Melanie Newman is not good on the radio.Xfinity and beyond-2024

[Going Underground]

Coming home ,hard to follow what is happening.

Long fly ball that ends up over Taylor's head. Pause. Gunner could  stop running  because it is a homer.

.

Urias hits a pop fly coming back and Cruz catches it. Hard to follow and can't describe the action  in real time  

 

 

 

Edited April 5 by Going Underground

[Greg Pappas]

I agree Newman is not good at her job and should be replaced.  I've heard her three times and was quite unimpressed.

[Hazmat]

Can we add a “- 2024” to the end of the thread title since this appears to be a topic that comes up annually?

[HowAboutThat]

Amen.

She sounds like she’s reading stock quotes. She’s awful. But to be fair not one of them is much good.

(sigh) and yes, this will be annual, because she’s been bad annually.

however, the camera work is really bad too. The camera starts from pitcher’s POV, if there’s contact, by the time the camera switches, the action is mostly over.

On a home run ball, the camera change makes it all but impossible to see the ball in flight, on a fly ball we see only the end of the arc, and don’t get a sense of either distance or outfielder effort, although the reply does usually show it, so we only get full impact on the replay…which is silly

The Camera default view should be above/behind catcher’s head so we can see the field as action unfolds, and leave it there.

Edited April 5 by Philip

[Hank Scorpio]

Fine on TV… not fine on radio.

[Ohfan67]

Melanie is not good on the radio. The radio broadcast quality has been trending down for years and Melanie just adds to the problem. In years past I loved to listen to weekend games on the radio while piddling around the house. Not so much these days. 

[Snutchy]

She’s okay on TV. I much prefer her during the pre and post game shows. She doesn’t paint an accurate picture of the play-by-play on the radio. 

[Tony-OH]

My blood pressure was getting high as I drove home today from work listening to her.

1. Still over describes the action so the crowd tells you what happened long before she tells you the result.

2. Still says things like, "A skyball towards 3rd base (long 2-3 pause) and it's foul."

3. Talked about Cocomelon for some reason at one point 

4. Late in the game, Gunnar gets on base with 1-2nd and no out and Adley coming up. Decides to tell a gripping story about Gunnar telling her about how his dog got into water and his underbelly froze. Then it sounded like Jingle bells when he walked. (What in the actual F does this have to do with the game action?)

Honestly, she says so many insane things now that have little to nothing to do with the game action that you wonder if someone told her to just bring up random stories and that will endear her. To who I don't know. 

Now look, this has NOTHING to do with being a woman. In fact, the Orioles can feel free to hire another one to replace her if they want, but I hear 30-40 minor league announcers that are clearly a step above her in every way.

She seems like she's probably a nice enough young lady, and I don't have any issues with her personally, but almost had to turn off the game on the way home so my blood pressure wouldn't spike.

[yark14]

Hmmm....I think this is the first time Melanie has ever been brought up on this forum before.  

I'm a fan.  She's young and still learning, play-by-play isn't her strength...but if you're a true baseball nerd do you even need a good play-by-play person?  Few do pre and post game reports and interviews better than her.

[HandsomeQuack]

20 minutes ago, yark14 said:

Hmmm....I think this is the first time Melanie has ever been brought up on this forum before.  

I'm a fan.  She's young and still learning, play-by-play isn't her strength...but if you're a true baseball nerd do you even need a good play-by-play person?  Few do pre and post game reports and interviews better than her.

Yes, everyone wants a good play-by-play person, even if you're watching on TV. What an odd thing to say.

[Satyr3206]

Play by play person means describe the plays and action. Not real hard.

[yark14]

3 hours ago, Ohfan67 said:

Melanie is not good on the radio. The radio broadcast quality has been trending down for years and Melanie just adds to the problem. In years past I loved to listen to weekend games on the radio while piddling around the house. Not so much these days. 

How hard is it to switch to the video feed? We had Ben and Kevin being big goofballs.

[Spy Fox]

Related but not specifically a Melanie question... Do other teams do the same thing as O's radio where both broadcasters take turns at play by play, instead of steady play by play and color roles for the game? 

[Ohfan67]

6 minutes ago, yark14 said:

How hard is it to switch to the video feed? We had Ben and Kevin being big goofballs.

I actually do that a decent amount. I will sometimes use the video feed on the mlb tv app on my phone and use phone speakers or ear buds. Radio on the app was nicer because easier to have phone in pocket. Usually if the screen darkens in video mode the broadcast stops, so hard to stick phone in pocket. Handy while working in the yard, etc. 

 

first world problem for sure. 

[SteveA]

She uses odd, non-standard phraseology.

She does not accurately describe what is happening to a radio listener.

She is completely unacceptable as a radio play by play announcer.

The only reason I don't complain more about her is that radio is no longer a major factor in bringing me the O's.   If I'm not in the car, and I'm following the O's, it's on a screen.   Radio play by play is just a small factor for my following the O's compared to the decades I was growing up.

But she is really bad at radio PBP.