Favorite Uncomfortable Sports Broadcasting Moments

[MicroBob]

Some of my favorite announcer screw-ups:

-- I believe it was a Phils/Cubs blow-out game in the 70's and the announcers are kind of bored and the cameras are scanning the stands a bit too. They pick-out this couple in the bleachers that is all lovey-dovey/making-out a bit.
So the announcers make various observations and jokes about them when one of the announcers unwisely points out, "I think I've spotted the pattern. He's kissing her on the strikes...and she's kissing him on the balls."

I've been unable to confirm the accuracy of this story or even what announcers were supposedly involved nor can I remember where I first heard it. Wouldn't surprise me at all if it was true though.

-- From the book 'Loose Balls, the Life and Times of the ABA' there's a story of Bob Costas and his first broadcast gig with the Spirit of St. Louis basketball team.
In their first ever game St. Louis has a 6 or 7 point lead with 1:00 left but they blow it and lose the game.
So the next night they again have a 7 point lead with 1:00 left and they call time-out at which point Costas says, "Obviously Coach Smith wants to talk to his team here because he doesn't want another blow-job like the one he had last night."

According to Costas in the book, he thought he was probably fired right there on the spot. But the engineer signalled to him to keep talking and somehow nothing came of it.


-- 1995 ESPN2 aired a number of minor-league baseball games and called them the Game of the Week or something.
Matt Vasgersian (now with the SD Padres and also NBC including Heads-Up Poker) and Steve Lyons were the announcers.
One game was Kane County vs. Battle Creek in the Midwest League. The Red Sox had a young prospect named Ethan Faggett with their Battle Creek affiliate whose last name is pronounced the same way as [censored].
A left-handed batter, Faggett pulled 3 straight hits into RF.
As they are observing this in the 8th inning, Faggett slaps it the opposite way into LF for his 4th hit of the game and Vasgersian says something like, "Faggett showing that he knows how to swing both ways" or something similarly awful.

I was watching that game but didn't watch up to the point that happened. Read about it in Baseball America a month later.

As I was watching it I was thinking, "Geez, I'm glad I don't have to call any games involving that player."
A year later I was in the Florida State League with the St. Lucie Mets and Ethan Faggett got promoted to the Sarasota Red Sox.
I ended up calling about 15 games in which he was playing.
Kind of awkward.

[TheNoodleMan]

Rick Sutcliffe drunk on the air

[MicroBob]

Also worth nominating is pretty much any time Joe Morgan speaks.

[youtalkfunny]

I would definitely call him "fa-GETT". Think "Forget" in a Boston accent.

All the heat Rush Limbaugh took over the McNabb thing was completely unwarranted. It's not racist to talk about race, and the role it plays in sports.

[Autocratic]

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I would definitely call him "fa-GETT". Think "Forget" in a Boston accent.

All the heat Rush Limbaugh took over the McNabb thing was completely unwarranted. It's not racist to talk about race, and the role it plays in sports.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe so, but it seemed clear that he saw a chance to bring race into it where it really didn't belong and did it. Typical on his part. He basically chose one season where McNabb was not up to par and said he was just an average QB when most people knew that wasn't the case.

[MicroBob]

The P.A. Annoucer in Vero Beach tried to get away with calling him more like it was French. A cross between "Fa-JAY" and "Fa-SHAY" I guess.

Well, his Mom happened to be in the stands at that game and went up to the booth to cuss-out the announcer.
"You will say our name the way it is supposed to be said. It's FAGGETT dammit."


Later in 96 there was a friend of mine from a previous team who was on Sarasota so we were chatting and catching up.
I asked him about Ethan Faggett.
He told me that at the beginning of the season there is evidently one guy who makes the mistake of joking about his name and nobody makes that same mistake again.

He looked like a pretty tough and strong dude to me. And I suspect that with a name like Faggett you would almost HAVE to be tough in order to make it.

He was actually a pretty decent ball-player but his hitting struggled at the AA level where he only bat in the .240's for 3 seasons. He was on SD's spring-training big-league roster once or twice though and made it as high as AAA.

I think it would have been somewhat interesting if he had made it to the major-leagues.

[Bluff Daddy]

Jim Rome interviewing Jim Everett

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HNgqQVHI_8

[EL Burro Loco]

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Rush Limbaugh making racially motivated remarks on an ESPN sportscenter...

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Anyone with an ounce of listening comprehension knows that Rush was accusing others in the media of being racially motivated. Michael Irvin even replied, "Rush has a point."

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Not the point... the point was when he said it you could feel the uncomfortable tension with the other broadcasters. Let's not make this into a Rush debate...

[EL Burro Loco]

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Marino screws up, freaks out

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qa9LNPwZIGA

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Nice. I had never seen that before and I was actually quite uncomfortable watching it.

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Why did he freak out? Because he sort of bumbled a word? I kinda don't get why he snapped...

[TheNoodleMan]

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Marino screws up, freaks out

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qa9LNPwZIGA

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Nice. I had never seen that before and I was actually quite uncomfortable watching it.

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Why did he freak out? Because he sort of bumbled a word? I kinda don't get why he snapped...

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That wasn't live, so I'm guessing he bumbled it multiple times before getting that upset.