I MENTIONED that Duane Kuiper sounds bored. Not necessarily a knock just a factual impression based on, I don't know, he just sounds dark and morose. Bored, really.Mind you this is not some ant-Giants post because I always loved Lon Simmons and Hank Greenwald. And the old Jon Miller made me laugh out of control and occasionally, Miller is old Jon Miller; highly entertaining and terrific baseball play-by-play on the radio.
Kuiper sounds distant and aloof. I will turn on the sound on KNBR and listen every now and then when Kuip is doing TV and migrates to radio in the later innings and I'm shocked when I listen to him. There's an incredible amount of dead air and it's sort of embarrassing. I always know when the Giants are losing when I hear Kuiper because he's actually more deader --but even when they're ahead he still sounds utterly bored and tired. He should emcee a funeral.
Again, something you'll never read in the Chronicle and especially one with a byline named Hank Schulman.
Exactly! Brain dead. Which is too bad, because Kuiper used to be quite insightful. And gave interesting stories of his playing days, to fill in the gaps. And Schully? He's been a glorified PR guy for the Giants for some time. Writing and giving out the same ol' tripe. Wish he would move along to try another team. I miss Baggerly? gulp.
ReplyDeleteYou are ABSOLUTELY spot on, Rich. I have felt that way for a few years now. Kinda too fat & happy? Kinda bored? kinda unmotivated? Kinda "mailing it in". DEFINITELY overrated, cause the perception is that he's fantastic. And while that was true, many years ago, it is sadly no longer true, at all.
ReplyDeleteHow long will it take for one of them to be on assignment. Pussy! Larry Baer is on assignment.
ReplyDeleteYou really notice the difference when Jon or Dave Fleming comes over from radio to do play by play. They fill in the time between pitches with interesting anecdotes, observations, background, humor, insights. They're a pleasure to listen to. They're enthusiastic, knowledgeable and have prepared to call the game.
ReplyDeleteThen Kuip comes back and its mostly dead air. He makes his partners do all the work making the game interesting. All he basically does is say how many balls and how many strikes and how many outs and what the batter did before. Basically stuff that is displayed on the scoreboard in the corner of the screen.
And the phrases he uses basically never vary. That ball is out of play. Now, here's Posey. Way outside. He walked him.
Turn off the sound and you get the same amount of insight as when you can hear him.
He's a tired old guy, with no vim or vigor, just calling it in, and it's really too bad.