I'm really glad Richard Sandomir wrote tihs NYT article this week about the ridiculous phenomenon of every single fan thinking the MLB playoff announcers are biased against their team.
Sandomir points out that this is most often bullshit- and that it's been going on for decades. Fans are used to homer announcers, and when they get unbiased ones, they go crazy. I'm no fan of Joe Buck or Tim McCarver, believe me- but they're wholely innocent of this particular charge.
It's an even more annoying corallary to the nonstop political bias hunts that have become such an ugly feature of political discourse in recent years. The different is, with sports, who cares? It's not like what the announcers say in any way affects the outcome of the game.
Did you notice Buck and McCarver were favoring the Yankees in Game 6, and praising them the whole time? You think maybe that's because they were winning?
Posted by Stephen Silver at November 6, 2009 08:08 PMTrue, though I do think announcers have particular players they fawn over unnecessarily often (see: Favre, Brett or Jeter, Derek).
Posted by: Jeremy at November 6, 2009 09:22 PMCan't the networks just pair up the local Jerry Remys from each team, and forget "national" announcers -- who don't know any of the intimate team details, and treat the audience like three-year-olds who have never watched the sport?
Or-- here's a wacky idea-- use 20th-century technology to give viewers a choice of which announcers to listen to? (Something a little more reliable than muting the television and turning on the radio.)
Posted by: jabbett at November 9, 2009 02:00 PM