Even a blind squirrel occasionally stumbles across a nut; even a stopped clock is right twice a day; even K-Rod sometimes has a clean 1-2-3 inning. So the law of averages tells us that the Wayner will eventually have a gaffe-free game.
This was not that game.
Once again, I only had time to catch a small portion of the game (about an inning and a half in this case). And once again, that was plenty of time for Hagin to make a fool of himself. It happened after Jose Reyes led off the top of the 5th with a single. With Angel Pagan batting, Wayne put on his best more-self-righteous-than-thou voice and addressed his broadcasting partner Howie Rose thusly:
"I know you love pure baseball, and I think you'll be [pause] as, uh, disinterested and not happy by what I just saw at first base."
He then went on to critique a rather unprofessional shared hand gesture between Reyes and first base coach Razor Shines. Hagin's point here was well taken -- or it would have been, if he hadn't already undermined it by saying Rose would be "disinterested" in the proceedings. Earth to Wayner: "disinterested" means NOT INTERESTED.
I suspect Wayne was trying to invoke the word "disdain." But as usual, his mouth and his brain weren't operating on the same frequency. The pause and the "uh" indicate that he realized he'd once again blundered his way down a verbal dead end, but by then it was too late. And as is so often the case, the mistake was magnified by Hagin's emphatically righteous tone, which just made his misstatement all the more glaring.
I'm getting tired of saying this, but it bears repeating: This is minor league stuff, one-horse town stuff, the kind of stuff no alleged professional should be doing at the big league level. This is, yet again, a guy who's long on mouth and short on talent, a guy with a heavyweight assignment and a lightweight skill set, a guy who's horribly overmatched by his job on a daily basis.
It's tough enough to see this season go down the tubes without having to listen to this nonsense. Fire Wayne Hagin already!
didn't hear wayner...saw the play tho, and i was wondering if hudson saw it as well...because reyes probably should have been wearing one in his earhole his next AB
ReplyDeleteI'm not a Hagin supporter either (I was hoping they'd go with Ed Coleman). His over-earnestness (did I just make up a word?) is very reminiscent of Fran Healy.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that strikes me as peculiar, though, is the almost total lack of interaction between him and Howie. It's been that way since day one and it's so noticeable that even my 7-year old when listening to the game the other day asked, "where's Howie?"
Next time Wayne is calling the game, see how long it goes before Howie says anything.
I always assume Howie goes to the bathroom or something when Wayne takes over the play-by-play. But yeah, they have, like, negative chemistry. It's really sad.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I'll do Wayne's job, do it twice as well, and for half as much.
ReplyDeleteAnd Paul, you are right about chemistry. It's sad and amusing (like watching a 10 car pileup in a comedy movie before realizing that someone must have been injured really bad) to listen to them talk about what they'd done outside of the stadium. I don't think they like each other.