As a kid I used to listen to a lot of baseball games on the radio, a medium that lends itself to a broadcaster who paints the image rather than the camera. Few excelled and even fewer exist today. Vince Scully has been doing it for years and is terrific on both radio and television in LA.
Driving home from the National on Sunday I listened to Bob Uecker, another veteran radio baseball pro, broadcast the Brewers game on the radio. His sense of humor and stories, as well as his call of the game have always been well above average and entertaining.........
but the play by play ads must drive him crazy, and me. In the space of about 15 minutes I was treated to all of the following calls:
1. Logan Schafer steals second and immediately becomes the
"
Badger Insurance runner in scoring postion"
2. A double play is turned and immediately becomes a
"
Charter Communication" double play.
3. And of course when the Brewers have a 5 run inning we get a
"
U S Cellular" call to the bull pen by Washington, which is later referred to as the
"
Fleet Farm" bull pen.
A vintage baseball player could listen to a game today and not even recognize what was going on, but there could be more. Feel free to add real examples of "advertising plays" to the thread or just make a few up, that you would like to see such as
4. The player or manager arguing with the umpire gets ejected and is given a
"
Kwik Trip" to the showers.
5. The batter doesn't swing with a full count and the umpire rings him up with a
"
United Auto Workers" called strike three.
With the current trend I suspect that every play in the game will soon be sponsored. On the positive side, if there is one, perhaps this could lead to less advertising time between innings and be used to speed up the games.
