No wonder pool does not get the exposure it deserves on television. Have you all heard the commentary on ESPN, particularly the UPA finals with Kim Davenport? No offense to anybody who is not educated, but when you use double negatives and words that do not even exist, it is quite a turn off for the viewer. Does anybody else agree with me here? I know pool players are not the smartest as a whole, but surely they can listen to that commentary and hear how terrible it is and edit it or something? Even alot of the player interviews are terrible. I thought some of the NBA athletes were bad, they spot us the 7 in grammar skills.
Pool Commentary
- Thread starter 1on1pooltournys
- Start date
1on1pooltournys said:
1on1,
You want correct grammar in your announcers??? No problem. In pool we've got lots of them. There's Grady Mathews...and...err...there's also....ummm...well I'm sure there must be some others, let me think....................................................................................................................never mind.
P.S. - Pat Fleming is very well spoken but for some reason rarely puts himself in front of the mike.
Grady
He should get a contract from ESPN. You're exactly right!!
He should get a contract from ESPN. You're exactly right!!
Williebetmore said:
Lol, Billy I. always acted like he couldn't stand Grady, but I noticed that in a match he commentated with Vickery, he was using some BIGGGGG words!
I was like, "WTF? Billy, you just learned that word yesterday, didn't you?"
It was really obvious, and I felt somewhat embarassed for Billy. He was using words that didn't quite fit with the conversation, and didn't "flow" the way Grady's big words did.
Thank goodness, he finally stopped doing that about halfway into the match. I think the match was at a Reno event, Buddy Hall versus Earl Strickland.. Anyone else who has seen that match feel free to comment on Billy's expanded vocabulary..
Russ
Russ Chewning said:Anyone else who has seen that match feel free to comment on Billy's expanded vocabulary..
Russ
RC,
I have about a hundred tapes; Billy has always tried to use big words - he says them slowly, and very often (67% of the time) he actually uses them correctly. Unfortunately, 71.3% of the time he makes a major grammatical error or mispronunciation in the same sentence as the big word.
FWIW I still like Billy I.'s commentary - he's at his best fighting with Grady or anyone else.
Williebetmore said:
"No, ______, I have a much better angle on the shot than YOU do.." (And his co-commentator is sitting RIGHT beside him, and they are both 20 feet from the table...LOL)
FWIW, I think one of the reasons Billy didn't like commentating with Grady is Grady was SO good at rolling with a dig from Billy, and he'd keep right on trucking with his own digs..
Grady: "Billy..." (Was obviously getting on Billy's nerves)
Billy: "Don't write a check with your mouth...."
Grady: "No, (with an amused tone in his voice) I just wanted to discuss my credit worthiness with you.."
Russ
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Yeah, billy I is fun because he's not afraid to just kinda forcefully make his points and argue a bit. I dunno why that makes it fun but it does. When he and Danny D team up, it seems like they never agree on what shot to play and how to play it. "he can just throw it in with low inside and go two cushions to play position on the three" "he can't even see that ball! He should bank the 2 instead, it's automatic guaranteed position on the five" "no no no no the two's no good. how are you gonna get back down for the pink?" "well I think he can see it and I think that's exACTly how he's gonna play it. Two cushions to get automatic leave on the three."
It's great.
I have to give a thumbs down to the commentary I heard by by The Beard in the 2005 DCC bank pool ring game. He was super negative about pretty much everything, questioned every shot selection, sounded exasperated with comments like 'why is he even THINKING here?' etc. He made it sound like they were all inexperienced fish and he's the only one who knew what he was talking about. I know he's a good player but it kinda grated on me while I was watching.
It's great.
I have to give a thumbs down to the commentary I heard by by The Beard in the 2005 DCC bank pool ring game. He was super negative about pretty much everything, questioned every shot selection, sounded exasperated with comments like 'why is he even THINKING here?' etc. He made it sound like they were all inexperienced fish and he's the only one who knew what he was talking about. I know he's a good player but it kinda grated on me while I was watching.
CreeDo said:
I absolutely loved the Beard's commentary..
"Uh oh...Efren's got him seeing monsters in his cornflakes.. He's liable to shoot at anything.."
Russ
Espn Is Missing The Boat
I think they need to watch an accu-stat tape of Billy and Grady doing the commentating. They for sure would be a shoe-in to do the next ESPN televised event!!! Hopefully they don't watch the real old tapes where they swear like truck drivers. Anybody seen these? They are hilarious.
In all seriousness though, don't you think they should do something about this kind of thing? Seemed to me that Busty had better grammar than Johnny and he is a Pinoy. I donno what you all think, but It kinda embarassed me to brag about how great these guys are to people and then here them struggle with sentence structure.
I think they need to watch an accu-stat tape of Billy and Grady doing the commentating. They for sure would be a shoe-in to do the next ESPN televised event!!! Hopefully they don't watch the real old tapes where they swear like truck drivers. Anybody seen these? They are hilarious.
In all seriousness though, don't you think they should do something about this kind of thing? Seemed to me that Busty had better grammar than Johnny and he is a Pinoy. I donno what you all think, but It kinda embarassed me to brag about how great these guys are to people and then here them struggle with sentence structure.
Someone has got to bring back Jay Helfert! He knows a monster amount of information on the game, its players, and the history. Best of all, he speaks well and has personality.
LONG LIVE HELFERT!
LONG LIVE HELFERT!
break out some teleprompters
The sports star commentators in other sports often can't string three intelligent words together without teleprompters and have had no end of speech and grammar coaches.
