Good News Yank fans–they have re-signed former showgirl and Boston native, Suzyn Waldman, to work with Sterling on the radio. So now, when you want a middle aged woman who’s experience was high kicks and jazz hands, to tell you that Randy Johnson isn’t getting “awn tawp of his sloyduh”, you’ll get those valuable insights for another year.
Which reminds me of a great line a few years back. Recall that kid who jumped out of the stands at Yankee Stadium (beer, anyone?) onto the screen behind home plate. He was stunned and flopped around for a while before crawling off to his arrest.
Someone (forget who) said that when they saw that, their first thought was, “Geez, I guess Sterling finally had enough of Suzyn Waldman and threw her out of the booth”
[Look at how happy these Yank fans are underneath this guy. If that screen didn't hold, he could easily have put one of them in a wheelchair. Hey, that's great. Get him another beer.]
(Suzyn Waldman, in case you do not know, was the first voice ever on the first all sports talk radio format anywhere in the world at WFAN in New York, in Summer, 1987. She is a pioneer of sorts and you have to tip the cap to her. It is a man’s world, that pro sports, and it couldn’t have been easy. It also couldn’t have been easy surviving cancer, as she has since the mid 1990’s. Go Suzyn. While looking this up, I found out that the Kansas City A’s had a woman color commentator in 1965 for a full season! Who knew?)
The Giants have a female ballpark announcer. Great voice, but a little too perky for my taste..To paraphrase Lou Grant on the immortal Mary Tyler Moore show: Mary you’re really perky. I don’t LIKE perky…
Comment by hutchmo — January 25, 2007 @ 12:57 pm |
UGGGH
Sheeeeeet shes back???
I could nawt stand hoi!!!
Comment by Tim — January 25, 2007 @ 10:12 pm |
Funny thing is, there are a number of women who you hear on sports programming on both British and Irish t.v. channels. Mostly in the studio, not play-by-play, but still. Their voices are so much less annoying than those owned by most of the women I’ve heard on US sports programming. There’s something so shrill and nasal about the way these women sound on t.v. (I can’t think of their names, right now, but I’m sure you know who I mean.)
I can remember watching the 2002 World Cup (could have been 2004 European Championship) on RTE (Ireland’s national channel) and the studio discussion was hosted by Tracy Piggott. She was excellent. I remember thinking to myself, why don’t American women in the same role come off so well? Maybe it’s because those who I’ve had to listen to are also “lookers”, which Piggot is not (although she’s not ugly either).
Anyway, I don’t mind Suzyn Waldman. I’m not wild about her, but to tell you the truth, I dislike John Sterling a lot more. (Fortunately, when I listen to my favorite team it’s Howie Rose & Tom McCarthy.)
Comment by Eagle — January 26, 2007 @ 9:46 am |
Eagle, you hit it on the head. Most in America are there for their looks alone. Waldman, however, is not. And while I am taking a shot at her, she isn’t all bad and does bring up some on-point stuff. I just never get over the irony of having a woman with a thick Boston accent, doing the Yanks. I mean, who wudathunkit?
Sterling is breathtakingly bad. (It is high, it is far, iiiiittt is bad)
How bad, is a whole other thread. I actually will turn him off deliberately. So self serving and childishly “homing” for the Yanks. But, that must be what the suits at Al-Yankazeera want, you know?
Any word on Raffa letting the Red Bulls have Robbie Fowler? You can dream, you know?
–fog
Comment by mcgonnigle — January 26, 2007 @ 10:05 am |
To be honest, I don’t pay much attention to soccer. What I know I’ve picked up from my daughter, who is a fan. I saw about 10 minutes of Manchester United vs Portsmouth yesterday and that was it. I like to watch the Champions League, but I don’t read the newspapers about it or whatever. I used to, but ever since I got broadband – listened over 130 Met games last season – and NASN I’ve become obsessed (again) with baseball. I also follow my college’s basketball team.
I’ll ask my daughter about Fowler, but I had half a notion that he has a drugs conviction in his past, which would (maybe) rule him out for a US move, no?
Comment by Eagle — January 28, 2007 @ 3:33 am |
Well, Belville, NJ being down near Kearny where all the Scots are, and now living on the Emerald Isle, I thought maybe you were a fan. Fowler broke big for Liverpool in 1994-95. He was young, fast, fearless, two-footed and he scored a ton of goals, making everyone forget that Ian Rush was just too old. The Kop nicknamed him “god” (as a Catholic, I won’t use a capital “G” on that, although they may have), and his other nickname was “The Toxteth Terror”, as he was from Toxteth, Merseyside.
There were drug rumors but no convictions that I recall. The drug rumors coincided with injuries and he never regained his form. And just when he was regaining some of the form, he clashed with Houllier’s staff and was sent packing to Leeds I believe and then Man City. Last year, he was brought back and fitness was an issue although I didn’t see it. I thought he was productive enough. He sill had the instincts for goal–this man was a machine, he was just a little rusty.
