I was listening to the radio-cast last night when something in the second inning caught my ear. Wayne Hagin said, “there’s the double play we were looking for.”
The Mets were on defense.
I don’t know what is in Wayne’s heart or who the “we” was.
Did he mean that he and Eddie Coleman (in for the missing and missed Howie Rose) have been searching for a double play? Did they need one more for their collection?
Or…did homerism creep into the Bob Murphy Broadcast Booth?
I’ve listened to lots and lots of Mets broadcasts over the years, and sure an announcer will get attached to the team, sometimes they will even get excited when the team wins the damn thing….but I don’t recall and out and out “we” before.
….
The Howie-less booth always draws my attention. One thing I have noticed about Wayne is that he will say “umpiring behind home plate, C.B. Bucknor” with the same cadence and enthusiasm as “and that’s Johan Santana’s third consecutive no-hitter.” No modulation of loudness or tempo. Listen for it.
Conversely Howie will guide you with his voice. He will speedupbecausetheoutfielderisrunningtothegapandthatballisgonnadropin!!!!
Howie rules. Unless locked in a booth for years with Fran Healy…who did modulate his voice. I think I just disproved my entire point. Ha. Ex-truh BAY-ses!
I heard that too. And it struck me as odd as well coming from a broadcast booth.
Personally, I think it sounds weird when anyone says, “we” unless they’re wearing a uniform or own the team. It’s a weird sports thing. For instance, you may love Metallica, but you’d never use language that makes it sound like you’re IN Metallica.
I think Wayne was probably discussing looking for a DP, and the “We” was him and his listeners. “See? we were just talking about how the Mets needed a DP, and look at that, we were right!”
I have attempted to listen to the Spanish broadcast during the middle innings just to avoid Wayne. Not speaking Spanish makes this not always the best course of action (although when Ollie was on the team it wasn’t so bad).
The thing is, Wayne has a great, classic, resonant voice. Unfortunately, not only does he not modulate it (especially at the moment between the pitch and contact that should let the listener know that the ball is in play), but he tries to cram in every call with so many insignificant details that he’s always behind the action. When Howie is calling the game, I’m watching it unfold; with Wayne, I’m hearing about it from a stranger on the street after the fact.
In some ways he’s worse than Sterling. He’s not a buffoon more enamored with his own schtick and his attempts to be iconic than he is with the game that’s being played, paired with a shrill homer-harpie high on hyperbole whose only function is to tell listeners what actually happened after her partner inevitably misses the play entirely… OK, so nobody’s worse than Sterling.
With Gary at home on SNY, it should be Howie and Eddie on WFAN.
I couldn’t agree more with Ron on a few fronts. Eddie should be Howie’s full-time partner, and Wayne does approach Sterling on being a tough listen (but doesn’t quite get there).
But it’s Hagin’s insistence on over-describing the meaningless details of a play while ignoring certain key factoids that is maddening.
I don’t believe the following call ever happened word-for-word, but if it did, I wouldn’t be shocked:
“Hamels deals, and the pitch, and David Wright hits a long fly ball, deep into the Queens night…Ben Francisco can only watch and stare…it settles way up in the Pepsi Porch, caught by a man in a fuchsia t-shirt, sitting next to a young lady with a nose ring.
It’s…a foul ball.”
Take it from Paul Lukas. FIRE WAYNE HAGIN. The embodiment of the Wilpon Madoff-era Mets.