Thorne, Bordick, Dempsey and Tom Davis amongst those let go

[o'sman458202233]

I'll really miss Gary Thorne, but the others honestly not much.   I know Gary made some blatant miscues, but his voice and his personality made up for it.  

I'm glad McDonald is back, I enjoy his commentary.    I think Garceau and Palmer will be a good combo.    I'm giving the new announcers more time before I can really say, it was such a weird year last year.   

Glad Dempsey and Brob will still be around though.  Dempsey was a homer and I get that, but some of his takes were outrageous at times.    

I also noticed the last few years Tom Davis became super condescending on the post game radio shows, saying things like "What the fans don't get" and "what I wish the fans would understand" about things that he was obviously wrong about.    My co-workers and I would talk about it all the time.   

Dave Johnson always sounded like he had 3 Lifesavers in his mouth.   

Mike Bordick was a great guy, but his forced enthusiasm got old quickly.  

To me Jim Hunter was insufferable.   I just felt like he suffered from the Dunning-Kruger effect.  Google it, you'll see his picture.  

As an aside, one of my favorite memories was when Pat Sajak was doing the post game show on the radio with Dave Johnson and Tom Davis.     They got to the portion where they would look through the Mars circular.   I was laughing so hard in my car as Pat Sajak was slowly wondering what the hell he was doing there as they made him select his top 3 favorite items on sale that week, followed by Dave Johnson telling stories about dropping ice cream off at his mom's house and Tom Davis talking about how great a deal it was for all these different types of chips/snacks.      

[Sports Guy]

If MASN was smart, they would do the post game and pre game shows and use bloggers, website owners and people like that.  Tell them that they aren’t paying them.  I’m sure plenty of people would love the exposure and would volunteer for it. 

[HowAboutThat]

42 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

If MASN was smart, they would do the post game and pre game shows and use bloggers, website owners and people like that.  Tell them that they aren’t paying them.  I’m sure plenty of people would love the exposure and would volunteer for it. 

Excellent idea. I’ve always thought teams could make extra money by putting up some radio kiosks around the stadium and letting people sign up to “call” a half-inning or so of a game, and take home the recording of their time. Good recordings could be submitted as audition tapes. Would be a terrific way to show how it’s done, complete with PDFs, station breaks, ads, and so on, in a harmless way, find worthwhile talent, create meaningful memories for the customer(“ I got to call Davis’ ten thousandth strikeout!”) and to make some money for the team.

[drjohnnyfeva]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

If MASN was smart, they would do the post game and pre game shows and use bloggers, website owners and people like that.  Tell them that they aren’t paying them.  I’m sure plenty of people would love the exposure and would volunteer for it. 

The Angelosii would never do that, tho.  Too much unfettered criticism of the club...  It is pretty crappy that they are doing this now as Brittney Girolli pointed out.

With the other furloughs through the system, this is beginning to feel like inheritance tax saving measures or outright sale...

[OldNewGuy]

Tell them that they aren’t paying them.  I’m sure plenty of people would love the exposure and would volunteer for it. 

Isn't that what they are doing with the group of broadcaster's they brought in last year? Think of the exposure you'd get doing big league games. Get a free sub, chips, and a coke at Weiss. No criticism, or no sub and you're out of here by sundown.

 

[drjohnnyfeva]

15 minutes ago, OldNewGuy said:

Tell them that they aren’t paying them.  I’m sure plenty of people would love the exposure and would volunteer for it. 

Isn't that what they are doing with the group of broadcaster's they brought in last year? Think of the exposure you'd get doing big league games. Get a free sub, chips, and a coke at Weiss. No criticism, or no sub and you're out of here by sundown.

 

I know Tom Davis is a sort of Master at this.  He'll probably pop back up on MASN or WJZ.  He'll just buy his own time from them as he's done with football and baseball shows on WJZ before.  He'll get a sponsor to pay a certain amount for the desk to say "Weis" or "Eskay" or "Utz or all of them.  It'll be enough to pay the on-air fee, plus more to pay himself.  That's what those hilarious Mars fliers and picking your favorite snacks with Dave Johnson were all about that a poster above mentioned... sponsorships.  Programming thru sponsorship using time on the local stations that would otherwise be devoted to infomercials.

[Roll Tide]

Quote

The Nationals responded today with a statement to recent cuts made by the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. The Nats’ years-long headache over MASN – the local sports network co-owned by the Nationals and Orioles, but controlled by the Orioles – took another turn this week as on-air personalities Dan Kolko, Bo Porter, and Alex Chappell were let go without prior notice being given to the Nats, per Ben Strauss and Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. In the Nationals’ statement, provided by the Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli (via Twitter), they wrote, “…To say that we are incredibly disappointed and upset by MASN’s decisions would be a gross understatement. To be clear – these decisions were made by MASN and against our wishes…” Porter, of course, was a coach with the Nationals from 2011 to 2012 and later managed the Astros for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. He has teamed with Kolko on pre- and postgame shows since 2019, during which time Chappell has served as a dugout reporter.

 

 

 

 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/baltimore-orioles

[Dipper9]

Its pretty telling that I am more upset about the Orioles and MASN getting rid of our favorite announcers than I am about the piss poor teams they have put together over the last 5 years, but alas, this is where we are.

I would always have the pre-game show on while I was cleaning up dinner, so now I guess its just MLBN all the time except when our game is actually on.

I've always liked Dempsey and Tom Davis and their over the top homerism.  I'm not sure why they get criticized, as I have no problems with local guys supporting the team that we all love.

