First I'd like to apologize to anyone who does not care about the Red Sox or does not watch them on TV, where Jerry Remy is the long standing, 20 years as of yesterday, color commentator. But I want to get this out there because I seem to be in the minority when I say that I am not a fan. Also to be fair I'm a fan of Tommy Heinsohn, even if he is guilty of some of the things I am about to accuse Remy of. Those are the facts. Now on to my issues.
1. At times Remy will completely talk over the game about numerous non-baseball related topics. Off the top of my head the most egregious examples came several years ago when in a short span of time (couple of weeks as I remember it) he actually read lacrosse box scores from the newspaper and tried to get one of the interns into Syracuse. Those are two unrelated incidents but they stick out to me. Granted the baseball regular season is 162 games long and some of those are downright atrocious. This was even more true before this current golden age of Red Sox baseball. But I'm of the opinion that the games matter. It's up to sports talk radio, guys in bars, television shows, now blogs, and to a lesser extent newspapers to talk about the off topic stuff. During the game I want to know what was just thrown, how fast it was, etc.
2. The biggest issue for me, which is somewhat related to the first is that Remy thinks he is a major part of the show at this point. It started with the cameras focusing on all of the Remy signs in stadiums. Granted this is not the WWF and those signs were made by the fans. Why not show them? Still from there it went to the love fest with Wally the mascot, the whole president for Red Sox nation thing, numerous commercials including a recent one where he plays air guitar (I couldn't make that up), Rem Dawg, the Remy Report, and everything else.
Now I can be open minded. For starters a ton of people genuinely like him. Also he knows baseball. That counts for a lot. And for someone who is from the old school he does not seem to fear/hate the sabermetrics stuff. And some of his schtick is at the very least similar to Tommy Points and "I Love Waltahhhh!", while a lot more on point than - "Gerald Green will be an All Star someday." If I'm off on this one so be it. Just throwing it out there.
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Here it is, because I've thought about a lot of this stuff as well.
I agree but I don't agree. I think you're right about both of those points, and I also like Tommy better. But, I like Remy.
The big reason that I like Tommy better, aside from the fact that I think he's more entertaining, is that he is always in the game. Sure, he may give you a story about his old days living with Cousy in Worcester, but it is about basketball.
Tommy's whole repertoire revolves around the game and is mostly rooted in referee bashing, calling out media that bash the Celtics (great moment in '07 where he just went after SI), and as you point out singing the praises of guys who more or less are just having a good game. He does the "red-head from Needham", but I like that, and he never goes beyond the simple "shout out" to her. Finally, I think he and Mike Gorman are great together.
I liken Remy to a politician that gets too much power and is then corrupted. As you say Weeksy, there came a point when there were all the Remy signs and his segments and whatnot. He has embraced those, but he has also allowed that to change his style. In fact, I think that his transformation has been indicative of Red Sox fandom in the past few years. It has become more casual. I have had this discussion with many people. When you go to a Celtics game, a Bruins game, or a Patriots game (I have been to at least one of each in the past two years) people are completely focused on the game. There's the zaniness during commercial breaks, but overall everyone is focused on the game. I don't get that at the Red Sox, which almost feels more like a social event. That being said, going to Fenway Park is awesome.
Finally, let's recognize the one time in which Tommy and Mike totally ignored the basketball game that was going on. Now, the second half of the 07 Celtics season could not have been easy to call, but the night that the Celtics played the Bucks was horrible (I remember that it was a Friday night) because....I won't say both teams were trying to lose....but both teams were certainly not trying to win. It was also the night when, at halftime, the 1957 team was celebrated for winning the first of 16 (now 17) championships. Tommy and MIke had to make a choice. Call this ridiculously bad game, or tell old stories and interview players from 1957. They chose the latter. I was ok with it. I found it interesting. I still watched the game while they talked. Maybe I'm just an apologist for Tommy, but I think that most announcers would have been like Bob Uecker in Major League.
I find that I give Heinsohn more leeway because he's a legend. He was was either the 2nd or 3rd best player throughout his career on a loaded Celtics team and won 8 rings in 9 seasons of playing. He also does not get enough credit for leading Boston's revival in the 70s after Russell retired, coaching the squad to 2 titles. On top of that he's now reached old man status where he can say whatever the hell he pleases. Agreed with that Bucks/Celtics game. It was just miserable. One of the times last season I felt bad about following the Celtics.
I was actually at that Celts/Bucks game, and you pretty much had to just laugh and go with it. Thankfully we got decent seats half price.
I think good points all around, but I have to side more with Weeks on this one. I am an unabashed Heinsohn fan, but I also think the dynamic of that booth works very well. Gorman does a great job of balancing Tommy out when he needs to, but you can tell they respect each other and enjoy being together. I've always thought that it seems like Remy just doesn't really like Orsillo. Not in a harsh way, but kind of in an annoying little brother way. He doesn't really seem to respect him, and at times it really just seems sort of awkward when they joke around. Maybe this is just because Orsillo is kind of a stiff. Who knows.
As for Remy himself, I still think he does a good job, but I think his head has gotten way too big. Like you guys said, the whole sign thing was cool, but I am pretty much all Jerry Remy'd out right now. He acts like he is part of the show. People turn the TV on to watch the games, not listen to Remy. I'm not sure he realizes that at this point.
One final note: a reliable source told me that Remy lost a sizeable amount of the money from his playing days with some bad investments in the late '80's, and he is pretty bitter about it. That is why he hawks any product and puts his name on anything, because he didn't have much of a savings. Of course now I think he's probably got a pretty good nest egg. And, if you want to invest in Jerry's new steakhouse being built near the Baseball Tavern, if you can scrounge up $100 grand you can get a 1% equity share. Seems a bit steep to me...
Great roofdeck at the baseball tavern. I don't think he can compete with it.
Great point about the Gorman/Heinsohn combo. If they don't like each other they definitely don't let it show. Also Gorman is the ultimate professional, unless the Knicks are the opponent, and helps reel Heinsohn in when he goes crazy about the refs or mocks an opposing player. The Orsillo/Remy thing is odd. I'm not quite sure I can explain it but I like your take.
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