ESPN Announcers

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DrCue'sProtege

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
do you guys ever sit and watch a ESPN billiards telecast and, at some point in time, just know the announcer is WAY, WAY out in leftfield?

i was watching a tape last night, and the lady annoucer said "Just center ball, it will come off the rail, downtable, right to where she needs to be. just center ball is all she needs"

well, as i watched, i realized she was out in leftfield on this one. so i froze the tape, marked the shot, went to my table later, and, yep, i was right. no way center ball was going to get the cue ball where the announcer said.

i really believe i would prefer Allen Hopkins to do all ESPN Billiard broadcasts, for both men and women. to me, he is the most knowledgeable and accurate of all the ESPN annoucers.

DCP
 
I was watching the mosconi cup on TSN and wow I didn't know if it was WWE Raw. Or pool that european announcer is crazy.
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
do you guys ever sit and watch a ESPN billiards telecast and, at some point in time, just know the announcer is WAY, WAY out in leftfield?

...

i really believe i would prefer Allen Hopkins to do all ESPN Billiard broadcasts, for both men and women. to me, he is the most knowledgeable and accurate of all the ESPN annoucers.
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I think from where the anouncer is sitting, they don't have the advantage of seeing the angles right all the time.

I agree that, Allen is a good commentator, I also enjoyed Buddy Hall in the roll. Buddy was usually right on, in his analysis and he did add some good color too. My favorite line, of Buddy's was, "it's been there a hundred years", referring to the side pocket a player had just scratched in.
I enjoyed Jimmy Mataya, as a commentator, not really for his shot analysis, but he added a ton of color.

Tracy
 
I’ve seen and heard Allen call it completely different at times too. But, if either announcer, where at the table in the players shoes, they would have probably gotten the call right. Different views and perspectives, that’s all.

Rick
 
Allen Hopkins gets the thumbs up from me, but it seems that Mitch Laurence adds this degree of cornyness to anyone he broadcasts with. When he is with Dawn Hopkins fuhgeddaboutit. I'd rather watch Ted Kennedy model speedos. Thank God for the mute button I suppose.
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
I was watching a tape last night, and the lady annoucer said "Just center ball, it will come off the rail, downtable, right to where she needs to be. just center ball is all she needs"
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The lady announcer I have greatest respect for is Ewa Laurance, who has shown aptitude in judging what the players are thinking, and also shares some of her keen insights with the viewers.

A sampling of Ewa's work is when she commentated on Vivian Villareal vs Kelly Fisher in the first semifinal at the WPBA Great Lakes classic played this March. At 6 - 5 behind, emerging superstar Kelly Fisher had a possible runout to get to double hill and, quite correctly, opted to play a bank with just three balls left on the table. She missed the bank and sold out and Ewa observed that the bank could have been, but wasn't, played two ways. Moments later, Villareal ran out for the 7 - 5 win.

To be honest, this kind of insight, where a player's tactical options and choices are scrutinized, is rarely offered by any of the commentators, men or women, on ESPN. Nice work,Ewa.
 
Mitch lawrence gets on my nerves. He has a few catch phrases that he repeats over and over and obviously knows very little about the game. I have found a very effective method for dealing with espn pool announcers, I hit the mute button on the remote control and bam instant serinity. This method also works for monday night football. As bad as the pool announcers are monday night football makes them look good.
 
shinyballs said:
They all suck.
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Easy to say, and I mostly share your opinion, but A. Hopkins does a darn good job. Where it does suck- and this is mostly women (especially Jeanette Lee) - is when it becomes about the commentator and not about the match.
(Like frequent refereneces saying in effect: " ooh, look at me, I know sooo much about this game"). And the players' efforts go largely unnoticed.
 
I agree that Mitch Laurence sucks ass. He uses the corniest lines and always trys to make the match seem like the biggest thing that's ever happened in the players' lives. I hate announcers like Laurence that try to make the match about something other than pool and try to turn it into a special interest story or some bullshit. I mainly stick with the Accu-Stats tapes now. I think they should put Danny DiLiberto on ESPN. At least he knows the game. JMO. FWIW.
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
well, as i watched, i realized she was out in leftfield on this one. so i froze the tape, marked the shot, went to my table later, and, yep, i was right. no way center ball was going to get the cue ball where the announcer said.

.

DCP
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could you please post the shot. and what kind of spin you had to use to get there? must be a tough shot if you can't get there with follow, stun, or draw.

thanks

VAP
 
Opie<-- Just realized I hit 100 posts, I only have to post like 500 times a day to catch up with VAP. ;)
 
What bothers me is ...

Especially when the women pros are playing, and the announcer goes on and
on what a fabulous shot they made when the shot difficulty is a 5 or 6 on a
1 to 10 difficulty scale, and pretty routine for someone that is a professional.
Allison has, and I saw Karen one time, shoot a cut shot to the corner with
low inside english and go 3 rails for shape on the next ball, much like men pros will do if required to.

The English guy during the Mosconi Cup certainly had the excitement factor
going .... lol
 
Snapshot9 said:
Especially when the women pros are playing, and the announcer goes on and
on what a fabulous shot they made when the shot difficulty is a 5 or 6 on a
1 to 10 difficulty scale, and pretty routine for someone that is a professional.
Allison has, and I saw Karen one time, shoot a cut shot to the corner with
low inside english and go 3 rails for shape on the next ball, much like men pros will do if required to.

The English guy during the Mosconi Cup certainly had the excitement factor
going .... lol
Click to expand...
what I wanna know is is why do they have announcers doing commentary when they know nothing of the game. Hopkins is great but why team him up with some jerk off who says stuff like "his stroke looked really confident", and also why do people clap after EVERY shot, come on does a 3 ft stop shot really warrant applause?
 
I could do without Mitch, but I don't mind listening to the "color" announcer and comparing her strategies for the layout to my own.

As far as her calling a hit on the cue ball wrong, I have no doubt it was because of the announcers' position in relation to the table. How many times have you heard them incorrectly say that the cue ball was hooked behind something for the next shot (or vice versa)? They just don't have a perfect view of the match.

If that's all I have to deal with to get to watch pool on TV, I'll manage.

On a related note, I think I have a new favorite lady pro. I was home for lunch yesterday and watched the Fisher v Corr match. I absolutely loved the way Kelly played the last 5 or 6 games of the match. Much faster than you normally see them play on TV, and talk about deadstroke....
 
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