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Shyster's Daily Circuit


Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Marty Brennaman is a disgrace

Redleg Stats Blog (via BTF) has a pretty extraordinary transcript of Reds' broadcaster Marty Brennaman unloading on a fan who dares to defend Adam Dunn:

Caller: People here don’t realize that Pat Burrell and Adam Dunn don’t get paid $12 million to hit .300. They get paid to hit home runs; that’s it.
Marty: No, they get paid to drive in runs, is what they get paid to do.
Caller: And hit home runs.
Marty: No, unh-uh. Home runs are incidental. It’s run production that they are going to get paid for. Adam Dunn hits 40 home runs and barely reaches a hundred RBI’s.
Caller: But, if you’re going to talk about potential run production, look at his on-base.
Marty: (angrily) I don’t care about—I don’t care about his on-base! I get so blasted tired hearing some people talk to me about Adam Dunn’s on-base percentage. Adam Dunn ain’t paid to walk. Adam Dunn’s paid to hit home runs and drive in runs for God’s sake, and they can take off, uh, they can take off the walks, and you’re out of here! (hangs up)
. . .
Marty: We are heading toward a break. Don’t call and talk to me about Adam Dunn’s on-base percentage--
Thom: You sure?
Marty: --because it pushes my hot button.
Thom: I would have never known.
Marty: I’m tired of hearing about how many times he walks. He was paid to hit home runs, paid to drive in runs. He homers; he doesn’t drive in runs.
Thom: You know, you’re too old to get worked up like this.

You should read the BTF comment thread for the micro breakdown of Brennaman's statistical ignorance. For my part, I'm far more disturbed by just how much Brennaman seems to hate Adam Dunn and why he feels he needs to constantly voice this in public even after the guy has left the team.

Being in Ohio and listening to a lot of Reds games over the past decade has brought Brennaman's hatred of Adam Dunn specifically -- and the Reds at large -- into clear relief. And it is hate. Brennaman is way past the point of telling tough truths about players, and now he's simply bitter. Day in and day out, he sounds like a man who truly hates his job, and truly hates the Reds. He hates that after having been able to watch the Big Red Machine in the 70s and some pretty darn respectable Reds' teams in the 80s and into the mid 90s, he's had to watch a mostly bad team play for the past decade. What's worse, he's not professional enough to put that disappointment aside and simply do his job like Skip Caray and Herb Score any number of other announcers of bad teams have done over the years.

While in many cases I'd be content to sit back and laugh at a broadcaster's ignorance and pettiness, Brennaman's stature is such in the Cincinnati market that he is probably killing off a generation of Reds' fans with his anger and bitterness. Indeed, if in the late 70s I had tuned in to WJR and heard Ernie Harwell talking angry smack about Dave Rozema and Steve Kemp, I probably would have wondered why I was wasting my time with the Tigers and tuned out.

Yes, I realize that Marty Brennaman is supposed to be a legend in these parts, and I'd never want to listen to a broadcaster who sounds like he's working for Pravda, but at what point does Reds' management get fed up with the voice of the team constantly and unreasonably denigrating the product?

Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:51am


Comments

Big Country said...

Craig, PLEASE tell me you’re not comparing Adam Dunn to Don Mattingly. 

As far as him being the best offensive player on the team, I would disagree strongly, minus MAYBE ONE year and can do so year by year.

2001-Dmitri Young or Sean Casey
2002-Austin Kearns until he got hurt
2003-Jose Guillen or Sean Casey
2004-Sean Casey
2005-Junior
2006-MAYBE Dunn, but probably Brandon Phillipps
2007-Phillips or Jr.
2008-Phillips

Also, when he and junior left the Reds didn’t our Winning Pct. improve?

Posted 12/24  at  04:09 PM
Booond said...

I don’t mind my announcers telling the truth about a team when it’s a bad team but I want them to understand the truth before oppening their mouths.  In this case their is a misunderstanding of the truth.

Posted 12/24  at  04:34 PM
jim said...

Marty is 100% correct though…I, in no way shape or form, hate Adam Dunn personally.  But to get straight to the point, why does his OBP matter??  Who is going to drive him in?  What good is a 275lb donkey on the bases?  He is supposed to be the RBI guy.  So he walks.  Now what?  Plus he looks at pitches he could go the other way with.  Its no suprise noone has signed the guy yet.

Posted 12/26  at  11:31 AM
Craig Calcaterra said...

Jim:

Making an out is the worst thing a batter can do. On base percentage is, by definition, a measure of NOT making outs.  Getting on base, therefore, is the best thing a batter can do.

RBIs, on the other hand, are completely dependent on your teammates.  No matter how good someone is and no matter how hard they try, they cannot drive in runners who are not on base.

As I said above: Adam Dunn is not a perfect player.  But to criticize a guy for getting on base and for not getting RBIs is completely backwards, because one of those things (OBP) is something the batter can control and the other (RBI) is not.

Posted 12/26  at  11:50 AM
Kernel said...

The real tragedy here is that Marty makes Thom Brennaman look good in comparison.  And I cannot accept any scenario where Thom is made to look good.

Posted 12/29  at  07:27 PM
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