Thursday, September 24, 2009

Random Gripe about the Orioles Post-Game Show

The Orioles are 60-92 and need to win 3 of their remaining 10 games to avoid losing 100 games for the first time since 1988. That year, of course, was the year the Birds lost their first 21, not a great start.

This year, the Orioles were only 8 games under .500 at the break, playing reasonably competitive baseball. But the second half has been an outright disaster from a W-L perspective. The bright spots have been the emergence of young pitchers Brian Matusz and Chris Tillman, and superstar in waiting Matt Wieters. Wieters is hitting like .500 since being moved to the 3-spot in the order.

Anyway, this isn't a post to complain about the Orioles and think about what's coming next year and lament the march toward 99 losses. No, I'm just gonna bitch for a few graphs about what the team and its radio flagship have the nerve to call Orioles All-Access.

See, back when the Orioles were relevant and interesting and people cared, one of the things I enjoyed doing was listening to the post-game show on the radio. There, your could get a sense for the pulse of the fans, what they were thinking about, wondering about, and concerned about. Now I guess that discussion has moved to the message boards and the various Blogs, like Peter Schmuck's excellent and entertaining The Schmuck Stops Here.

But what we don't have is an actual dialogue from the fans after a game that captures the emotion of having just watched or listened to the game.

The format of the Orioles post-game show is that Tom Davis and Dave Johnson, who are both very good, get literally 2-3 minutes per segment to talk about something and then there's 3 minutes of commercials. Repeat, repeat. So as soon as Johnson gets into talking about something - literally after 2 minutes every single segment - the "commercial is coming soon, gotta wrap it up" music comes on. Then Tom Davis comes in and says something like, "more on Orioles All Access after the break. And then the break takes longer than the actual segment. They take no calls, I don't think they bring in any guests. They talk to each other for 2-3 minutes at a time, broken up by 3 minutes of ads. I am not exaggerating at all, this is the format of the show.

I usually listen for a segment or two if I'm in the car, then just change the station because it's so annoying and pointless. Dave Johnson is actually interesting and has something to say. Tom Davis is a very talented host and knows a ton about baseball. But the format is a complete joke.

All Access to what?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree on all points. Johnson is very good, even when he says 87 mile an hour instead of 87 mileS per hour. Tom Davis is fine.

The 3 minute commentary 3 minute ad format is frustrating. The lack of fan access to the players is infuriating.

It all stems from upper mgt's paranoid desire to control everythng. They are all terrible people who should be stoned to death.