College Football Has a Problem

If you attend college football games in person you may already be aware of this.  But, as a season ticket holder at State U I am well aware of the length of the games.  Last weekend, my beloved Missouri Tigers lost to the Georgia Bulldogs 28-27.  The actual time to play the game came in three minutes short of four hours.  FOUR HOURS!!

It used to be a college football game could be played in a little over two and a half hours and about 2:45 if there were a lot of passes.  But, now there are even more passes but that is not the problem.  The problem for the long games is television.  You can blame ESPN and FOX for loading tons and tons of commercials into every game.

If you are at home you may not realize how many commercials there are because you are getting up to go pee or go to the kitchen to get a beer or sandwich.  But, if you're at the stadium then you notice just how many there are as an official stands on the 20 yard line with his arms crossed.  Until that man unfolds his arms, there's not going to be any football for those in the stands who have paid top dollar to see the game.

I noticed it again yesterday.  Missouri took on Delaware State and it took two hours to play the first half of the game.  TWO HOURS and Delaware State never scored.  It was 58-0 at the half.  Again the reason for the length of the game is greed.  Greed on the part of the Disney Company which owns ABC which owns all of the ESPN networks and greed on the part of the FOX networks.

This has got to stop.

Fox Midwest Broadcast is Un-Watchable

As I write this I'm watching my beloved Cardinals play the Philadelphia Phillies.  The game is  ugly and so is the announcing.  The Cardinals broadcast crew on Fox Sports Midwest is comprised of Dan McLaughlin and retired (fired) Fox Sports analyst Tim McCarver.

McLaughlin is the biggest homer in the world and seems clueless at times as to what is happening on the field.  McCarver is retired from FOX sports and well, should have stayed retired.  Case in point the two are talking about the World Cup and making mistakes and in the process ignoring the action on the field.

Please FOX please, have a talk with McCarver and ask him to stay away from Cardinal broadcasts.  And while you're at it, find someone who has a knowledge of baseball to replace McLaughlin.

Cardinals Deserve Better

The St. Louis Cardinals deserve better TV announcers than what they have. Dan McLaughlin and Al Hrabosky are the club's broadcast crew when games are on Fox Sports Midwest. Jay Randolph and Ricky Horton do the games when the teams games are shown on KSDK.

McLaughlin talks too much about everything but baseball. If he would tone it down and talk about the game or MLB in general he would be better than what he is. It also seems as if McLaughlin and Hrabosky apparently don't like each other and it sometimes comes across that way. Hrabosky has been doing the job as "analyst" for about five years and he doesn't seem to be getting any better at it. Maybe, Fox Sports Midwest will come up with some new talent next year.

On KSDK, Horton is adequate and is upbeat which helps to make him interesting. But, the play by play performed by Jay Randolph leaves a lot to be desired. Fact errors and omissions continue to plague him. I have tried several times to watch him call a game this summer and have had to turn it off and turn on the radio.

Speaking of the radio, John Rooney is one of the best sports play-by-play guys in the business and is a pleasure to listen to. He can make even the dullest of contests sound interesting and he is virtual fountain of information. He also does a great job of playing set up man to the comedy of Mike Shannon. Shannon will never be confused for a good color analyst, but he is humorous and after 30+ years the listener knows what he is getting.