Just add face paint and a big red nose...
Last year, one or two of you may recall, I watched and reviewed for this blog a broadcast of every major league baseball team as well as ESPN, TBS and Fox. Generally, I was (and continue to be) disdainful of the “new-school” announcers who are too busy being clever and cracking one-liners instead of concentrating on the game. In “Joe’s MLB onvas TV Report” on the San Diego Padres’ broadcast, I wrote this about play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgergian: “Vasgersian is one of those announcers trying too hard to inject his personality into his work. It usually leads to weird comments.”
Vasgersian now works for the fledgling MLB Network and one of his dumb remarks, while working as studio host on MLB Tonight, backfired recently. The website The Biz of Baseball describes what happened on April 27th (unfortunately, the accompanying clips have been removed from YouTube):
As MLB Tonight covered the Padres/Rockies highlights, the coverage turned to a freakish play in which Rockies outfielder Brad Hawpe was hit in the neck by Padres catcher Nick Hundley’s throw to second base in the sixth inning. The hit to the neck resulted in a concussion, but at the time, it appeared as if the ball may have hit Hawpe in the back of the head and possibly done spinal damage.
After the footage was shown, Vasgersian asked for the footage to be shown again where Hawpe being carted off the field in a neck brace. Referencing a member of the Rockies EMT staff, Vasgersian quipped, “Isn’t that Donavan McNabb?”
The site says that analysts Mitch Williams and Billy Ripken weren’t amused, with Ripken replying, “Dude, what’s wrong with you?” The next day Vasgersian apologized on-air, as well as at the Biz of Baseball site:
“Yup…bad spot to try and fill a down moment with an attempt at humor. I certainly didn’t mean to trivialize an injury but knew it came off that way as soon as the words came out of my mouth. Dumb. Some regrettably poor judgment occurring on live TV…I feel pretty bad about it and hope I didn’t offend too many people hoping this as an apology conveys a bit of foot-in-mouth remorse.”
This is exactly the problem. There’s no reason to even attempt to be funny when a guy’s lying on the ground hurt and about to be wheeled off on a stretcher, even if they were just showing highlights from a game and not actually broadcasting the game itself. I’m glad Vasgersian apologized, but he needs to learn from this if he wants to be respected for his work instead of being just another wanna-be standup comedian.
on May 7th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
I am a Mariners fan and love Dave Niehaus and Ric Rizzs because they keep their attention on the game and their banter isn’t about themselves but about baseball trivia and their casual interviews w/the players. Many of the explayers hired for color don’t get it that it’s not about them anymore but about the game in front of them.
It seems this dude Vasgergian needs an education in tact and class.
on May 8th, 2009 at 1:56 am
That’s the problem with sports media today… too many try to be funny. Every once in a while is great but in the end I just want the meat and potatoes… give me hilites, give me scores, give me interesting stories.
on May 8th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Unfortunately there are huge segments of the population that simply cannot determine by themselves the line between what’s funny and not, what’s insightful and not, what’s rude and not, etc.
At the same time there has been a massive explosion of the hours of TV programming (including sports) that has to filled on a daily basis.
Sadly the result is the “perfect storm” we now experience of idiotic broadcasters, mindless reality TV and endless hours of people on TV and radio who simply aren’t interesting or worse are just plain dumb.