Dear MSNBC,
I don’t want to try to tell you how to run your business, but you are under-using a great talent you already have. I’m talking about Melissa Rayberger. Three nights a week, we get to see her for about five seconds. After “Hard Ball” has started, you run about 30 commercials. Then Melissa comes on with a one-minute news capsule. We see her approximately two seconds at the beginning, and about three at the end. That’s the best part. That’s when she looks right at me and says, “Now, back to ‘Hard Ball.’ “ And she ends with the most beautiful smile on TV.
Don’t know how she looks standing up, but at least show that face some more!
You may well wonder about my credentials for making this suggestion. Well, it is well known in these parts that I was the first person to point out the attributes and talents of Heather Tesch on the Weather Channel. She and the white-haired guy made the perfect team. But somebody else bought the company or something and exiled her to around the noon hour and finally, apparently, off the air completely. Shame.
My major gripe when she was at her prime was that we never saw her full length. Face? Perfect (her picture is on my work site wall).
This new bunch has all the people standing up all the time…and they look downright uncomfortable, like, “These shoes are killing me.” Sit down once in a while.
Also, I brought to the attention of this community the assets of Erin Andrews. Yes. I saw her doing some of these pointless halftime sideline interviews and noticed her right away. You know, the ones where the interviewer asks the coach what it will take in the second half to win the game, and he, as gently as possible, tells her–it’s usually a her–that we have to score more points. He looks, naturally, sick of the little game, but…it’s in his contract.
But as long as it’s Erin, we don’t care what they say. With my help, she has gone on to a fine career.
And speaking of sports, I’m a baseball fan, particularly an Atlanta Braves fan, and I watch many of the games. I like “our” announcers, Chip and Joe. In that convoluted system they have, they do most of the games. I like the games less when they have other people doing the play-by-play.
But I have one or two very minor gripes, with Joe, especially. He tends to “over-analyze” “He needs to move his upper hand one/eighth of an inch up the bat, etc.” And I need to have some pitches explained to me:
We all know the curve ball, a (relatively) slow ball that…curves, making it harder to hit.
There’s the slider, a little faster curve, once known as the nickel curve.
There’s the fast ball. No explanation needed
There’s the change-of-pace, a pitch that looks like it’s going to be a fast ball, but is much slower.
There are some other pitches that certain pitchers master, like the knuckle ball. Hard to throw, hard to hit, and terribly hard on the catcher. Very good for base runners.
And there’s the split-finger and other odd pitches.
But now all I hear about are two-seamers and four-seamers????? And how about cutters? And there is the out-lawed spitter, in which the pitcher puts moisture of some kind on the ball to make it behave erratically. But with all the rainy games we’ve had, any pitcher can throw a spitter.
Bob Sanders is a veteran local radio personality, columnist, author and raconteur of note.