homegame

Home is Anywhere He Hangs His Microphone

One not-so-little test of a local sportscaster is what happens when he moves up to the Show and does a national game. The promotion is the equivalent of a stadium rock musician forced to play an acoustic-only gig at a small club. The fluff gets stripped away, and all that's left is the basic tradecraft.

Call it "Jerry Remy: Unplugged," a concert sometimes heard on Fox on Saturdays. In Remy's case, that's close to the literal truth. Minus the Remdawg nonsense, the shoutouts to shut-ins in southeastern Mass, and the endless parade of celebs and do-gooders in the NESN booth, Remy just does his thing as a color guy, and one is reminded "Hey, this guy's a really good announcer." Unhappily, this just makes all the mannered crapola that clutters up Remy and Don Orsillo's work (Orsillo acquitted himself quite well doing baseball nationally for TBS) more irritating when they return to their regular assignment for NESN.

Now, I'm not one to criticize local announcers for being blatant homers. It's not to my taste, but long experience has taught me most fans love it and that it takes an announcer of supreme skill, like a Vin Scully or the late Ernie Harwell, to succeed as a regular team broadcaster without displaying some degree of home team bias. Jack Edwards gets some ridicule for his histrionics, and rightly so, but in the city that gave the world Johnny Most, it's a safe bet Jack's technique is heartily approved by a vast majority of his audience.

But, to me anyway, the mark of the truly superior local broadcasters is that on those occasions they go national, you can't tell the difference. They do not have to alter their game in any way to meet the requirement of calling a game as if it has two teams in it -- each of equal importance to their audience. They are straight shooters no matter who they're talking to. They are demonstrating why they can be trusted.

Which brings us to the point. Andy Brickley last night on Versus was Andy Brickley on NESN any time during the regular season. No difference. For that, he has my congratulations. For Bruins fans, a touch of gratitude is in order.

posted by Michael Gee @ 6:35 AM