PONDERABLES
Given the importance of the extra responsibilities baseball umpires now have because of the introduction of the pitch clock, shouldn’t they get a raise in pay?
And considering that he will be only 24 years old on March 16th, how good is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. going to be when he hits his prime years?
THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE
The cheapness of the Blue Jays in not having players’ names on the backs of their spring training jerseys reflects badly on Rogers.
The introduction of the pitch clock on pitchers (and its ancillary effect of also preventing batters from causing unwarranted delays) is the best thing to happen to baseball since Willie Mays.
TORTUROUS BLUE JAYS TELECASTS IN THE OFFING
The regular baseball season is just around the corner and I understand that Raptors’ basketball broadcaster, Matt Devlin, is going to do play-by-play for some Blue Jays games this season. His tendency to speak in phrases rather than complete sentences is aggravating, and there was scant evidence during his previous baseball stints that he knows much about the game. That we’ve become accustomed to hearing Dan Shulman (who is tied with Joe Buck as the best there is) will make it even harder to take.
HOCKEY PLAY-BY-BROADCASTERS
At a recent lunch with friends, the subject of the great Montreal Canadiens play-by-play broadcaster, the late Danny Gallivan, came up. (It was actually a fairly lively argument about who was better: Gallivan or the long-time Toronto Maple Leafs broadcaster, Foster Hewitt). I was on Gallivan’s side.
Gallivan had an uncanny facility for coining entertainingly descriptive words, such as “spinorama” and “cannonading;” the latter which, according to Frank Selke Jr., prompted an English professor at McGill University to telephone Danny and tell him there was no such word. Danny replied, “There is now.”
As I write this it comes to mind that Bob Cole should have been included in the discussion. One of the things I loved about Bob’s delivery was how he revved up the excitement in his voice during the last few minutes of a close game. I would have ranked Cole as number two. Foster Hewitt was overrated because he was the first, and for many years was the only play-by-play broadcaster with national exposure..
These days my favourite play-by-play broadcaster is Sportsnet’s Chris Cuthbert. My least favourite is Boston’s Jack Edwards, who always sounds like he’s trying to make a point while losing an argument.
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON BEING LATE
When people are late, the message they’re sending is that:
1) They’re more important than other people
2) The things they have to do are more important than the things other people have to do
3) They’re not very well-organized
4) They’re irresponsible
5) They’re insensitive to other people’s feelings
6) All of the above