How might SportsChannel’s Fran Healy have contended with a modern era of sports blogs, twit-feeds, message boards, fax machines, telex, candygrams, etc.? Most likely, he’d have just ignored the criticism, but it’s fun to imagine Fran hitting the laptop in a self-defensive manner akin to Rangers TV announcer Josh Lewin (above) (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)
PLEASE PLEASE understand that the broadcast has to serve a wide cross-section of viewers. For now there are way, way, way more casual baseball fans than die-hards, and we have to do our best to throw everyone a little morsel of what it is they want. Believe me, I’m aware that the die-hards don’t need all the frivolity and BS to keep ’em eyeballed in for three hours… there are probably a good thousand of you who live and die with every pitch, and no doubt, y’all are the most important fans the Rangers have. But for the 7,999,000 other people in the DFW area, I have to be mindful that they aren’t as keyed up or clued in as you guys… we are casting a wide net trying to get as many Texans as possible to start giving a darn and learning the game.
Anyway, that’s my cross to bear and I understand those of you who hate that dynamic and want to rail against the injustice of it all… the only thing I ask– gently and nicely — is to keep in mind that indeed, there are kids reading your posts as well as adults. My kiddos and I both know that public figures (and kids of public figures) need to have thick skin, but still, words like “douchebag” kind of cut to the core. I’m not here to lecture or censor, but I just wanted to put that out there.
Meantime, I humbly promise I will do my level-best not to be douche-baggy to the best of my abilities.