Wednesday, Jul 9, 2008
Fox's baseball announcers: Lyons improves, Brennaman doesn't, Piniella makes a nice guest. Jeanne Zelasko Watch? So 2004.
Oct 19, 2005 | Several readers have written to ask why I haven't been chronicling the mind-boggling awfulness of Jeanne Zelasko this playoff season.
Fox's studio co-host has been on the subdued side, though I'm told she tortured a "Wizard of Oz" allusion to within an inch of its life when talking about White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. Oz, Ozzie. Get it?
But she hasn't gone in for any of those surreal, nonsensical, cliché-riddled opening monologues that made her a favorite of this column and the inspiration for the Jeanne Zelasko cliché watch. Fox's sinister-voiced announcer guy has narrated one or two of those, but without Zelasko's lamentable wordplay. She might just be waiting for the World Series.
I'm mostly ignoring her. I feel like the subject's been covered. I think Zelasko's terrible, unwatchable, and everyone seems to agree with me. All the abuse I've heaped on her over the last few years, all of the hundreds, maybe thousands of e-mails I've received saying, "Amen," and not a single reader has come to her defense. Not one. No one has even said, "Hey, we get it. Lay off."
Fox's baseball coverage, including Zelasko, is just about the only thing I've ever criticized without getting a single message expressing disagreement. Someone, somewhere, must enjoy Zelasko's work. I've just never met or heard from any of these people, never even heard tell of them.
I don't think we need to keep the echo chamber going. We'll all just ignore her and it'll be fine.
Even more surprising to me than my ability to ignore Zelasko this year is the fact that Steve Lyons isn't driving me up the wall. Maybe I've mellowed with age, but I think Lyons, for years one of the worst analysts, has actually improved. He's been working the National League Championship Series with Thom Brennaman and Bob Brenly.
I had forgotten this, but I noticed the same thing last year. Lyons is still a little eager to make with the Interesting Personal Anecdotes about players, but I haven't heard him do it at moments when the game is on the line, which he used to do, and he doesn't seem to be making a full-time effort to live up to his nickname, "Psycho," anymore.
Gone are the annoying catchphrases -- "pickin' and grinnin' at first base!" -- and the concerted attempts to be quirky. Instead he's been offering pretty interesting analysis of various hitters' swings, and he's limited his jokes and one-liners to situations where they're actually warranted and occasionally amusing, rather than just tossing them out willy-nilly and hoping one or two make sense, and if not, hey, that's why they call me "Psycho."
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