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Originally Posted by GPK
why the hell ESPN continues to let Chris Berman have anything to do with some of their golf telecasts...especially the US Open, is beyond mind boggling to me. The guy is the biggest no-nothing, blow hard when it comes to golf...
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You obviously haven't watched him do anything else lately.
This from Phil Mushnick in today's NY Post:
June 15, 2007 -- IMAGINE the auto deal ership that will sell you a car but won't let you buy one. You tell the salesman, "OK, I'll buy it," but he keeps trying to sell it to you. That's what TV does.
A few years ago, FOX missed the first pitch to half-innings of the World Series because it was airing an MLB promo that encouraged viewers to watch the World Series on FOX.
To that end, someday we'll tune to the start of one of golf's majors and we'll hear: "This is a major. Therefore, aware that that you've tuned to the start of this telecast because it's a major and because you're eager to see it being played, let's get right out to live play."
But someday wasn't yesterday.
ESPN didn't show a live golf shot from the U.S. Open - let the record show it was an Ernie Els putt - until its telecast was 10 minutes old. The sell was so protracted that we actually saw what appeared to be a live shot of a course-side stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike before we saw a live shot of a ball being struck.
And, once again, an audience that was in place and eager to watch - no sell necessary - had live coverage delayed in favor of a come-on designed to encourage them to watch.
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Someone must have given ESPN's Chris Berman bad info, again. He mistakenly believes that Open audiences, every few minutes, should be reminded that the Open is all about him, his forced nicknames and silly one-liners included.
Why, after all, would Berman tell us that early leader Nick Dougherty is from England or provide any other specifics about the man when he could cleverly keep saying he's "from across the pond?"