Compendium of Opinions About Bob Costas w/r/t Baseball

• i know he isn't popular around here, but I, tbh, love him
• although he can be really smug
• he's right about the wild card rule

h8 him so much

I don't care for him but there are many guys who are worse.

- saw him at a movie theater. shot me one of those "don't come talk to me looks." This made me like him more.
- barry bonds called him a midget, right?
- do not like the sunday night football sermons.

like Tim McCarver, was actually insightful in the '80s (or I was dumber)

• Better shill for St. Louis than Joe Buck.
• Once recorded a legal ID for my college radio station.
• is right about the wild card rule.

• Also once got Marilu Henner on national television to admit on what date she lost her virginity.

• Morbs is right about Costas in the 80s

• did good GotW broadcasts with Tony Kubek in the 70s

• I find it funny that people laugh about his height. He is only an inch shorter than me!

http://www.sportressofblogitude.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/bob-costas.jpg

Hm, Wiki sez he didn't start doing baseball games with Kubek until 1983. COuld have sworn he was doing those while I was in high school.

• <3 Costas/Kubek announcing team

* his calls of late nineties NBA playoffs among the most embarrassing things ever spoken or heard by mortal man

Compendium of Opinions About The Previous Poster's Unwillingness To Read Thread Titles

i'm happy that he is not a screamer or a bullshitter, but i wish he would back off on the frank deford-type faux profundity

• I know what you mean, but my take on Costas is that he is more concerned with trying to express whatever profundities are inherent in the game and sports fandom in general than just "bein a profound dude who says profound shit" or "waxin philosophical" or whatever. To me it just shows that his heart is really, really in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbHQue2q7p8

• when i was the doorman at a fancy hotel he gave me two dollars for opening his towncar door. i've liked him since

i don't remember this show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cOPkZ0MVYc

I've always liked him. I read his book from a few years ago about the state of the game; many of you would hate it because (from what I remember) it leans towards being a stodgy old traditionalist's view of what's gone wrong. But I think it was more nuanced than just that. In Burns' original Baseball, I love his enthusiasm when he explains the significance of Mays' WS catch.

* his calls of late nineties NBA playoffs among the most embarrassing things ever spoken or heard by mortal man

For the most part, OTM. They need to get Marv Albert to record alternate commentary for every big playoff game he missed during his exile.

Costas sucks for a number of reasons -- he's an arrogant blowhard, tries really hard to sound wise and literate on-air (snob), and Jays fans especially hate him for his blatant favouritism during the '89 ALCS against Oakland.

He's really knowledgeable about baseball and I respect the fact that he cares so much about the game, but I think he really believes his hype 100% and sees himself as baseball's conscience or something like that.

• i appreciate someone in his position trying to sound wise and literate

i don't know anything about baseball, but i like him too.

"The first time Costas visited baseball legend Stan Musial's St. Louis eatery, he left a $3.31 tip in homage to Musial's lifetime batting average (.331)." (wikimania)

I wonder if the waiter also appreciated Costas' homage to Stan Musial

I like him a lot btw

• i too have often wondered how the waiter felt about this tribute

i appreciate someone in his position trying to sound wise and literate

Me too, but he comes across as didactic and not at all like someone you can relate to.

A better way of saying it: the play-by-play isn't supposed to be the star of the broadcast. He's supposed to be a passive observer who helps to describe the action on the field. Costas seems to think that people are actually tuning in to hear his expanded vocabulary and lame attempts at being witty.

He could've left a $36.30 tip it tribute to the hit total.

why are we doing winter-style threads in the middle of playoffs?

the play-by-play *guy*

xpost

i don't know, i love commentary and hearing good commentary is a lot of it to me
i can definitely see how he would annoy people who want it to be completely unobtrusive though

xpost we are doing me-style threads to signal that it is now me-time

oh!

i'm not a fan but i'm not really going to argue about it. i assume he's better on baseball and the olympics than he is on football.

NoTime: I don't have any recollection of his treatment of the Jays in '89...Was he making fun of Ernie Whitt or something? I honestly don't remember.

