! Rah! Rah! Cheering From the Broadcast Booth

A disturbing trend in radio sports broadcasts has taken hold the last few years. Specifically, the trend of broadcasters to cheer for the team for which they broadcast. Within the broadcast industry, people who do this are known as "homers."

There are notable homers working today, such as Bob Lamey (Indianapolis Colts radio network), Hawk Harrelson (Chicago White Sox broadcasts), Michael Kay (New York Yankees), and Ron Santo (Chicago Cubs). Lamey, Harrelson, and Kay do play-by-play, while Santo does color commentary (at least, is supposed to do that).

What has happened more and more recently is for the broadcasters--usually the color commentators, but sometimes the play-by-play announcers, too--to become cheerleaders during the broadcast. This includes cheering to the point of not providing meaningful analysis of the game. Of course, we look no further than Ron Santo for one of the best examples (this comes from a Cubs/Brewers game in 1998 when Cubs left fielder Brant Brown dropped a routine fly ball that lost the game for the Cubs).

In this afternoon's radio broadcast of the Butler/LSU opening round NCAA Tournament game on the Butler Radio Network provided another example of bad broadcasting. Butler color analyst Nick Gardner constantly referred to Butler as "we" throughout the game. Evidently, Gardner thinks he still plays for Butler--either that or he had a mouse in his pocket.

In either case, it's very hard to have credibility as a broadcaster when you include yourself as part of the team. It's one thing for fans to do that--who cares, we're not supposed to be objective--but as a broadcaster, there should be some sort of separation between you and the team.

Of course, it didn't help that Gardner's analysis was lacking, too--such gems as "you want to score here" when Butler had the ball did not provide any insight into how the Bulldogs could best accomplish that.

Butler lost today, so there won't be any more opportunities for Gardner to provide non-analysis this season. Perhaps in next season's opener, one of Gardner's keys to the game will be for Butler to score more points than the other team.

Streaking to the Record

OK, people! And by people, I mean sports writers and broadcasters. Let me explain something to you. With their 23-0 win over the Tennessee Flaming Thumbtack yesterday, the Indianapolis Colts became the first team to win 12 or more games for six consecutive years. I have seen at least twice (once here) and heard at least twice (Bob Lamey and on WFBQ) that the Colts "broke" their record of five consecutive 12-plus win seasons. The Colts did not break the record, you fucktards, they extended their record! The five season streak was the current streak. If this was their second five season streak, then they would have broken the record. Since it is the current streak, they EXTENDED their record streak.

The Boston Celtics just set a team record with 19 consecutive victories. If they has beaten the Lakers last week and extended their streak to 20 consecutive victories, you would not have said that they "broke" their record, would you? No, they extended it! Got it!

If the Colts "extend" their streak next season and you write/say they "broke" their record again, we will "break" your legs.

Homer to the Extreme - D'oh!

I've been a fan of Bob Lamey, the play-by-play broadcaster for the Indianapolis Colts radio network, for quite a while. I have preferred to turn the volume down on the CBS broadcasts and turn on Bob because I knew I would hear better game calling than the 'tards on CBS. However, Bob has gotten to be a bit too much of a homer.

Granted, I want the local play-by-play broadcaster for a team to be a bit of homer. It is not like a national broadcast where you really need to be a neutral party. I want my local person to have an interest and root for my team. Yet, over the past few years, Bob's homer-ism is reaching an extreme. I mean Ron Santo homer-ism extreme. It is hard not to enjoy Bob's enthusiasm on a Colts touchdown or an excellent play. And I get a chuckle everytime Slut does his Bob Lamey "It's Good!" imitation.

Listening to the Colts-Packers game last weekend, as the game went worse and worse for the Colts, you could just hear Bob get more and more disenfranchised. Every penalty against the Colts is made out to either be a crap call or a "Jesus F-ing Christ" not another penalty call. When the Colts finally scored late in the game we got a half-assed, "Touchdown, Dominic Rhodes." I do not expect a broadcast to be a Mr. Positive in a blow-out game, but give me an honest broadcast.

Howard Kellman has been broadcasting for Indianapolis Indians for 33 years and does play-by-play broadcasting the right way, in my opinion. I can turn into the game at any time and never know if the game is tied, or a blow-out one way or the other. He just seems to be able to deliver a broadcast that will keep the listener involved in the game, regardless of the score. Although Howard just seems to have that voice and personality that I would probably enjoy hearing read Betty Crocker recipes.

Is it time for Bob Lamey to be replaced. Ehh, not quite yet. It is hard to imagine someone other than Bob broadcasting a Colts game. Yet, I would like to have the Colts or someone reign Bob in a bit.

Side note - I admit it has been fun to write for LomHenn.com. I never imagined myself writing for a blog or that it would be as fun as it has. It is funny though that you can spend five minutes writing a post and then spend ten times that amount trying to come up with an interesting or witty title for the post. A post just does not seem complete until you can come up with a good title.

I hope everyone enjoys our posts as much as we enjoy writing them.