When broadcasters don't check facts they hear

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

This had me chuckling this morning. I'm listening to Warner Wolf on ESPN Radio in New York, and he and a caller are talking about why Jason Giambi can't be forced to the minors, and Warner is telling the caller (and the audience) about what Yogi Berra told him in an interview done last week (for Yogi's 80th birthday) and Warner says Yogi stated that Casey Stengel had sent down Mickey Mantle and obviously that was twisted into a "If Mickey Mantle was sent down, so should Giambi!" type of argument.

 

Umm, one slight problem, Mickey Mantle was sent down all right (very famously in fact) in his ROOKIE YEAR of 1951! He was brought back up and never spent another day in minor league baseball for the rest of his 18 year career (not even rehab assignments)

 

So you can't even USE Mantle as part of the "Famous Player X from a different time period (pre union) was sent down so why can't Current Player X who is playing crappy be forced down" argument!

 

Someone get a fact checker on these radio shows! HA

 

[mike546 0]

Yes you can.

 

While I DO think Giambi should go to the minors, Mantle wasn't an MVP like player yet, and was just a rookie. Giambis a former MVP, and a career .300 hitter.

[Jericholic82 0]

ask angels broadcaster Steve Physioc. During an angels-yanks game last month, the trivia question was "what players have hit three homers in a game for three different teams?"

 

Steve then said "cant be babe, he only played for two teams,uhhhhh,threeuhhhhhh"

 

pretty funny stuff.

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

Yes you can.

 

While I DO think Giambi should go to the minors, Mantle wasn't an MVP like player yet, and was just a rookie. Giambis a former MVP, and a career .300 hitter.

The point is, Mantle wasn't MANTLE yet when it happened.

 

If this was the 1959 Mantle (roughly the same point Giambi is at in his career) then you have a point, but he was still a rawboned rookie

 

Steve

[mike546 0]

Whoops, thats what I meant. I mis read your post.

[Prime Time Andrew Doyle 0]

I think you can drop an ex MVP player. Look at the St. Louis Rams with Kurt Warner. You need to pick the team based on current form, and not what somebody has done in the past.

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

I think you can drop an ex MVP player. Look at the St. Louis Rams with Kurt Warner. You need to pick the team based on current form, and not what somebody has done in the past.

Not the point of the thread, but baseball is much different than football and basketball in that regard. Comparing the same situation in other sports is like apples and oranges on several levels

 

-Caps on spending tend to put clamps on what you can actually do in terms of trades

 

-Can't work out a deal so the only other option is flat out cutting while a player can return from the minors

 

Anyway the point of the thread is broadcasters not checking facts...

[Guest Redhawk]

Craig Ehlo (he of Jordan victimization fame) is the color commentator for local Seattle Sonics broadcasts. He sucks, in case you were wondering. Anyway, when the Sonics were playing the Bulls earlier this year, Ehlo went into this long story about how although most people might think Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler picked their uniform numbers (#2 and #3) as a tribute to Michael Jordan (#23), in actuality they picked the numbers because of where they were selected in the NBA Draft. One problem Ehlo forgot to look up: Eddy Curry was picked FOURTH in the Draft, and Chandler was picked second. So even if Ehlo was right, Chandler would be wearing #2, not #3, and Curry would be wearing #4, not #2.