Lasorda used Costas's disparaging pregame remarks about the Dodger lineup in the '88 WS to motivate the troops.

he really does vary from sport to sport

"Kirk, Costas just said you look like Nick Nolte with a hangover--go get 'em."

Haha wow there's a note about Costas in the '89 ALCS on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_American_League_Championship_Series

"NBC Sports announcer Bob Costas unexpectedly came under fire by many Blue Jays fans. After the A's won the first two games, Costas said the Blue Jays had better win Game 3 (which they did, as it turned out) or "Elvis has a better chance of coming back than the Blue Jays". The Blue Jays fans decided to retaliate by displaying signs reading "Nuke Bob Costas" around the SkyDome."

xp yeah i suppose costas's particular brand of sincerity is best-suited to the nat'l pastime.

I'll take "I don't mind displaying intelligence and earnestness even if it makes me look pompous" Costas over "whatever we do, we gotta keep it fun 'n' dumb for the demographic" BuckCarver.

i don't get that vibe off of buck and mccarver at all

i mean tim is an ex-player so you take what you can get but buck is a shitty costas wannabe tbqfh

I always have. ::shrug::

xp

One more thing about '89: I don't remember that comment from Wikipedia, but he spent the whole series talking about how great Oakland was (which was true, but that's not the point), and barely gave the Jays the time of day. Whenever the Jays did something notable, like get a big hit or hit a HR, he showed about 1% of the enthusiasm that he did when Oakland did the same thing. I think even Buckarver are less blatant in their Yankees favoritism than Costas was toward the A's in that series.

Costas seems to think that people are actually tuning in to hear his expanded vocabulary and lame attempts at being witty.

in other words, Costas : baseball :: Al Michaels : football

guys, I remember when Howard Cosell and Keith Jackson did baseball regularly. Count your blessings.

I think I've managed to obliterate almost all memories of the '89 ALCS. All that remains is Canseco's home run and the beginning of my deep enmity for LaRussa.

And a shout-out to Warner Wolf...

lol @ costas telling a story on clubhouse confidential abt his dad betting on a mickey lolich start in 1965 where lolich got knocked out w/o retiring a batter but the tigers coming back to win

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1675496-bob-costas-says-mets-celebration-indicates-the-decline-of-western-civilization

costas has the night off tonight since dodgers yankees is rained out. Im sure he had some prime sanctimony drafted up to entertain us with.

He's wrong to pick on the Mets and to link his derision to how high a team is in the standings, and yes, he comes across as smug. In all honesty, though, I've also found the requisite pandemonium accompanying every walk-off win a little excessive for the past few years. When did that start? Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but if a guy got a game-winning hit of any kind in a game that was of no special importance, I think there was a time when he got a few high-fives at the plate and that was it. Seemed sufficient.

see the Baseball Nation article in the kickass thread, clem

Thanks--missed that.

Interesting and funny--"If soccer players get to pretend they're airplanes after a goal..." It doesn't quite answer the question of when it began. The guy makes a good case for the relative rarity of walk-offs, but I'm still not convinced it's not one of those things that people do just because it's one of those things that people do. (Actually thought you'd be closer to Costas--players sometimes get hurt in these frenzies, right?)

Bob Turdass.

This sheds some light, I think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIFvX_wHGi4

The Yankees come back from eight runs down, Mattingly--the new Yankee hero--hits a walk-off to win it. May 13, 1985. Hi-fives, relative calm.

baseball's boring enoguh as is, i dont know why would we want guys to bury their emotions like edith wharton characters

If you think the Yankees are burying their emotions in that clip, that is--someone else might say today's players are exaggerating theirs. I see a bunch of guys who are like, "Great, we won a game in May--120 more to go."