Gary Thorne is the biggest blow here.  Yes, he would make occasional mistakes with names or pitch locations, but unless you are visually impaired, I sure don't need a TV play by play guy to tell me what's happening on my screen.  Gary was an entertainer, pure and simple. He made even the worst Orioles blowouts entertaining to watch, his his stories, humor, and whiskey laugh.  I used to love the 7th inning Jack Daniels break, where he would proudly spout out..."Drink................................................five minutes later........responsibly!"  Made me laugh every time.

On a personal note, 7 years ago when my wife and I went to our first (and thus far only) Spring Training trip, my wife ran into Gary at FanFest and was asking him for advice since he lives in the Sarasota area.  He took a good 10-15 minutes of his time to address her questions, make suggestions on where to stay, eat, what to do, etc.  He is a great guy, and I know he doesn't need this job, but I for one will sure miss him.  

As for the Orioles.  Their on field product stinks.  They are cutting the shows on MASN.  They've been holding my season ticket money for 2 years without me having any positive to it.  I'd say this might just be the final straw to make me use my season ticket money after 2021 on more "entertaining" products.  

[Roll Tide]

27 minutes ago, Dipper9 said:

Its pretty telling that I am more upset about the Orioles and MASN getting rid of our favorite announcers than I am about the piss poor teams they have put together over the last 5 years, but alas, this is where we are.

I would always have the pre-game show on while I was cleaning up dinner, so now I guess its just MLBN all the time except when our game is actually on.

I've always liked Dempsey and Tom Davis and their over the top homerism.  I'm not sure why they get criticized, as I have no problems with local guys supporting the team that we all love.

Gary Thorne is the biggest blow here.  Yes, he would make occasional mistakes with names or pitch locations, but unless you are visually impaired, I sure don't need a TV play by play guy to tell me what's happening on my screen.  Gary was an entertainer, pure and simple. He made even the worst Orioles blowouts entertaining to watch, his his stories, humor, and whiskey laugh.  I used to love the 7th inning Jack Daniels break, where he would proudly spout out..."Drink................................................five minutes later........responsibly!"  Made me laugh every time.

On a personal note, 7 years ago when my wife and I went to our first (and thus far only) Spring Training trip, my wife ran into Gary at FanFest and was asking him for advice since he lives in the Sarasota area.  He took a good 10-15 minutes of his time to address her questions, make suggestions on where to stay, eat, what to do, etc.  He is a great guy, and I know he doesn't need this job, but I for one will sure miss him.  

As for the Orioles.  Their on field product stinks.  They are cutting the shows on MASN.  They've been holding my season ticket money for 2 years without me having any positive to it.  I'd say this might just be the final straw to make me use my season ticket money after 2021 on more "entertaining" products.  

I think he made frequent mistakes!

[Chuck A]

As a hockey fan first and foremost, I have always had a dislike of Gary Thorne for his obvious hatred of certain teams at all costs - mispronouncing names on purpose (how can you can call it wrong for years in that business?) and his seeming dis-interest at times.  Whenever he would call a hockey game i would turn the sound off to enjoy the game instead of listening to him. 

As a lifelong Orioles fan - I often chose to listen to the radio calls over the tv voices.  I really enjoyed Jon Miller doing the weekly games but not as an Oriole pbp man.  He annoyed the hell out of me for always trying to be cute with the same stories over and over instead of calling what was going on.  I'm sure i am in the minority but i loved the Mel Proctor/John Lowenstein combo on HTS.  I like what i've heard from Ben McDonald and B Rob.  I couldn't bring myself to pay for the MLB network last year and am on the fence if i'm going to do so this year.  Probably just catch the free games when i can.  I tend to be much busier outside from spring through fall anyway.  I'm still a damn box score junkie and read everything i can.  Being a couple states away from easy local coverage makes it tougher but i wouldn't trade it for anything.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

3 hours ago, drjohnnyfeva said:

The Angelosii would never do that, tho.  Too much unfettered criticism of the club...  It is pretty crappy that they are doing this now as Brittney Girolli pointed out.

With the other furloughs through the system, this is beginning to feel like inheritance tax saving measures or outright sale...

They will only allow Orioles state media for  pre and post game shows. Getting bloggers and journalists on would be good exposure and bring in some much needed diverse viewpoints. 

[Morgan423]

With the broadcast team announced...  Palmer, Brown, McDonald... okay!

Arnold, Hollander, Long, Newman...  meh.  We'll give them some time.

Garceau... my soul died a little.

[drjohnnyfeva]

4 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

They will only allow Orioles state media for  pre and post game shows. Getting bloggers and journalists on would be good exposure and bring in some much needed diverse viewpoints. 

State media would never allow such a throuple, but if they pair Garceau with Jeremy Conn and "Dundalk" Jason LaCanfora like old Thursdays on The Fan, I'm in!  Comedy hour!  They could do pre, post, and the game broadcast- - - that would be a SHOW.    "Dundalk" doesn't even have to talk baseball.  He can just do color and tweet random Ravens info.

Throw Ken Weinman in too.  He could be the play-by-play.

Edited January 26, 2021 by drjohnnyfeva

[Explosivo]

How in the #@$% is Garceau back? He was awful. If you are saving money, how can you justify continuing to give that waste of space a contract? I understand getting rid of the rest but having Garceau in any capacity back again for another year not only makes no sense, it pisses me off to no end.

[NCRaven]

Scott probably had a multi year deal.