Jonny Gomes, Talking Head/Color Man, Initial Impressions

TheoShmeo

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I have not seen a thread or discussion on Jonny Gomes as NESN color and studio man. If there is one, oops, sorry. Please merge, lock, shoot, etc.

I'm curious as to the reactions here on Gomes' performance thus far.

I have heard some very negative reactions from friends. And very strong ones, at that. He talks too much. He's Captain Obvious. He's full of himself. He's a homer. Even that his southern twang is annoying.

And while I agree that he is overly verbose, I found myself liking him for the basic reason why I like Eck in those roles: Gomes is genuinely enthusiastic and I get the sense that the guy I am hearing on TV is the same guy I would be hearing in a bar if we were watching the game together.

I also find him to be very likable and I like that he's a recent Red Sox, with some insight into how the players think. It's true that he's at times very basic -- his explanation of running on contact was pedantic and assumed the audience is full of total novices -- but I care more about likability than being taught something new every broadcast.

In any event, Gomes may be part of the NESN landscape for a while and comments on him are welcomed.
 

canderson

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I'll preface with what I say in this isn't an attack on Gomes himself.

He is terrible. It's embarrassing that NESN has cheerleading now, it is not right and is insulting to me as a fan. Is his cheering on his own? I have a strong belief NESN gave an order to not be critical - if Eck doesn't actually return I'm convinced they did.
 

jcd0805

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AWFUL. Not an attack on Gomes who I'm sure is a decent guy, but his voice is flat and does not in any way enhance the broadcast, I've no clue how a guy known for being such a whacko has such a flat delivery but he's terrible.
 

joyofsox

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He's extremely bad. I listened for several games and nothing he said was remotely interesting or enlightening. Just the usual cliches and meaningless nonsense. ... I'm now selecting ball park sound or listening to the radio (and I can't stand Tim Neverett at all and think Castig has lost a lot off his fastball (that's how bad Gomes and Timlin are/was)).

Red Sox fans deserve so much better than what NESN gives us. We deserve competent and insightful announcers and a camera/production crew that has the ability to show the entire game. NESN fails at the most basic aspects of showing a game night after night, season after season. The network should thank god every day that they have no competition in broadcasting Red Sox games.
 

DJnVa

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Eh, I don't really much care about who broadcasts games. I like most ex-players because they generally have some inside baseball knowledge that I enjoy.

Although, I was laughing at Jeff Huson (i think) on a Rockies broadcast disputing some advanced stats, specifically about clutch and responding "Man, you could look at average, HR, and RBI and see that he's a good player."

Anyway, Sox are made of money--why not pay some $$$ for the best color guy out there? No idea who that would be, but still.
 

E5 Yaz

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Gomes is genuinely enthusiastic and I get the sense that the guy I am hearing on TV is the same guy I would be hearing in a bar if we were watching the game together.
I agree. I'd be happy to watch a game with him in a bar. On the telecast, however, I'd want more than that. Heck, when the Sox played the Phillies, Philadelphia had another guy you'd want to sit near in a bar for a game on its broadcast team -- John Kruk -- and he was terrific.
 

dbn

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I agree that he is awful. He isn't cut out for this. That said, I do agree with the OP that I enjoy that he is a recently former player that has current knowledge of how things work in MLB clubhouses and teams, he apparent sincerity, etc. I just don't think the positives come anywhere close to making up for the negatives.

Good guy -- I'd be happy if he improved and stuck around, but I don't expect him to improve.
 

JohntheBaptist

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Jonny Gomes is from CA, just fwiw. He doesn't have a "southern twang."

He's incredibly bad. I honestly don't care what any of them say as long they just stfu more often than not. Curiously high bar to clear apparently.
 

soxfan121

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He's extremely bad. I listened for several games and nothing he said was remotely interesting or enlightening. Just the usual cliches and meaningless nonsense. ... I'm now selecting ball park sound or listening to the radio (and I can't stand Tim Neverett at all and think Castig has lost a lot off his fastball (that's how bad Gomes and Timlin are/was)).

Red Sox fans deserve so much better than what NESN gives us. We deserve competent and insightful announcers and a camera/production crew that has the ability to show the entire game. NESN fails at the most basic aspects of showing a game night after night, season after season. The network should thank god every day that they have no competition in broadcasting Red Sox games.
I concur with every word; Gomes is as bad at broadcasting as he was a player.

And Tim Neverett says at least one thing per broadcast that makes me want to reach through the radio and strangle him. His most recent gem was "Hanley is an RBI guy, so it makes sense for him to hit in an RBI spot in the lineup".

NESN has an outstanding broadcaster. His name is Dennis Eckersley and he out cheeses any other broadcaster in the league. Plus, outstanding lettuce.
 

