Brennaman Buzz
By
Amanda
Posted at 8:03 pm
I thought I was just being crankier than usual when I wanted to reach into my t.v. and smack Thom Brennaman for the dull, constant roar that was his Reds bashing last night, but apparently it was going around.
Over on Red Reporter, they were apparently talking about the commentary in the game thread:
I was stuck with the Arizona announcers through DirecTV, but I read the game thread and it sounds like Thom Brennaman was brutal. He's really not getting off to a good start with things. Guy's even bitchier than his father, which I wouldn't have thought was possible. And hell, I like Marty, but Thom doesn't have the benefit of tenure with Reds fans so he needs to tread a little lighter.
JP at Reds and Blues goes into much more detail about the matter:
The desert is a cruel place where dreams often go to die. The sand around Phoenix is littered with bones of those things felled by the savagery of the desert, and if we are to believe Thom Brennaman’s on air comments last night, the Reds’ season became buzzard food last night after dropping their third in a row. Perhaps Thom is correct; Matt Belisle is throwing tonight, and no ballads will ever be written about Belisle the Stopper. However, Thom needs to lighten up before he is confused with Colin Cowherd.
Of course, not everyone thought that Brennaman's interminable curmudgeonly ranting was a bad thing. Jeff at Reds Rally agreed whole-heartedly:
On a side note: Thom Brennaman is right on in his assessment and I hope they never tell him to dial it down. He's exactly right. And, he's exactly like his father. He'll be just fine in that chair for a few decades in my opinion.
Takes all kinds, I reckon.
I didn’t hear Thom’s comments, but my impressions of him when listening to him on the radio broadcasts thus far have been that he is much more upbeat than Marty. Thom was always a cheerleader out here in AZ, and was someone who got you excited about the Diamondbacks. I’ve had similar impressions of him this year, at least early on.
And that’s good, because to be perfectly frank, I’m getting really sick of Marty slagging the team. It’s fine to critique a player when they screw up (e.g. Eddie needs to get that bunt down, dangit), but it seems like a large number of Reds players are guilty until proven innocent: Dunn, Encarnacion, Lohse, Belisle, Milton…the list goes on. And sometimes, Marty gets so dedicated to his rants that he barely remembers to call the ballgame. I’ve very frequently found myself having a hard time keeping track of what’s going on down on the field when he’s behind the microphone, usually because he’s bitching about someone.
They’re our team. They’re not perfect, and goodness knows they’ll need a lot of breaks to win this year, but each player (except maybe Chad Moeller…at least Eric Milton is a lefty) has abilities that can help our team. Rather than focus on what they don’t do well every time their name comes up, I’d kind of like to hear him hype up our players now and then. Being a pompous jerk doesn’t make you a good announcer, no matter what your other skills happen to be (and I won’t deny that he has great skills).
Sometimes I wonder if Marty actually hurts our fanbase more than he helps it. -j
Thom was much more restrained yesterday, though he did throw in a couple of unnecessary bitchy comments. I’m hoping that being in Arizona is what’s causing all of this since he seems to really love the area and the Dbacks. Hopefully when he’s not able to constantly juxtapose the Reds to the Dbacks or the Grand Canyon, then maybe he won’t be so insufferable.