US Open Commentary: The Good, Bad & The Ugly

[Kickin' Chicken]

Interested to hear all of your thoughts on and examples of commentary that you are enjoying or maybe not.

Thus far for me, Karl Boyes is good, Phil Yates is flat, Nick Schulman will hopefully stop applying "of sorts" to everything and Jeremy Jones is magnificent, all imo, of course.

One pearl from Jeremy during the Yapp / SVB match on now was "The simple game holds up well especially during high pressure matches".

Please share some more.

best,
brian kc

 

[BRussell]

My impression of Jeremy Jones commentating: “he was a hair short on that, he had to hit it a hair harder, he’s gonna be a hair thin.”

 

[Steve748]

Phil Yates is an idiot. His voice is so annoying with his condescending tone to it.
He knows nothing about how a player needs to control the cb but everything about a players history and who they played in the past. Next time he is commentating listen to the claptrap that comes out of his mouth.
He tells us nothing new and if we want to know a players potted history we look on Wikipedia
His snooker commentary is worse.

 

[Cuebuddy]

Kinda funny, I wanted to dislike Karl. Mostly to how he terrorized us back when he played on the Mosconi cup. I assumed he was no good because I had never heard of him. Karl shot pool very well and was a big part of demolishing team USA.

A couple of years later in 2015 Karl was back to continue the whooping. I really did not like him for the sole reason that he played so well.

Since then I have become a huge fan of his commentary and as a person.

Of course not much more we can say about JJ, not enough o’s in smoooth.

 

[Luxury]

Nick Schulman's commentary in a word, is lovely.

 

[Cameron Smith]

My biggest gripe about Phil this tournament was how condescending and dismissive he was of the amateurs that played on the tv table. It’s scary enough for them to play a top player, on tv but it’s shitty to go on about how they’re terrible players while live.

Yes, a lot of them did not put on great performances but top players make good amateurs look silly and the pressure or playing on live television drop your skill level by quite a bit I suspect. Be charitable to the guys coming out and taking the plunge.

 

[sjm]

My biggest gripe about Phil this tournament was how condescending and dismissive he was of the amateurs that played on the tv table. It’s scary enough for them to play a top player, on tv but it’s shitty to go on about how they’re terrible players while live.

Yes, a lot of them did not put on great performances but top players make good amateurs look silly and the pressure or playing on live television drop your skill level by quite a bit I suspect. Be charitable to the guys coming out and taking the plunge.

Nice post. The attending fans were very supportive of amateurs thrown to the wolves on the TV table. All I could think of was that an amateur probably felt honored to be playing on TV, and perhaps Phil might have chosen to dwell on this. An amateur is not only going to feel great pressure in this situation but is also unaccustomed to having so few good looks at the table. Most of us get out of stroke when chances are few and far between, including most of the professionals.

 

[Cameron Smith]

Nice post. The attending fans were very supportive of amateurs thrown to the wolves on the TV table. All I could think of was that an amateur probably felt honored to be playing on TV, and perhaps Phil might have chosen to dwell on this. An amateur is not only going to feel great pressure in this situation but is also unaccustomed to having so few good looks at the table. Most of us get out of stroke when chances are few and far between, including most of the professionals.

Yes completely agree about falling out of stroke with so few chances. Trump himself was not immune as he required 2 flukes to secure his only game against Shaw. It’s a tough game!

 

[JessEm]

The commentary was great. It thought they handled it particularly well/professional when all three were mic'd up at once (Phil, Nick, JJ). It could've just as easily been a chitshow, but instead their timing, and the way they played off one another was perfect. I know they're pool players first, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they've had some formal commentating coaching.

 

[AtLarge]

Nick Schulman's commentary in a word, is lovely.

You're saying he "navigated" the booth pretty well?

 

[skogstokig]

with nick there they can lose yates imo..

 

[jay helfert]

I could listen to Nick and Jeremy all day.