Watching OJ on TV I thought he was fairly well educated. Seeing him speak unscripted and seeing his actual writing I learned that he is functionally illiterate. I'm sure many athletes are well educated but many in all sports are far from it and it only becomes apparent when you see them in surroundings they are comfortable with.
Billy and others are comfortable commenting on pool, sometimes a little too comfortable for those that want polish but I wouldn't trade Billy, Grady, or any of the real pool players for a dozen polished Mitch's.
OK, I have to include a little bit of funny, my rough paraphrasing of an early Allen and Mitch booth act I saw recently. [Mitch]"Why are you up here in the booth instead of down there playing still?"(tone implies, what a loser!) "I missed a couple of balls." This is a nine ball match and Mitch explains that the player is fixing to shoot the three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine in that order. Surprise, surprise, surprise! "Do you see any problems Allen?" "Well yes Mitch you moron, he doesn't have a shot on the three".(Allen seemed to be still a bit annoyed about Mitch's slap about him getting his butt kicked earlier in the event. These weren't his exact words but it was definitely there in his tone of voice as he explained there was no shot on the three.) I was wishing they would swing the camera to the booth because it looked like the battle there would get more interesting than the battle on the table at any moment.
Hu
The sports star commentators in other sports often can't string three intelligent words together without teleprompters and have had no end of speech and grammar coaches.
Watching OJ on TV I thought he was fairly well educated. Seeing him speak unscripted and seeing his actual writing I learned that he is functionally illiterate. I'm sure many athletes are well educated but many in all sports are far from it and it only becomes apparent when you see them in surroundings they are comfortable with.
Billy and others are comfortable commenting on pool, sometimes a little too comfortable for those that want polish but I wouldn't trade Billy, Grady, or any of the real pool players for a dozen polished Mitch's.
OK, I have to include a little bit of funny, my rough paraphrasing of an early Allen and Mitch booth act I saw recently. [Mitch]"Why are you up here in the booth instead of down there playing still?"(tone implies, what a loser!) "I missed a couple of balls." This is a nine ball match and Mitch explains that the player is fixing to shoot the three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine in that order. Surprise, surprise, surprise! "Do you see any problems Allen?" "Well yes Mitch you moron, he doesn't have a shot on the three".(Allen seemed to be still a bit annoyed about Mitch's slap about him getting his butt kicked earlier in the event. These weren't his exact words but it was definitely there in his tone of voice as he explained there was no shot on the three.) I was wishing they would swing the camera to the booth because it looked like the battle there would get more interesting than the battle on the table at any moment.
Hu
If anybody has watched the Guiness Asian 9 Ball tour matches, the commentary there is useless. No bad grammar or anything like that.
They just had nothing to say of any value related to the matches or the game. It was awful. I finally turned the sound off and just watched while listening to Lynard Skynard.
They just had nothing to say of any value related to the matches or the game. It was awful. I finally turned the sound off and just watched while listening to Lynard Skynard.
Pushout said:
If you watched the UPA finals with Kim Davenport doing commentary and you DIDN'T notice any bad grammar, you MIGHT BE A REDNECK
!!!Damn, I must be a redneck
.I am embarrassed to say this, but his commentary was making perfect sense to me. Of course, English was one of my absolute WORST subjects in school
.Maniac
Yeah, some of the pro players should have gone to English class instead of the pool room.
My favorite quote by a top pro (who I will not identify) was:
"I have more knowledge about the game than anyone else. In fact, they ought to call me "Mister N".
He thought the word knowledge started with an "n".
It still crack me up to this day, but then again, I'm easily amused.
Stones
P. S. The only "A" I ever received in four years of high school English was a paper on pocket billiards.
My favorite quote by a top pro (who I will not identify) was:
"I have more knowledge about the game than anyone else. In fact, they ought to call me "Mister N".
He thought the word knowledge started with an "n".
It still crack me up to this day, but then again, I'm easily amused.
Stones
P. S. The only "A" I ever received in four years of high school English was a paper on pocket billiards.
1on1pooltournys said:
Get real!!! The problem with pool is a lack of ENTERTAINMENT, not bad grammar!
I like Kim Davenport's commentary! Would you rather have Mark Wilson??? I mean he's a hell of a nice guy, but he could get some personality tips from Al Gore and do a better job!
Look at some of the most beloved sports commentators:
"Twelve for 23... It doesn't take a genius to see that's under 50 percent."
-Dick Vitale
"I signed with the Milwaukee Braves for three-thousand dollars. That bothered my dad at the time because he didn't have that kind of dough. But he eventually scraped it up."
-Bob Euker
"He used to fart in my hands all the time."
-Terry Bradshaw - when asked about center Mike Webster
"If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else."
-Yogi Berra
"Booze, broads, and bulls#!t. If you got all that, what else do you need?"
-Harry Caray
Don't worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon. "
-John Madden
"It (George Steinbrenner's new yacht) was a beautiful thing to observe with all thirty oars working in unison."
-Jack Buck
BTW, Kim amused me when after Mika had missed a shot and was speaking to himself going back to his chair Kim said "Mika is one of the best mumblers on the tour..."
Norman Chad..... why couldn't this guy been a part time pool player instead of a poker player. If Mitch Lawrence did the commentating for poker there would be far less viewers for that. The guy has no sense of humor and all he comments on is the players feelings and emotions and how much practice they went thru to prepare.... who cares???
1on1pooltournys said:
I was just thinking the same thing last night...