Sunday, May 13, 2007

Aging Behind the Mic

Ralph Kiner was a great player and is a Met broadcast icon. Listening to Ralph in 2007 is downright painful. I only caught him for a few innings over the weekend on SNY, and it was manageable since Darling and Cohen were anchoring things, but Kiner has not ben able to speak well for well over five years. He has earned the utmost respect, and deserves to be treated as such, but the Mets have let him hang on too long. It takes away from the broadcast to the point where its not worth watching. Hopefully he is relegated to one inning guest appearances this season. There is no doubt Kiner has great stories to impart on us. If he wants to continue in the booth, treat him more as the interview subject instead of the interviewer, the guest instead of the broadcaster. Let us get the stories, get the knowledge, enjoy the reminiscing, and still watch the game.

On the other hand, Vin Scully and Harry Kalas still have it. One of the great bonuses of the MLB package (I’m an online subscriber), is the ability to hear the great out of town broadcasters. Going to bed to with the soothing voice of Scully in the background is priceless. They do not break the game down like some other broadcasts, but the old school crew describes the on the field action, without any excess shenanigans, better than anyone. Young broadcasters, bring your notebooks.

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