Fox Sports Ohio without announcers

[Ludwig Reds Fan]

Anyone else think it would be cool to be able to toggle on and off the announcers like you can in video games?

Every once in a while, FSOH has "audio problems," where all you can hear are game sounds (wind, crowd noise, etc). Then when the audio for the announcers come back up, they apologize like a million times, as if the broadcast couldn't possibly continue without their input.

I say that NO ONE beyond the casual fan could possibly get anything from an announcer. This is pretty much how it goes:

Announcer: "Ryan Freel comes up, batting .247 with 35 runs knocked in"
(these stats are flashed right below, so all he is doing is repeating what we already can read.)

Announcer: "Starts into his windup..."
(we can see that)

Umpire: "Stiiirike!!"
Announcer: "Strike one to Freel."

(really? never would have been able to figure that out.)

Announcer: "no balls and one strike to Freel."
(it says that on the graph at the top of the screen...more wasted words.)


...Then when there is nothing going on, they talk about their family, spew their biased opinions, or other crap no one cares about.



So I am wondering:
1. Beyond the appeal to the casual fan, aren't announcers in this day and age pretty much worthless?

and

2. Wouldn't it be a much cooler game experience to be able to watch the game with only the game sounds?


Thoughts?

[WMR]

I remember this was brought up in a thread a long time ago and I thought it sounded like an awesome idea. Put it on a separate audio channel or something and allow the sounds of the game to tell the tale. I'd certainly utilize it. It'd be a utopia compared to George Grande's inane, endless prattling.

[Ludwig Reds Fan]

I also want to say that I can see why we USED to need announcers.


Back then:

1. Baseball appealed to a broader market, including many more casual fans. It was on over-the-air TV also.
2. Less graphs to look at back then, so we needed to be told.
3. Audio/Video technology not what it is now...so much clarity.

But in this day and age with HDTV, digital audio, DVR, plus all the graphics and replays from FSOH, plus the fact that many fans are just flipping back and forth........listen to the announcers tonight. I'm serious... a once useful job seems to me to be pretty pointless now. All they do is babble and repeat what is already on the screen.

[eastkyred]

Are you suggesting that you don't learn something new from George every night?

[jfar23]

I learned from Welsh that Castro only needed more ABs to turn himself into a vaunted offensive juggernaut that should have been given more playing time earlier this season, especially because of the Reds struggles.

I would love to have the option of turning the off and just hearing the sounds of the game.

[redsfan1966]

The announcerless broadcast was tried about 15 or so years ago for an NFL game....i think it was the Jets vs. Dolphins...it turned out to be a horrible experiment...I would suggest putting on the mute and opening a window for those who really want to try the non announcerless route...I prefer the radio broadcast anyway..

[mroby85]

i would love the idea, but i think they would need to have microphones on the field to pick up sounds, and get the players wired up, so you can listen to them, but i really wouldn't care for it if it was pretty much dead sound.

[Jr's Boy]

There are also visually impaired people who depend on announcers for the ball games.Of course having to listen on tv to George Grande would be brutal on the ears anyway.

[pokeyfan]

I remember back in the days of the Big Satellite dishes in the back yard. We used to find some wild feeds of baseball games (i remember the Padres games for some reason), where sometimes you would just pick up the sound and video of the game, and sometimes you would pick it up with announcers and since it never cut to commercial you could hear them talking during the break. I now have a small ku-band dish with a digital reciever.....there are some Mets games feeds on there w/o announcers. It's allright for an inning or 2, but it gets old after a while.

[gilpdawg]

There are also visually impaired people who depend on announcers for the ball games.Of course having to listen on tv to George Grande would be brutal on the ears anyway.

Wouldn't they have the radio on anyway?

[macro]

Let's keep this thread on-topic without criticism of George Grande. I realize that the two topics are loosely related, but we've had way too many Grande-bashing threads, and this shouldn't turn into another one.

[pokeyfan]

I actually like George Grande....he's an eternal optimist like me. I'm not sure why so many people criticize him.

[terminator]

Heck, forget about TV, I'd be happy if you could go to the actual game and watch it without all the intro songs, PA announcements, video board commercials and inter-inning songs. To me it's just not baseball with all of those distractions, but things sure have changed. You can hardly talk to the person next to you about the game with all the noise. I'd be willing to make an exception for the organ to rise out from behind home plate and play Take Me Out to the Ballgame . . .

Following up on redfan1966's point:

On Dec. 20, 1980, NBC aired the New York Jets at the Miami Dolphins. The Jets were 3-12 entering the game and the Dolphins were 8-7. (Jets won 24-17). Since the game had no playoff implications, NBC decided to let the sounds from the stands and the PA announcer serve as the sole audio. No players were miked. Dick Enberg set the scene for viewers at the beginning of each quarter and then viewers were taken to the stadium.

[Jr's Boy]

I also want to say that I can see why we USED to need announcers.


Back then:

1. Baseball appealed to a broader market, including many more casual fans. It was on over-the-air TV also.
2. Less graphs to look at back then, so we needed to be told.
3. Audio/Video technology not what it is now...so much clarity.

But in this day and age with HDTV, digital audio, DVR, plus all the graphics and replays from FSOH, plus the fact that many fans are just flipping back and forth........listen to the announcers tonight. I'm serious... a once useful job seems to me to be pretty pointless now. All they do is babble and repeat what is already on the screen.

Listen to other announcer's around the league,not just our's.Vin Scully is a master at calling a game.

Go easy on us.

[Sean_CaseyRules]

I also have thought about this to myself a lot. It would be really awesome to have a different channel you could turn to so you could have just the game sounds, but still have the choice to turn back to "normal" game, with announcers.