ESPN saves American intelligence and lets Joe Morgan go from SNB

[jwill535]

Where are we suppose to get a broad generalizations, rambling comments and hear stories about his time with the Reds over and over again? You have to think that they will replace him with Orel. I like the way he discusses the game as if he was instructing.

 

Morgan

[thebruce44]

And the guys over at FireJoeMorgan.com finally win.

[Invader3K]

Your headline is a bit misleading. The article linked says that Morgan would still work on ESPN's mid-week broadcasts, just not the Sunday Night Baseball ones.

[trwi7]

Where are we suppose to get a broad generalizations, rambling comments

To Fox Saturday baseball with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

[The Truth]

I suppose I'm one of the few people outside of Reds fans who really likes Joe Morgan as a broadcaster

[RockCoCougars]

I'm not a fan of either Morgan or Miller, but I rarely watch SNB unless the Brewers are on (once in a blue moon). I used to watch it all the time, but I tired of seeing the Angels, Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Cubs or Dodgers all the time.

[JimH5]

I'm not sure how they can make a weekly baseball game all that much better. There are just so many televised games, it's hard for a national broadcast of a single game have much to offer.

I have really liked Jon Miller over the years, and while Joe Morgan has earned most of his criticism, he did offer a unique perspective. I would take Morgan over Ken Rosenthal every time.

[MNBrew]

Like The Truth said, it's not a popular opinion around here, but I really like both Miller & Morgan.

[owbc]

I think this comment on Deadspin sums it up:

Morgan didn't see the ratings numbers, but it felt like enough people were watching the games.

[BrewCrewForever]

Like many, I'm a big fan of Jon Miller and I can't stand Joe Morgan. So Miller will be missed, Morgan not at all.

 

Curious as to who they will get to do Sunday night games now.

[logan82]

And the guys over at FireJoeMorgan.com finally win.

The guys at FireJoeMorgan.com gave up over a year ago so Joe Morgan outlasted them.

 

 

[cwolf2012]

Not to rain on parades... but here's the date from the article you posted.

 

Sunday, October 26th 2008, 11:11 AM

 

It also talks about the Rays - Phillies WS being their last call together.

[GAME05]

I think this comment on Deadspin sums it up:

Morgan didn't see the ratings numbers, but it felt like enough people were watching the games.

ha! just like Joe Morgan to ignore statistics and go with a gut feeling.

 

my mute will get a lot less work now.

[Principessa21]

Not to rain on parades... but here's the date from the article you posted.

 

Sunday, October 26th 2008, 11:11 AM

 

It also talks about the Rays - Phillies WS being their last call together.

I'm guessing the OP linked to the wrong article. I linked to another article earlier tonight in the Random Thoughts thread that confirmed Miller and Morgan are out of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. Here's that one, and another from ESPN.

I like Miller, but Morgan gone...

http://imgur.com/tjYLo.gif

[Patrick425]

I suppose I'm one of the few people outside of Reds fans who really likes Joe Morgan as a broadcaster

I don't know if I would say that I "really like" Joe Morgan, but I didn't hate him like other people do. For some reason people seem not to be happy with sportscasters in general. I can't think of one announcer that I dislike or can't listen to. Occasionally I hear one of them say something that makes me go "huh?", but that's about it.

 

edit: Actually...I think Tom Pippins is horrible, but he's not really an announcer.

[crewcrazy]

I wasn't much of a fan of Morgan, because for a baseball analyst, he rarely had a clue what was going on around the league. A lot of "I haven't seen him play, but he's hitting .300 so he's a good hitter to have" type of stuff. I did like Miller, because his voice always made it seem like a big event.

 

My bigger problem is with the presentation of Sunday Night Baseball, using it as a platform to talk about various headlines of the week in baseball (usually centered around the big market teams) rather than calling the actual game. Monday Night Football has been going through the same thing since moving to ESPN -- you watch something like Bengals/Steelers and end up hearing more about the Cowboys and Vikings. I'd be fine with this if it was used to talk about say, Texas and San Francisco midseason so people actually know how they are when they get to the World Series, but it's rarely the case.

[CheezWizHed]

A couple years ago, we dropped satellite (including FSN), so no more Brewers games. So this summer, the games I got to see were online when ESPN had them on.

 

Joe Morgan sucked every ounce of enjoyment out watching one of the few Brewer games I saw this year. Lets not talk about the game. Lets not talk about the players. Lets redefine "small market" in terms that no one would agree with, nor even figure out how you came to that conclusion.

 

I admit my exposure to Joe Morgan is a small sample, but in that small sample there was an extreme dose of stupid!

 

And just to level-set my view on announcers, I don't mind Bill Schroeder. There I said it.

[Invader3K]

I'll never forget Joe Morgan's brain melting, "Are the Twins a small market team or not?" on-air exposition after Joe Mauer re-signed earlier this year.

[logan82]

CheezWizHed wrote

I admit my exposure to Joe Morgan is a small sample, but in that small sample there was an extreme dose of stupid!

It was a good sample though. He really is that mind numbing. You feel dumber for having heard him speak. I always think of Billy Madison when Joe Morgan speaks.

I don't mind Bill Schroeder either.

 

[Oldcity]

Lets redefine "small market" in terms that no one would agree with, nor even figure out how you came to that conclusion.

And spend an inning and a half doing so.

[thebruce44]

You may not mind him as an announcer, but you have to admit he sure is lazy. His job is to know about baseball and he seemed to know less about it than a casual fan. If he hadn't been so good at it so many years ago he wouldn't have been anywhere near a broadcast booth.

[gregmag]

When Morgan started out, like, 30 years ago, I remember liking him. He has a great mind for baseball and an engaging manner. I just think he got complacent very quickly, and also arrogant -- like his achievements as a player exonerated him from actually having to think anything through.

 

But really, most of the time I'd rather just watch a well-directed live feed with a stat box and a crawler or quick voiceover if something weird happens. Commercials are by design the biggest nuisance with televised baseball, but announcers generally rate a close second. They just don't add anything to the experience.

[GAME05]

i think firejoemorgan actually posted an article related to it even though the site isn't otherwise current. the article said it wasn't just fan reaction, but other people at espn were tired of his demeanor during meetings and his complete lack of preparation for games.

 

say what you will, but i'd get a huge kick out of listening to any broadcast with both John Madden and Joe Morgan in the same booth.

 

in honour of Joe Morgan, for the rest of my time on this thread, i'm going to only make posts based on gut feelings that run contrary to obvious statistical reason, avoid the actual topic at hand, and then repeat that same thing over and over and over within the same page.

[Dragonbait]

GAME05... that article was from two years ago right before the site went dark...

 

I am surprised the boys over there havent done a quick 'refresh' in light of the news. I'm sure FJM has had a large uptick in visitors since the announcement.

[sbrylski]

I'm sure FJM has had a large uptick in visitors since the announcement.

http://www.google.com/trends/viz?q=fire+joe+morgan&date=all&geo=all&graph=weekly_img&sa=N

 

Cool to see the clearly visible run of FJM.com. I wonder what those random spikes correlate to... probably egregious errors by Joe on the air. And yup, you can see the current spike.

 

EDIT: Actually, the site's been run since 2005, so I'm not sure why the search hits were so high in the middle section of the graph. May not have complete data in the picture above.