Shame On Us

Rob Sanford

Shame on us. The words of Tiger manager Jim Leyland after the Tigers lost on Sunday afternoon  in Oakland and missed a chance to take their first road series of the 2011 season. This after Detroit had taken the first two of the four game series. Once again it was a lack of offense that plagued the Tigers. Leyland says, and I agree, his team wasn't so much dazzled by great pitching but continued to swing at pitches out of the strike zone. They must simply show more patience and go to the plate with an idea of where they want to see the ball pitched to them. Right now it looks like they are simply swinging wildly in the hope of making contact.

I believe this is the 3rd season that Greg Bowman and I have been doing our blogs and in all that time I have avoided in making any critical remarks about the Tiger radio broadcast. Part of the reason why is the fact that I did play-by-play for a minor league baseball team and know doing a game is not as easy as many fans believe it is. Many times I've seen fans that won an inning in a charity auction and once behind the microphone  never failed to say how much harder than they thought and were very glad when their inning was over.  Anyway...I can no longer stay silent about something I've been hearing time and time and time again. When a play by play announcer has a chance to call a home run....that's his moment to shine.....to build the anticipation by not calling it too early. When you hear audio of old home run calls,the part you remember is the call of the play-by-play announcer.  Dan Dickerson knows that hope and anticipation is all part of creating a "word picture" of that...."HERE'S A LONG DRIVE TO LEFT," and letting the listener wait a fraction of a second before he finally calls it a home run. It's a matter of timing and talent....but to destroy that is unforgivable. I'm talking about Jim Price saying "wow" to break that timing and most times taking all the suspense out of the call. When Brandon Inge hit the walk off homer in the final game of the series with the Royals...it was a perfect time for Dickerson to take his time with the call..to draw out the moment. But it was ruined by the insipid "wow" delivered by Price before Dickerson was able to complete the call. To me.....not only is it unprofessional....it's also not an accident. You never heard Paul Carey "step" on a call by Ernie Harwell....a good partner will realize the situation and step aside as the play-by-play announcer makes his call....unmolested. Oh by the way....Price didn't say "wow" when he worked with Ernie....Hmmmmm.