Do We Like Mike Piazza's Announcing?

[andyfox]

I thought he was very good. Informative, articulate, funny.

[kschellenger]

I do. I think he's a lot better than Joe Buck. I think the nice part about players doing it is that they don't over emphasize every single situation. Plus, I feel better about his insights than someone who either hasn't played with these guys or has never played in the bigs.

[andyfox]

"Plus, I feel better about his insights than someone who either hasn't played with these guys or has never played in the bigs."

Generally, yes. That said (and, as I indicated, I thought Piazza was very good), I have a producer friend who was working on a TV show on which a pitcher who was caught by Piazza for a long time appeared, and that pitcher told my producer friend that Piazza knew very little about catching. FWIW . . .

[kschellenger]

[ QUOTE ]
"Plus, I feel better about his insights than someone who either hasn't played with these guys or has never played in the bigs."

Generally, yes. That said (and, as I indicated, I thought Piazza was very good), I have a producer friend who was working on a TV show on which a pitcher who was caught by Piazza for a long time appeared, and that pitcher told my producer friend that Piazza knew very little about catching. FWIW . . .

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah. That's been a knock on Piazza his whole career, he's not a great defensive catcher. But at least he has experience hitting the pitchers, which I think is a nice change of pace.

[Voltron87]

He knows a thing or two about hitting. /images/graemlins/wink.gif


Plus, I think he knows enough about catching to contribute to the broadcast. Most ESPN telecasts aren't at a stratospheric level. I liked him, and most of the things I didn't quite like are the things that will be smoothed out by experience.

[LoaferGee12]

Thumbs up

[Jake (The Snake)]

Agreed. My favorite recent player-turned analyst is David Justice though.

[Jack of Arcades]

[ QUOTE ]
Agreed. My favorite recent player-turned analyst is David Justice though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Meh. Not a fan. Like Tony Gwynn, Bret Boone, and Al Leiter, though.

[kschellenger]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Agreed. My favorite recent player-turned analyst is David Justice though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Meh. Not a fan. Like Tony Gwynn, Bret Boone, and Al Leiter, though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tony Gwynn because he explains the aspects of the game he knows (hitting) on a simple level and still manages to throw in complicated analysis for people that know the basics.

[sammysusar]

I doubt you get much training when you just come in to do a playoff game. so is probably hard to compare to some former players turned full time analysts. i like his opinions and incites probably with some polish he could be as good as gwynn or justice.

[Jake (The Snake)]

Agree here too. Gwynn is good, but my problem with him is that he sometimes talks about things he knows nothing about.

Leiter is good, he just never speaks.

I've only seen Boone once, but he was really good too.

[lu_hawk]

[ QUOTE ]
Agreed. My favorite recent player-turned analyst is David Justice though.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a joke right?

[sublime]

Agreed.

He looked helagay though.

I thoroughly enjoyed al leiter last year

[andyfox]

I liked Leiter, but I thought Boone was terrible.

[andyfox]

As a Yankee fan, I'm hoping to thoroughly enjoy him this year. But, please, Mr. Torre, against lefties only. PLEASE!

[pokerdirty]

[ QUOTE ]
Agreed.

He looked helagay though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Gay baseball fans everywhere rejoiced when they saw Piazza in his pink tie monday....

and sublime, helagay? c'mon, that's so 1997...