I really don't mean to sound like a drudge; remember, I'm the guy who gets excited about Triple Crowns. I'm just saying that, smugness aside, I understand Costas's general point.

a) never make me click a bleacher report link again
b) in a better mood, costas would celebrate the fact that these second-division bums still cared enough to be demonstrably happy about an improbable win that won't get them any closer to relevance
c) evidently the wee fucker wants everyone to run out every popup and be torn up about every loss but express zero joy unless they win the world series
d) why don't you just shit your wee rabbit turds on the face of kirk nieuwenhuis (who in a better mood you would celebrate as an 'exemplar of loving the game for all the right reasons') you fucking prick

seemed like Costas was just messing around to me

yeah watching that now, costas was just cracking wise. i dont like the guy but hes not exactly going o the humanity

ok you made me watch it, fair enough

still, it is played for "lols" that aren't quite lols

Hard to find old walk-offs on YouTube. Maybe Morbius remembers this one: Opening Day '85, Gary Carter wins it in the 10th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AACUidPlabo

Players' reaction similar to the Mattingly clip (and opening day would seem to more than just another game). I'm guessing the jumping and pounding and group gropes started within the past 10 years?

man fuck a costas

http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/xNrcgtniCTYsO0Hnc11dxA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/sptusmlbexperts/chrisdaviscarriesnatemclouth091312.jpg

i guess i grew up with the insane walkoff celebration, at this point it's the baseline and if a team doesn't do it it'd be weird

if i'm actually at a game when my team walks off, i am probably freaking out and hugging random people and dousing myself in beer, i don't want the players themselves just walking off like "good match, lads"

just call it vestigial roid joy.

of course I remember that Carter HR, and the celebration is only restrained by today's standards. Contemporary athletes, after all, grew up with dicks like Kanye West being called Great Artists, XXXtreme sports and the like.

Dicks can't be great artists!

I love ott reactions

"dicks like," read carefully

my favorite walk off story

ST. LOUIS -- Jumping up and down in a close knot of teammates during San Diego's celebration of the NL West championship, Jake Peavy felt a sharp twinge in his rib cage.

The Padres' ace tried to pitch in Game 1 of the NL division series anyway, an 8-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, and now he will miss the rest of the postseason with a broken rib.

An MRI exam at Barnes-Jewish Hospital revealed a fractured eighth rib, and doctors were still trying to determine if the ninth rib was fractured, too.

"The next day I just thought I had some bruised ribs, caught an elbow or something," Peavy said. "I never would have imagined it would have been this."

Kendrys Morales Rodriguez (born June 20, 1983) is a Cuban professional baseball first baseman with the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States.[1][2] He is a switch hitter who throws right-handed. Morales suffered an ankle injury on May 29, 2010, during a celebration of his walk-off grand slam, which kept him out of the Major League for nearly two years.

I was curious what--who else?--James thought about this, so I sent him a "Hey Bill" query (similar to my first post yesterday). He's with you guys:

It's the last ten years. But you SHOULD get excited when you win a game in dramatic fashion. If you don't, you're not participating in the emotional experience of the game.

Used to be, I think, that players didn't celebrate on the field out of the fear of "showing up" the opposition. The practice of lining up on the field to congratulate everybody on the win started in the late 1970s, and the jumping around celebrating kind of grew out of that. Since you're on the field anyway, it seems natural to express your passion for the game. There's nothing wrong with it.

No, I haven't changed my mind. It's not that big a deal, but early in the year, middle of the year, I like the two '80s clips above better.

sports are like the one venue where men get to show extreme emotion without being called fairies (think elway retirement), dont take that away imo

I'm sure we all admire certain displays of extreme emotion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyxioZZdiTg

Jays win 7-6 in the bottom of the ninth...I love walk-off bedlam!

Even World Series celebrations used to be low key:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/30357/history-of-world-series-celebrations

Walk-off celebrations seemed to become the norm around the time the phrase "walk off" became popular, which was ... about ten years ago I think?

Interesting and funny--"If soccer players get to pretend they're airplanes after a goal..." It doesn't quite answer the question of when it began.

Does it have anything to do with the influx of Latin players? Were on-field celebrations typical in Latin American leagues, or in Cuba? Morbs?

i'm no scholar in this area

I guess this has been out there for a while, but I'd never heard about until a Costas interview on CNN today: O.J. placed two calls to him, one to his house and then, getting no answer, one to the NBC studios, during the Bronco chase. The guy who took the second call hung up when the caller said "This is O.J."

Great story. Costas figured O.J. wanted a character witness as to what a nice guy he was, feeling besieged by the media (Costas, under his breath: "That sounds familiar...").

As I mentioned above, I've always been a fan.

"heard about it"