One of my biggest pet peeves for radio and television is when the host/newsmaker/announcer says, "welcome back" to the audience. The audience didn't go anywhere. You went to a commercial.
When I come back to start an inning, after a commercial break, I try to rotate the first thing I say between something like, "top of the fourth, no score" or "Modesto leads 1-0 after two innings" and other phrases. But I've realized, after some self-critiquing lately, I get stuck saying the same thing too often.
Made a copy of all the "Jerry Weinstein" shows for our manager the other day. Listening to them quickly in the car, I realized how similar the beginning of almost every show was. I'd start with something like, "It's game two of a three-game series tonight between the Lancaster JetHawks and Modesto Nuts. Last night, Modesto lost 8-5, and Jerry, as we look back on last night's game ... "
This had me thinking how repetitiveness as a broadcaster. Certain phrases are natural and needed. But after two months in my career, I've started to get tired of hearing myself say certain phrases. One of them is, "that will do it for Modesto in the bottom of the seventh, but they scored a run .... "
Driving home last night after our game, the A's game was still on the radio, and I heard Ken Korach simple say, "that's it in the 10th" and just liked the simplicity. Also realized that I probably say, "throws to first base" every time on grounders to infielder. Heard Korach say, "flips to first" and liked that as another option -- especially for a second baseman.
Made me think about phrases and ways to describe plays. On the bus to San Bernardino on Thursday, I'm going to brainstorm a long list of ways to describe the same thing. I'll post my results.
No comments:
Post a Comment