ESPN Coverage Getting Better?

DoomCue

DoomCue

David J. Baranski
Silver Member
I've watched the last two airings of the Pro Tour Championship on ESPN, and I have to admit, I think the coverage is getting better. Mitch is making better comments (not asking stupid simple questions) and the color commentators (Kim Davenport and Rodney Morris in the matches I saw) are adding their usual knowledge to the coverage. Kim definitely sounds like he's been doing some coverage for Matchroom as he used some terms I've only heard watching snooker and the WPC. Plus, they're doing more player interviews, and the tip of the day is actually useful.

I think ESPN has actually been listening, so I give them kudos. I think they're heading in the right direction.

-djb
 
I watched a portion of it that was on last night and I said the same thing to myself...."this is getting better." I liked how they threw in parts of interviews with other players during the match. At one point, they played a clip of Archer commenting on Mika's safety game being a weaker point of his game, which was followed up by Mika playing a "not-so-safe" safety.

I realize the announcers are there for the casual fans, not necessarily those of us knee-deep in pool. It was nice for them to replay one a shot where Mika went from the 8 to the 9 using low, right-hand english to move the cue back downtable. They did a nice job of pointing out to the viewer to look where Mika was cueing the ball and the resulting path/position of the cue ball for the 9.
 
If you compare Mitch now and a couple years back he has done alot better at saying things that make sense not saying the same thing over and over.
 
Their coverage has gotten better, but they still pale in comparision to Accu-Stats. Davenport has lots of poise and knows what's going on in the game. I like him. I also think that if they dropped Mitch totally and replaced him with Grady Mathews, then they would really see a boast in their pool ratings.
 
Terry Ardeno said:
Their coverage has gotten better, but they still pale in comparision to Accu-Stats. Davenport has lots of poise and knows what's going on in the game. I like him. I also think that if they dropped Mitch totally and replaced him with Grady Mathews, then they would really see a boast in their pool ratings.
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I agree wholeheartedly! Can you imagine the mainstream audience hearing The Professor for the first time? "That was an intelligent shot--taking what the table offered rather than doing something unnatural. This is indeed how I like to play all shots of that nature." This, combined with his knowledge of the game and the players, his dry wit and his repertoire of road stories will blow the audience away. I really believe that this combination would be good for ESPN and good for Grady. Another person I'd like to see doing ESPN commentary is Buddy Hall. There is absolutely no one, IMHO, that has greater knowledge of the game of 9-ball, and his commentary, insights and stories are always enlightening and entertaining. Nick Varner is another. One thing is for sure, and the Accu-stats library bears this out--you can simply never go wrong watching a match that has any two of these three great players and personalities in the booth.
 
Mitch did seem to tone down his insights about whether the players have confidence or not in their stroke.
 
It does seem as if Mitch has improved. I think it helps to have Kim as a partner instead of a female that he tries to impress. If I remember they also got rid of that lame pocket cam.
 
VIProfessor said:
I agree wholeheartedly! Can you imagine the mainstream audience hearing The Professor for the first time? "That was an intelligent shot--taking what the table offered rather than doing something unnatural. This is indeed how I like to play all shots of that nature." This, combined with his knowledge of the game and the players, his dry wit and his repertoire of road stories will blow the audience away. I really believe that this combination would be good for ESPN and good for Grady. Another person I'd like to see doing ESPN commentary is Buddy Hall. There is absolutely no one, IMHO, that has greater knowledge of the game of 9-ball, and his commentary, insights and stories are always enlightening and entertaining. Nick Varner is another. One thing is for sure, and the Accu-stats library bears this out--you can simply never go wrong watching a match that has any two of these three great players and personalities in the booth.
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VIProfessor,
Very well stated post and I wholeheartedly agree with you as well, my friend. Besides Buddy and Nick, I also enjoy Freddie Bentivegna, Howard Vickery, Danny DiLiberto and Billy Incardona for their tone and stories. I want to hear them as much as I want to see the matches. But my favorite single commentator is still the OTHER professor, Grady Mathews. :)
 
One thing I have never understood. If you are going to chop up the match to air for TV, why not do the race to 11? Making the Finals a race to 7 for TV is absolutely absurd, no one ever sees the entire match on TV anyway.
 
I am probably in the minority, but I really enjoy Jerry Forsythe's commentary, he is my favorite by far.

There are actually very few that I don't like. I think that comes from the fact that I am just overjoyed when any billiards are televised.

