Crank

We are cranky here at The Half Empty Glass, and our friends over at Mac n Chi’s seem to recognize that.

So Mac over there put up a cranky post about various fucked things going on in professional sports, particularly basketball. Now I don’t really care about basketball much these days (thanks, Charles Smith), but Mac made a broader point that resonated with me:

How is it that if you listen to game announcers then every coach in professional sports is doing such a great job?

Pick your favorite televised sport or sports. When was the last time you heard an announcer – play-by-play or color; national or local, make any of the following statements:

“Wow, this doesn’t even look a professionally coached [or managed] team. They are just woefully unprepared.”

“With an effort like this it’s just stunning that Coach X continues to be gainfully employed.”

Yikes, look at the domination. It is abundantly clear that Coach X is just coaching the pants off of Coach Y.”

“Team A has hired Coach X. X has been around the block; this will be his 11th professional team and he’s never really had any success to speak of.”

When I hear critical comments about sports announcers, my mind jumps instantly to the Yankees’ radio announcers John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. They suck. They are really horrible. And they certainly do not criticize Yankees’ players or management. God forbid.

And in my view, Sterling is even worse than Waldman. Sterling was actually somewhat okay when Michael Kay still did radio with him (please do not misinterpret this to mean that I think Kay is not a blowhard and a jackass). I guess the dueling bombast canceled itself out somehow. But now it’s like Sterling & Waldman are doing a bad Hee Haw routine.

I actually dislike those two so much that I subscribe to the audio feed on mlb.com just so I can get the opposing team’s radio announcers when I’m listening to the game at work.

To digress for a moment, I really did not mean to disparage Hee Haw, or in any way take away from the memory of the recently departed John Aylesworth. And two points in closing of this rather pointless post.

First, Mac, check out what just came across the wires:

Isiah Thomas, who in 2008 was fired as coach and president of the New York Knicks, has been re-hired as a consultant to the National Basketball Association team.

Mr. Thomas, 49, will “assist the team’s senior management in various capacities, including player recruitment,” the team said today in a news release. Mr. Thomas will remain coach of Florida International University, where he has worked since April 2009.

“Isiah Thomas brings unique experience as a Hall of Fame player, coach, executive and owner, and we believe having him as part of our organization will be extremely beneficial to the team’s success,” team owner James Dolan and President Donnie Walsh said in a joint statement.

Second: