John Smoltz: Not As Bad An Announcer As Ron Darling, But Still Very Horrible

In Game 1 of the World Series, John Smoltz would not shut the hell up. This annoyance was compounded by the fact that he usually failed to offer any insight whatsoever. It was nothing more than constant noise pollution that distracted from the game on the screen.

Sure, Smoltz is probably better than TBS's Ron Darling, but that's like saying the next Republican president will not be as bad as Donald Trump (presumably). It's just about the lowest bar there is.

Marc Normandin of SB Nation agrees:

John Smoltz hates baseball, which wouldn't be much of an issue if he was just grumbling about the state of the game in 2018 on his couch while thinking about the next morning's tee time. No, instead, Smoltz gets to do that from the comfort of the announcers' booth broadcasting World Series games on national television. ...

There's the little stuff, like calling players by the wrong name — Smoltz called Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes "Hembree" twice in one inning in Game 1, even though Hembree had not appeared in the game nor had been mentioned in any other context — and the bigger stuff, like spending the entirety of the replays of a key Yasiel Puig home run complaining about how he's too energetic and it annoys everyone around him. Smoltz was also giving this speech while the Dodgers' dugout was losing their minds celebrating said homer with Puig. Reading the room isn't exactly a Smoltz trait. ...

Baseball was a different game even nine years ago, yes, but it can't be that hard to find an analyst who understands the game on a deep level while not actively hating what they see in front of them during the series where MLB should be making brand new fans and appealing to current ones. ...

Smoltz complains about excessive celebrations, which for him is any celebration beyond a stoic nod or reserved fist pump. He complains about shifts. He came up with various ways to discredit Matt Kemp for hitting a homer early in Game 1 by saying that some other hits the Dodgers had were good examples of good hitting, while Kemp was simply lucky ...

I commented last October that [Smoltz] often got so close to actually being good, but then he'd just keep talking. This year, he occasionally flashes reminders he does know the game he's paid to announce, but he's time and time again showed a preference for using his mic time to complain instead. The World Series deserves better, and so do the people watching it.

You may recall that in Game 2 of last year's World Series, Smoltz said that if a team absolutely must score one run in the ninth inning to avoid losing a one-run game, hitting a single is better than hitting a home run.