I watched part of the Cardinals versus Braves game on ESPN last night, and Joe Morgan was one of the announcers.  Near the end of the game, Scott Rolen stole second off Bob Wickman, and Joe Morgan explained how Rolen had been studying Wickman’s delivery and got a great jump and it wasn’t even close.  But when the replay was shown, it became obvious that Rolen was out at second.  The umpire missed the call, but my point is how Joe Morgan was clearly wrong.  At least this time he acknowledged it after they’d watched the replay a few times.

Here’s another thing Joe Morgan said during a game which sounds crazy to me :

Slow motion makes it look worse than it really is. … It makes it look like he swung farther around than he really did. ~ Joe Morgan, on slow-motion instant replays of a checked-swing

No, the slow motion replay shows what actually happened.  Maybe he doesn’t like it because it reveals he is wrong sometimes.

How can baseball announcers like Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver get away with spouting their incorrect ramblings so many times?  Usually, no one even calls them on it.  Are the other announcers scared of offending them because these guys have so many years of experience?  Regardless of how well they played back when they were players, that doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about.

It’s one thing if they accidentally get a stat wrong or say the wrong word, but to conduct baseball analysis based on clearly incorrect information is not right.

Lest you think I’m the only one who thinks this stuff, I’ll provide links to websites devoted solely to such things (if you want to read more) : Fire Joe Morgan and Shut Up Tim McCarver.

(BTW, I know this isn’t necessarily funny or random, but it’s my blog and I get to rant once in a while.  🙂  Besides, listening to these characters during a game can be random — because you never know what you’ll hear, and it may be something you’ve never heard before.)