Gary Thorne is Back

[eddie83]

58 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Thanks.   I don’t subscribe to the Athletic and hadn’t seen a reference to that before. 

No problem. I knew I had seen it somewhere. 

[Beef Supreme]

When will be Gary Thorne's first telecast of the season?

[Sports Guy]

https://theathletic.com/2057975/2020/09/10/connolly-gary-thorne-has-a-masn-contract-but-no-schedule-messy-saga-continues/?source=user_shared_article

[milbest77]

4 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

https://theathletic.com/2057975/2020/09/10/connolly-gary-thorne-has-a-masn-contract-but-no-schedule-messy-saga-continues/?source=user_shared_article

Classic clickbait article. Connelly loves to speculate on random stuff that drums up comments and views. Yet, he doesn’t have much source behind it, does he? Remember his article a few months back talking about Surhoff and all the sour grapes from those being let go? Really relevant now, isn’t it?

[accinfo]

I am not sure what is going on with Thorne but it is very odd that they announced he is back and there hasn't been a single broadcast with him on it remotely.  You sign someone to a contract and you don't review what the employee's responsibilities are going to be in the contract or with the employee?  Here is your money.  We will call you when or if we need you?  That is strange.  

[eddie83]

10 hours ago, milbest77 said:

Classic clickbait article. Connelly loves to speculate on random stuff that drums up comments and views. Yet, he doesn’t have much source behind it, does he? Remember his article a few months back talking about Surhoff and all the sour grapes from those being let go? Really relevant now, isn’t it?

I don’t agree with you here at all. There are many clickbait articles from the media but this isn’t one. Connolly did some speculating on the article but when your top TV broadcaster isn’t appearing it’s a story.

Bottom line is they announced he was back before start of season and it looks like he didn’t have a contract. Then after the resumption they leak out some members not coming back due to covid reasons and with Thorne that wasn’t true. Then it is announced he has signed a deal and yet he still hasn’t appeared and has no idea if or when he will. 

[SteveA]

Here's the thing: he's a play by play guy, not an analyst.  With the season now 16 days away from ending, what role could he have?  They aren't going to bring him in from California this late in the game to do pbp.

Sure, he could do a zoom call or two, like Palmer has done.  But what would that add?  He's not an expert analyst who might add insight with some value like ex players Palmer or Roberts.

At the end of the article Connolly talks about how the Orioles announced in February that Thorne would be back even though there was no signed contract.  We can only guess that happened because the right hand and left hand were not communicating well.  Thorne always negotiated a 1 year deal.  They were probably in the process of doing that but hadn't finalized it yet.  Thorne, a lawyer himself, drives a tough deal.

So someone in PR asked someone in legal, are we going to have Thorne back?  And the person in legal probably said yeah, were close to a contract, working out the details.

So they made the announcement he was back as part of the team, prematurely.  And maybe Gary balked at that, or maybe stuff just dragged out until Covid hit.

Bottom line he wasn't signed and once things were restarting in June it was obvious that a 72 year old was not going to relocate to Baltimore in the middle of all this.  But maybe Gary saw an opportunity to get paid and said look, you announced me as part of the crew when no deal had been signed.  If you don't want me to make a big stink about that and if you have any hopes of wanting me back in 2021...put me on the payroll.

 

[MurphDogg]

I like Gary Thorne, he is much better than Garceau. But Kevin Brown has been really impressive too. I wouldn't be too upset if Brown was the main play-by-play guy going forward. I'm sure it saves the Orioles money too, but I think Brown will end up being a national guy within the next 5-10 years.

[CarrRun49]

17 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

I like Gary Thorne, he is much better than Garceau. But Kevin Brown has been really impressive too. I wouldn't be too upset if Brown was the main play-by-play guy going forward. I'm sure it saves the Orioles money too, but I think Brown will end up being a national guy within the next 5-10 years.

I agree.  Multiple friends and myself believe he sounds a tad like Joe Buck, which I enjoy, because it makes me feel like important baseball is being played, which it typically hasn't.

[Moose Milligan]

1 hour ago, CarrRun49 said:

I agree.  Multiple friends and myself believe he sounds a tad like Joe Buck, which I enjoy, because it makes me feel like important baseball is being played, which it typically hasn't.

[CarrRun49]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

You don't like Joe Buck?

[Moose Milligan]

50 minutes ago, CarrRun49 said:

You don't like Joe Buck?

No.  I don't know many who do.

[Frobby]

On 9/11/2020 at 1:22 PM, CarrRun49 said:

You don't like Joe Buck?

 

On 9/11/2020 at 2:13 PM, Moose Milligan said:

No.  I don't know many who do.

He’s OK.    I didn’t like Jack Buck much, but it liked it when somebody hit a high pop up and he’d exclaim “that’s a home run in an elevator shaft!”

[Sports Guy]

Never understood the Joe Buck hate.

[Moose Milligan]

29 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Never understood the Joe Buck hate.

Never understood the love.