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Cal the Analyst

tywright

By tywright
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tywright Perennial All-Star

tywright

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Did anybody catch Cal on TBS on Monday night?

Courtesy of Bill Simmons:

16. Cal Ripken Jr.

Other than the Mets' collapse, a 46-homer season from Carlos Pena and Toronto's getting 357 ABs and a .917 OPS from Matt Stairs, the most shocking revelation of the season was Ripken's yeoman's work as TBS's studio guy during Monday night's Rockies-Padres game. This can't be emphasized strongly enough: He was GREAT. I actually learned stuff from him. (I know, I know, a novel concept.) Now, there's a chance you could stick a corpse with Ernie Johnson and the corpse would turn into a B-plus analyst. But did you ever think Ripken would be a good TV guy? I'm still shocked. Maybe it was all those years serving as the bodyguard on "The Jerry Springer Show." Anyway, I'm excited for the first round on TBS now ... although I maintain that Barkley should have been involved.

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RShack Hangout Grand Counsel

RShack

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He is very good. You would think he's done it for years.

He has been saying the right things in the media for years. The whole streak thing was an ordeal that made him media-proof. He notices things about the game (no surprise) and conveys them politely (no surprise).

The only thing that surprised me more than the extra umps standing in the wrong place was that they didn't fix that about 10 seconds after Cal pointed it out on national TV. However, if he had much to say about the play at the plate, I missed it.

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Sports Guy Hangout Grand Counsel

Sports Guy

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Did anybody catch Cal on TBS on Monday night?

Courtesy of Bill Simmons:

16. Cal Ripken Jr.

Other than the Mets' collapse, a 46-homer season from Carlos Pena and Toronto's getting 357 ABs and a .917 OPS from Matt Stairs, the most shocking revelation of the season was Ripken's yeoman's work as TBS's studio guy during Monday night's Rockies-Padres game. This can't be emphasized strongly enough: He was GREAT. I actually learned stuff from him. (I know, I know, a novel concept.) Now, there's a chance you could stick a corpse with Ernie Johnson and the corpse would turn into a B-plus analyst. But did you ever think Ripken would be a good TV guy? I'm still shocked. Maybe it was all those years serving as the bodyguard on "The Jerry Springer Show." Anyway, I'm excited for the first round on TBS now ... although I maintain that Barkley should have been involved.

LOL...Great line...He is a spitting image of that guy.

Cal does very well because Cal knows the game unlike anyone else. He is an extremely intelligent baseball man....And it helps that it speaks well.

He has good camera presence.

And you know what, he takes it seriously i bet...I bet Cal was studying film and teams in preparation for this.

He goes all out for everything he does....I am sure this was no different.

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Pedro Cerrano Hangout Grand Counsel

Pedro Cerrano

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I said the other night that Ernie Johnson (who hosts TNT's Emmy-Award winning "Inside the NBA") is my favorite studio host in the business. He even does baseball well which is not his #1 sport. Adding Cal in there only makes it better.

And you know what? Frank Thomas isn't that bad, either.

Certainly beats Stu Scott and Chris Berman. Kudos to TBS for doing a great job with their first playoff baseball coverage. FOX has had the playoffs for years and TBS has already passed them in enjoyability (is that word) IMO.

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YardBirds13 Major Leaguer Rising Star

YardBirds13

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I said the other night that Ernie Johnson (who hosts TNT's Emmy-Award winning "Inside the NBA") is my favorite studio host in the business. He even does baseball well which is not his #1 sport. Adding Cal in there only makes it better.

And you know what? Frank Thomas isn't that bad, either.

Certainly beats Stu Scott and Chris Berman. Kudos to TBS for doing a great job with their first playoff baseball coverage. FOX has had the playoffs for years and TBS has already passed them in enjoyability (is that word) IMO.

Absolutely. EJ is the best studio guy in the business BY FAR, and I think Cal has been fantastic. It is a joke how much better this is than FOX. Jeannie Zeleasko and Kevin Kennedy are tragic. Seriously. It's like a car wreck.

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backwardsk Hangout Grand Counsel

backwardsk

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We all know Cal is well-spoken and knows his baseball. However, making the transition to the tv booth is not that simple. Remember Dempsey at the beginning of the year? He had a lot of trouble getting used to looking into the right camera, appearing natural, etc. Ripken looks so natural up there. You know he's done a lot of preparation behind the scenes. Kudos to him.

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scOtt Hangout Grand Counsel

scOtt

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Cal does very well because Cal knows the game unlike anyone else. He is an extremely intelligent baseball man....And it helps that it speaks well.

I didn't see the game, but this doesn't surprise me a bit. Cal and Billie both... baseball just oozes out of their pores. Like those weird copier commercials "We live and breathe this stuff."

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Why Not? Perennial All-Star

Why Not?

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I said the other night that Ernie Johnson (who hosts TNT's Emmy-Award winning "Inside the NBA") is my favorite studio host in the business. He even does baseball well which is not his #1 sport. Adding Cal in there only makes it better.

And you know what? Frank Thomas isn't that bad, either.

Certainly beats Stu Scott and Chris Berman. Kudos to TBS for doing a great job with their first playoff baseball coverage. FOX has had the playoffs for years and TBS has already passed them in enjoyability (is that word) IMO.

Good call. I'd pretty much stopped listening to the ESPN heads. It's good to see that you can have actual analysis that isn't just stock catch phrases. Imagine that, put a couple of likeable, bright, knowledgable guys in the studio and they do a good job.

ESPN producers must be watching that and thinking "what the......, they aren't even yelling at each other"

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Captain E. AAA

Captain E.

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Good call. I'd pretty much stopped listening to the ESPN heads. It's good to see that you can have actual analysis that isn't just stock catch phrases. Imagine that, put a couple of likeable, bright, knowledgable guys in the studio and they do a good job.

ESPN producers must be watching that and thinking "what the......, they aren't even yelling at each other"

WHAAT!? (very high-pitched)

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