Monday, March 31, 2008

DUSTIN OFF SOME STORYLINES; TSN IS MOST LOW DEF

ESPN.com will be OK with or without a link from here. Regardless, Jonah Keri and his high-minded contemporaries were nice enough to take a contribution for raines30.com back in the fall and attention should be paid to his 100 Storylines for the 2008 baseball season.

In particular, Keri is touting Dustin McGowan to supplant Roy Halladay as the Jays ace by the end of the season. That's a relatively new one.

It's too bad about the Jays getting rained out this afternoon. Mike Wilner's best line about the "ludicrisosity" of scheduling a baseball game in New York City on March 31:
"I get to come to Yankee Stadium for the first time in my life and I get to see a big white tarp rolled out on to the field."
Meantime, the Drunks call attention to the real kick in the pants, which is that fans miss out on getting to watch the opener in HD. TSN will be airing the season opener of the Rogers-owned baseball team on Tuesday rather than the Rogers-owned network, which is showing Mathematically Eliminated vs. Effectively Eliminated, the Leafs and the Sabres.

Granted, the ballgame could be a nothing game too, but no one will know that for at least a month. What's better? TSN tomorrow or more rain and Sportsnet picking it up on Wednesday? Let's hear it.

Please don't make this into a Jamie Campbell vs. Rod Black kvetchfest. It's tiresome, for one. It's not about them. It's on the highers-up in Canadian broadcasting who don't invest in bringing along bona fide baseball play-by-play people and just expect to get lucky, which can happen. The rest of us are just supposed to believe that there isn't a man or woman in a country of 33 million people who can commentate baseball. That's hard to believe.

7 comments:

Tyler King said...

Of the people who are currently in broadcasting, who possibly appears qualified, besides maybe Jim Hughson?

At least Jamie Campbell is actually a baseball fan.

sager said...

Sam Cosentino? Shawn McCart down in St. Catharines, who did a full season with the Ottawa Lynx?

Tyler King, of CFRC and whatever pub is open?

Tyler King said...

I'm unfamiliar with McCart so I'll defer to you on that one. As for Cosentino, no way in heck is he any sort of upgrade over Jamie Campbell. Though I'd say he'd probably be better than Rod Black. But then, so was Rob Faulds.

Andrew Bucholtz said...

I quite like Hughson's broadcasting, so CBC's games this summer should be good quality. Too bad he's busy with hockey at the moment. There's still some hope for Campbell, perhaps: I think he's improved considerably from when he first started, so if he keeps that up, he might work out well. There's never going to be an announcing team everyone's happy with, though...

Tyler King said...

Yes there is. It's called Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez.

Or Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth.

And the reason Hughson is enjoyable is probably the fact that he's been doing Jays play-by-play on and off for nearly 20 years. It's like saying "My, this Foster Hewitt fellow appeared to have really known what he was doing..."

Tyler King said...

But back to Neate's post, clearly Tyler King of CFRC should be the frontrunner if a vacancy ever opens up.

Michael Seff said...

Viva le Tim Raines.