Poll Time: Jays’ Broadcast Team

I thought I’d put up a poll to see what we all thought of the various members of the Jays broadcast team.

I’m curious because my opinions have been hardening this year.

Let’s go through the list one at a time:

I find Buck harder to listen to, now that he’s away from the team. I can understand him not wanting to travel with the team. There are places the Jays go to that there is no way I would go right now (and since I live in Alberta, that’s saying a lot).

But….I don’t see why he wouldn’t be able to come to Toronto to, at least, do the home game live and in person. I don’t want to get into rumors that he isn’t vaccinated. I have extreme views on vaccines. I’m pro-science. But I don’t want to judge Buck on some ‘a friend of a friend told me’ stuff.

He seems to have a hard time describing the game from a monitor. Although to be fair, he hasn’t had to do it all that much in his career. He seems to be a little behind in the call at some points

As an analyst, he talks over Dan a lot more than when they are together in the booth in the analyst chair. He has been talking a lot more than I’d like from the ‘analyst’ when he’s with Dan.

And there are things like this:

There are a few points to this;

• Buck hasn’t been around the ‘clubhouse culture’ in two years. So how does he know the star players are the hardest workers.
• It sounds like a compliment, but, personally, I’d like the scrubs being the hardest workers, so it seems like a bit of an insult. For example, when John McDonald was with the team, I saw pre-game warm-ups several times, and McDonald was easily the hardest worker. I asked a couple of coaches, and they agreed, he worked harder than anyone. I have often thought that the season is long, and the ‘star players’ get beaten down as it goes on, so they can be allowed to take it easier off the field.
• I do not doubt that Vlad has worked hard this year. He’s turned himself into a good defensive first baseman. I figured he would be a first baseman in the Carlos Delgado vein, someone that, because of his glove, you can live with him there. But then Lourdes Gurriel has improved on his play in the outfield (as has Teoscar Hernandez). He’s going back on the ball much better than he did in the past. Finally, I think Breyvic Valera has improved at third over this season. To me, it seems apparent that all these guys are working at their craft.

For me, that comment above is the problem I have with Buck. He’ll say something without proof, without any evidence that it might be true too often for me.

On the plus side, some of the daily rants have disappeared lately. For example, I haven’t noticed the catcher on one knee, or the shift rants happen as often lately.

Anyway, let’s have the poll.

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Pat Tabler, to me, has a nice sense of humor. I think he is at his best when he talks about his playing career. I loved him being able to show us the ball that he got his first hit on. And I think he has done a very nice job making the background in the room he broadcasts from looking good.

But….he doesn’t give out all that much analysis. He seems to, mostly, agree with what Buck or Dan has just said, or slightly (sometimes, very slightly) rephrase it. Dan sometimes tries to lead him to tell us something interesting or ask him a question, leading him to something interesting, but he seems to have his set points, and he’s going to share them.

I wish he cared about new stats more and less about error numbers and fielding percentage.

Again, he isn’t traveling with the team, so sometimes, I wonder how much he knows about what’s happening with them.

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For me, Dan Shulman is just a professional. He doesn’t seem to have too much trouble calling the game from a monitor. But, on the other hand, maybe having more experience with it helps.

You can tell he is a fan of the sport. I like that. Sometimes broadcasters spend too much time telling us that the game isn’t any good anymore and that ‘back in their day’ it was a much better sport. I tire of that quickly.

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I haven’t listened to Ben Wagner enough this year to really form an opinion. However, I did listen to him during the YouTube game and thought he did a nice job. And I have heard him for moments at a time in the car.

I think he could use a partner in the booth, and I liked Mike Wilner in that role. It is a lot to ask of one person to carry the entire load. There aren’t many Vin Scullys in the world.

I am just happy they now have a dedicated radio broadcast. The TV simulcast was terrible.

Let’s stop there and talk about others in a separate post.