As much as I love him back in his old number 9 shirt, it is just obvious that he’s not cracking the first 11 unless there are injuries. So, to my mind, he could come to America, with enough of a name (that’s what those moves are mostly about) and absolutely RAGE in the MLS. And he should be in the NY side (Harrison, NJ Red Bulls) because I want to see him and also I think he’d be lost on people in the heart land (prejudiced? Sure) Any way you slice it, I know 150 New York Liverpool supporters who’d turn up to see the man they call god. –fog
Comment by mcgonnigle — January 28, 2007 @ 10:12 am |
And Eagle, I too am a Met fan. So broadband is how you do it, eh? Shame we lost Bob Murphy. He was totally square and out of time but that man did the Mets from 1962 to when he died. I was born in 1966 so he did the games my whole life. I probably have heard that man utter more words than almost everyone I know with the possible exception of my closest family. How familiar can you get?
And he had that weird Oklahoma accent, “…the Mets ween, they ween…”. (He was an Oakie).
Do you get TV or radio feed? Either way, you’re covered. The Mets have good mike-work what with Darling and Keith Hernandez (genuflect) and Howie Rose and Cohen et al.
Hey Ireland is experiencing some kind of boom. Lower taxes and it all takes off, no?
–fog
Comment by mcgonnigle — January 28, 2007 @ 10:17 am |
Brian – any chance or positioning the Dark Category Print where it doesn’t blend into the first few paragraphs ? Makes it very difficult to read =
’specially for anyone belonging to AARP.
Think your idea is great as is the content.
Might I suggest you submit such to THE RECORD == or at least to Kaplish. Who’s to know what might result.
Keep it going !
Comment by davemolini — January 28, 2007 @ 3:17 pm |
I didn’t come from Belleville or anywhere in NJ. I was born (1964) in Queens and grew up (post my 9th birthday) in Clifton Park, NY, which is north of Albany. C. Park was a hotbed of soccer when I was a kid, but I hated it. The soccer league was favored by our school authorities over my beloved baseball. They got to use the school fields and we couldn’t. We played on rock-hard, weed infested fields while soccer played on the beautifully manicured school fields (and there were many). Why? Because soccer was mixed gender and our baseball league was not. From such slights do life-long bigotries come. I’ve always held that against the whole sport of soccer.
Anyway, yeah, you’re probably right that I’m only remembering rumors about Fowler. I remember he once pretended to snort the touch line in response to taunts from the opposing fans. Not a smart PR move, but one I found kind of amusing.
I did pay attention to soccer for a while after I moved here. I became a fan of Wimbledon FC (unloved by nearly everyone), but when they died I lost interest. I used to go to England once or twice a year to see them play. I enjoyed those experiences, but the soccer stadiums I was going to were complete dumps compared to Shea Stadium (and that’s saying something).
Interesting point about Murphy. Yeah, I heard a lot of words from him, but I also listened to the Rangers a lot when they weren’t on regular t.v. (home games). So, I heard a lot of Marv Albert. He did the Knicks on t.v. too, so I’m not sure whose voice I heard more – Murphy or Albert.
Comment by Eagle — January 29, 2007 @ 6:25 am |
Low taxes, falling birth rate (better demographics for economy), and free trade in the EU are all ingredients that contributed to Ireland’s economic explosion. Most people include education, but I’m not willing to include that one as I don’t believe the education system here was all that unique that it deserves any mention.
Comment by Eagle — January 29, 2007 @ 6:25 am |
Oh, sorry Eagle, I thought that you were Bellville. My bad. Mutabeen someone else. Amazing that you say soccer had the upper hand. In my town, Football and Baseball had all the fields and Soccer had to beg, borrow and steal. I know because my father was doing a lot of the begging back in the 1970’s on behalf of the local recreation commission. Recall that Soccer couldn’t even THINK of doing a night game on the varsity high school football field. Sacrilege!
Re Fowler, I didn’t mention the touchline thing because I never understood it really. They made SUCH a big deal out of it and yet, what was it really? He was not ever busted or tested with any drugs so all you had were those rumors that he hung out with Duncan Fergeson and had wild parties at the Atlantic Hotel in Liverpool (Err, ahh, actually, hanging with old Dunc, is probably pretty incriminating).
What ever happened to the old Crazy Gang? John Fashnau and his brother, Vinny Jones. Vinny played a tough guy in a shoot-em-up, action thriller, no? Everyone loved Vinny because of that photo where he’s going up for the header and has a handful of the opponents boys at the same time. Yea, great guy. I always thought that “yea, sure, you all love him, but if he was a real guy who lived next door to you or went to your high school, I’m sure you’d think he was a terror”
I think the tax story and the educated workforce is all you need for certain industries to move in. When they talk about education, they just mean “educated” as in not 3rd world. You can hire off the street and get refined people who are educated by Western standards. If a company goes to say, India, they don’t get the same calibre of people despite the fact that everyone is “college” educated. When I was there with GE, many of the people who we were training to man the call centers had MASTERS degrees, but they couldn’t improvise or work off the script. Must be an American thing (and Irish as well, I’ve no doubt). –fog
Comment by mcgonnigle — January 29, 2007 @ 7:54 am |