Credit where it’s due to Melanie Newman

[jamalshw]

1 hour ago, InsideCoroner said:

So it’s just me that saw a difference, then. Alright. 

Meh...I missed Kevin Brown, but I didn't hate the broadcast. There were still errors, but if sounded smoother and better to me. 

[dzorange]

36 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Melanie Newman is great at doing the pre and post game shows much better than Rob Long. Rob Long is good doing sports talk radio on 105.7 The Fan, but I've never like his delivery on MASN.

I will give Newman credit she has improved at play by play and she pairs well with Ben McDonald on the broadcast. I'd rather see her on MASN than Scott Garceau where before I was indifferent to either one.

I'm not familiar with Long's work outside of the Orioles, as I live out of town. I watch all of the O's games through MLB.tv.

I really do not like Long. I think he makes the MASN broadcasts seem less credible compared to other team's broadcasts.

I'm not a fan of Melanie Newman on play-by-play but I agree that I think she sounded better than usual the past two games.

[Spy Fox]

3 minutes ago, jamalshw said:

Meh...I missed Kevin Brown, but I didn't hate the broadcast. There were still errors, but if sounded smoother and better to me. 

That's how I felt. Her weaknesses were still on display and there were some mistakes, but I felt it was pretty watchable. 

I'm not sure she'll ever be that good at PBP, because she continues to phrase a lot of her descriptions in weird ways. She's in like an uncanny valley of commentary where she uses a lot of the standard tools/phrases but consistently slightly misapplies them. 

But, I think improvement could come from making her PBP approach more distinct from her other roles. I feel like she overpursues narratives (especially feel-good narratives about the O's) at the expense of being on her toes to describe the unfolding of the game at hand. Lots of PBP people do this (Kevin Brown does sometimes) but if they're good, they know exactly when to snap back to action mode, and describe the game crisply when doing so. 

[thegardner]

1 hour ago, dystopia said:

Her efforts to pronounce Spanish names with an accent annoy me,

Yes, the accent is annoying and why doesn't she extend that courtesy to everyone for example pronouncing Kimbrel with an english accent or Kjerstad with a Norwegian accent.

[fansince1988]

1 hour ago, lfallo1 said:

Ben seemed to perhaps throw her off, but the Gunnar hr call was laughably bad - Compared the radio call, which while not legendary, was at least coherent.

The camera work was awful on the Gunnar HR. They framed the shot as if the ball was going to be caught by the right fielder. 

[owknows]

I feel compelled to say something nice... so I'll just say I imagine her smelling like warm cookies.

[Frobby]

I did want to mention that I did a little PBP during college for my campus radio station.  I did couple of basketball games, a couple of football games, and one baseball game.  It's way tougher than it seems from the audience standpoint.

[Spy Fox]

19 minutes ago, thegardner said:

Yes, the accent is annoying and why doesn't she extend that courtesy to everyone for example pronouncing Kimbrel with an english accent or Kjerstad with a Norwegian accent.

Maybe because those guys are from Alabama and Texas? If that's the path you want to take she could be saying those names with a sudden southern drawl. 

[Philip]

Not a fan. Her voice is annoying. Even if what she said was ok, which it’s not, her voice itself is one of the worst broadcast voices I can remember. And I listen to NPR.

I wonder how Sylvia Poggioli would do as a PBP voice? Hmmm

[Say O!]

2 hours ago, Otter said:

The thing that bothers me the most about her is sometimes her tone, inflection, and volume aren't appropriate for the moment.  Her voice gets excited during a routine pop-up, but she delivers a late, monotone, and confusing description of exciting run scoring plays.  If she was the PBP announcer for an A ball team, it would be ok.  But the fact that she's the backup PBP announcer for a MLB team is just embarrassing.

Concur with this 100%.

and agree with other posters that she has been excellent pre/post game

[now]

2 hours ago, Gurgi said:

There is also the sound of her voice when she goes up in energy that is not pleasant to the ear.  Its like nails on a chalkboard.  Its like she is telling me to get off my butt and take out the trash.  

Yep, to me it's not about (in)competence but sheerly a voice issue:
"nails on chalkboard" nails it for me. Have to switch it off as soon as I hear it.

And BTW this is not about "being mean." It's just fan feedback, in case anyone at MASN is listening.

[Gurgi]

I predict Rubenstein will slowly and calmly reorganizes MASN.  Hopefully this offseason he decides to make a few changes.  

[Tony-OH]

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

Everybody missed that.   Ben too.   He read the body language of the outfielder and while the ball was in flight said something like, "wow, I really thought that was going out."   And then it did.   From my upper deck seats it was hard to follow the flight of the ball and I had the exact reaction Ben did.

As an aside, the Nats' broadcast booth is very high up and very far back.   I was sitting in the 5th row of the upper deck and the press box was way behind and higher than where I was sitting.   

I saw Gunnar kinda of pose after he hit it and thought, "That's out" then the camera shows the outfielder standing there looking up and I was like, "Rats." Then Newman made it out to be a can of corn and thoughts "Double rats." Then it became a home run! 

[Malike]

3 hours ago, InsideCoroner said:

So it’s just me that saw a difference, then. Alright. 

It's not just you. She was fine. Ben calls Irvin Irving, they all make mistakes. Is she the best announcer we have? Not even close. Is she as bad as people are making her out to be? Not even close. Hive mind is strong on this type of subjective topic.

[24fps]

2 hours ago, baltimoriole said:

I wonder if she read this board.

The standard is so very high for orioles broadcasts—both TV and radio. I know everyone loves Jon miller, but for my money Joe Angel had the best set of golden pipes in history.

Melanie carries the company water and is better than Mike Bordick and Jim Hunter. So there’s that.

She’s done well making a name for herself. I at least  know her name and voice. The other two in the radio broadcast. I seriously have no idea what their names are. They’re comply nondescript and without any personality. I know one has a punchy voice and another is very nasally.

 

 

Chuck Thompson for me.  As a kid he was the voice of summer.