In the JoS gamethread, fenfan mentioned this major gaffe from O'Brien early in Friday's game:
OB just said the Royals have NEVER lost more than 100 games in a seasonI had the game on mute at work, so I went back to the bottom of the second inning. Adalberto Mondesi had fouled off an 0-2 pitch. Both O'Brien and Jerry Remy were quiet as the Kansas City PA blared the Ramones. Then O'Brien proclaimed:
I had to rewind the game to confirm he said that
They lost at least 100 games four times between 2002 and 2006 (106 losses in 2005 is the high water mark)
The Royals have never lost more than 100 games in a season, although this team is on a pace to blow right by that, set a new club record.And then there was quiet once more, until Chris Sale was set to pitch again.
As fenfan noted, the Royals lost:
100 games in 2002Here is the evidence, from Baseball Reference's Kansas City Royals Franchise Page:
104 games in 2004
106 games in 2005
100 games in 2006
As I have said before, you cannot trust anything that O'Brien says. (One night, he wasn't sure if Ty Cobb had played against the Twins - when he would have been 74 years old or dead! Come on!)
If O'Brien is not clogging the airwaves with silly things like how well Chris Sale has pitched against the NL East teams or how the Red Sox are 24-1 when Craig Kimbrel pitches or referring to things like a "slide-in double" or a "swifty", then he is making mistakes on obvious (and easily-verified) facts that a prepared, professional announcer should never make.
I wonder if his inability/unwillingness to question the factoids handed to him by his assistants is just a factor of how awkward he is up there. This year I've noticed Jerry is more apt to just get into some cranky, improvised stories from his past; Dave O'Brien seems so uncomfortable having to bounce off of unscripted dialogue, and rushes to fill as much space as possible with whatever useless and often fabricated trivia is at his disposal. Why not just get John Ratzenberger up there in full Cliff Claven character every night?
ReplyDeletehaha!...i'd love it if Cliffy was in the box!......i was really disappointed when they let Don Orsillo go....i know i'm not alone...still have no idea why they did that...seems like everybody loved Don and the chemistry between him and Jerry was great....It became even harder to take once O'Brien took over...I have nothing personal against him but he is so formulaic. The Sox/NESN really messed up on that one
ReplyDeleteI have read numerous times at SoSH over the years that NESN is notoriously cheap when it comes to salaries. Perhaps Don wanted to be paid properly. ... That might also explain why the cameramen appear to have received only 5 minutes of training.
ReplyDeleteThey have one of the biggest audiences in baseball, easily the most advertising of any baseball telecast, all on a team-owned network that doesn't get put over a barrel for TV rights...and they can't bring themselves to plunk some money down on talent? Unfortunately the product on TV shows this is true, but it is mind-boggling.
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