The last month or two I have been recording and saving all of the pool shows on tv and I have noticed that (mind you some of these are 10 -12 years old)........

Jerry F, Danny D, Billy I are just good.

Mitch has gotten tons better in the last few years, him and Kim work great together.

Some of the older productions were just brutal with commentary. If I have to hear " he's looking for an angle here" one more time I'm gonna' mute the audio and turn on bad talk radio for background sound.

Charlie W. first broadcast or two were tough, but he is personable enough that that will be top notch in no time.

Grady is the man, from introducing matches to booth work, he is a joy to listen to.

And as they say...... "of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong".
 
mmwtdh said:
I am probably in the minority, but I really enjoy Jerry Forsythe's commentary, he is my favorite by far.

Grady is the man, from introducing matches to booth work, he is a joy to listen to.
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I agree with you that Jerry Forsyth is very good. He also has that comforting voice that I could listen to all day. I still think of him as a Matchroom commentator but he has been doing more Accu-Stats as of late. I do like him a lot.

Grady and the other guys we've mentioned in this thread mix in entertaining stories with the play by play. Mitch is so wooden. He just seems to shill the venue and the sponsors over and over and over. His comments on the match are the same old predictable lines each and every match.

If ESPN would hire Grady Mathews and these other guys, I'm certain their ratings would soar.
 
I'll tell you who has actually grown on me a little bit in the past few years, is Jim Wych.

I think Billy is starting to get on his nerves a little bit, and that is bringing out an "edge" to their time filler conversations. There has been references to a small sweat bet between the two here and there... He still talks about the "break off", but other than that, he has been doing a pretty good job at calling the position paths correctly, and the real issues and problems with a particular shot.

He in no way shape or form compares to Grady. I would love to see Grady come back and do commentary with Billy. That aside, if Jorge from propoolvideo.com decided to go commercial with his videos, he could do no worse than to have Grady and some guests dub some commentary over his catalog of matches.

IMHO, it's people like Billy, Danny D., and the Professor who bring the real value to matches. I think a video with two of them commentating automatically brings a $5.00 premium.

Russ
 
Russ Chewning said:
I'll tell you who has actually grown on me a little bit in the past few years, is Jim Wych.

I think Billy is starting to get on his nerves a little bit, and that is bringing out an "edge" to their time filler conversations. There has been references to a small sweat bet between the two here and there... He still talks about the "break off", but other than that, he has been doing a pretty good job at calling the position paths correctly, and the real issues and problems with a particular shot.

He in no way shape or form compares to Grady. I would love to see Grady come back and do commentary with Billy. That aside, if Jorge from propoolvideo.com decided to go commercial with his videos, he could do no worse than to have Grady and some guests dub some commentary over his catalog of matches.

IMHO, it's people like Billy, Danny D., and the Professor who bring the real value to matches. I think a video with two of them commentating automatically brings a $5.00 premium.

Russ
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What??!!! I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with one of Russ' posts??? Call the ambulance---QUICK!!:D
 
I love hearing Incardona, tho Grady's great also. I kinda like it when the commentators disagree a bit or have different styles. You can hear them talk it out and it makes people can see that you need brains to play pool, and there's some decision-making. Sometimes I see option A and never even thought of option B that the 2nd commentator mentions.

I always liked it when Billy worked with Ervolino even though Ervolino didn't have what you'd call a, uh, mellifluous voice. They'd disagree all the time and have some fun ribbing each other. What a shame we won't be hearing that anymore.

Now all ESPN has to do is cover multiple games instead of forcing us to settle for 5,000 different variations of 9 ball.
 
I believe it's not really ESPN who does the work on the production side. They just give the airtime to the promoter. The real credit should probably goto the producers of the event which in this case would be Dragon Promotions. It seems from watching and comparing it to other pool shows I've seen they are doing more innovative things with the filming and more exposure to players and showcasing personalities and extras like graphics and tips on shots. I think that's a good direction to follow and hopefully other promoters will catch on.


DoomCue said:
I've watched the last two airings of the Pro Tour Championship on ESPN, and I have to admit, I think the coverage is getting better. Mitch is making better comments (not asking stupid simple questions) and the color commentators (Kim Davenport and Rodney Morris in the matches I saw) are adding their usual knowledge to the coverage. Kim definitely sounds like he's been doing some coverage for Matchroom as he used some terms I've only heard watching snooker and the WPC. Plus, they're doing more player interviews, and the tip of the day is actually useful.

I think ESPN has actually been listening, so I give them kudos. I think they're heading in the right direction.

-djb
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