Byrdbrain

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He was better than Timlin and he was better than I thought he would be.
That said he was still pretty awful, I just thought he would be even worse.
 

soxfan121

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He was better than Timlin and he was better than I thought he would be.
That said he was still pretty awful, I just thought he would be even worse.
Timlin said "we" something like 113 times during his brief stint in the booth.

Literally anyone off the street is probably better at broadcasting than Timlin. Who seems like a really nice guy otherwise.
 

MakeMineMoxie

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Well, I think he's better than Timlin! (a low bar indeed)

Gomes doesn't make me want to stick knitting needles in my ears but I'm convinced he gets paid by the cliche.

Red Sox fans deserve so much better than what NESN gives us. We deserve competent and insightful announcers and a camera/production crew that has the ability to show the entire game. NESN fails at the most basic aspects of showing a game night after night, season after season. The network should thank god every day that they have no competition in broadcasting Red Sox games.
Good God, isn't this the truth. NESN with their endless promos, idiot non-baseball booth guests, and crappy production could make Vin Scully un-listenable.
 

uncannymanny

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Found his commentary sort of creepy until I realized who it was. He's funny, genuinely cares, and an odd guy, but like Timlin, isn't trained to do this. I'd love him as a guy that pops into the booth for a couple innings regularly, but he's not an everyday guy.
 

JimBoSox9

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Gomes is dealt a raw hand. His first two games were rock-bottom awful, so he had a primacy problem in addition to a not-Eck problem that's preventing unemotional assessments out of the gate.

That said, he's taken a large step forward in his basic broadcaster presence & timing in a short period, and his dugout-cheerleader perspective is providing good insight at times into how players think about the game (particularly around pitch sequencing and guess hitting), so there's reason to be optimistic. Better than Lyons or Timlin IMO.

The best 2 minutes of NESN this season were when Ortiz dropped in the booth just in time for a Sox rally, and it was because Gomes was there instead of Eck or Remy.
 

Van Everyman

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Plus, outstanding lettuce.
Moss, you cheesebrain.

Gomes grew on me. Yes, the homer thing isn't great. His voice is flat. And he doesn't have a thought in his brain that is remotely advanced.

That said, he does a good job of giving the viewer some idea of the mindset players approach games with situationally – how hitters approach certain pitchers, why certain plays can motivate (or deflate) teams.

I'm not sure I'd want to see this for a whole season but for a few series in the middle of a playoff race I find Gomes' perspective refreshing.
 

Byrdbrain

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The one thing he did that I liked was when he discussed Devers' swing and how the typical swings of a lefty thrower/batter are different than a righty throw/lefty batter.
I'm assuming the producers told him it was the bast thing he did in that game as he came right back the next game and they talked about it some more.

Other than that it was cliches right on down the line.
 

tonyandpals

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Horrible so far. I guess he can only get better? I get that players want to share some between the lines insight, but it seems like he is trying too hard.

The come back the other night, he kept saying that Allen wasn't on the same page with his catcher, constantly shaking him off, yet it was the catcher telling him to shake. He kept hammering it home and it was driving me nuts.

I'll admit to have muted him a bunch, but I'm not sure I missed much.

Sent from my SM-G920V using SoSH mobile app
 

shaggydog2000

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The best part of the Gomes experience was the pre-game introduction with O'Brien where he stared at the camera unblinking and unmoving, looking like a serial killer desperately trying to suppress his darkest urges. He did not appear to have ever been in front of a camera before, at least at a close distant.
 

NDame616

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Maybe it's his image as a ball player, but I always expect him to drop a swear in by accident.

"So I was moving all my shit...." something like that, that everyone one of us says without issue, I expect him to say throughout the broadcast.
 

geoflin

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He is awful. And for a former player with the years of experience he had, how could he not know the rule on Jackson's bullpen catch and think it was a home run? Hasn't he ever seen it happen before? If a color commentator doesn't even know the rules of the game he's useless.
 

JimBoSox9

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The best part of the Gomes experience was the pre-game introduction with O'Brien where he stared at the camera unblinking and unmoving, looking like a serial killer desperately trying to suppress his darkest urges. He did not appear to have ever been in front of a camera before, at least at a close distant.
You must have missed his readout of the starting lineup for the Sale game, which was on par in quality with when they used to have the toddlers announce them, plus he stopped with the RF and neglected the battery entirely.
 

soxfan121

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He is awful. And for a former player with the years of experience he had, how could he not know the rule on Jackson's bullpen catch and think it was a home run? Hasn't he ever seen it happen before? If a color commentator doesn't even know the rules of the game he's useless.
If this is the criteria, then jump aboard the @Cuzittt #inthebooth bandwagon. I'm all in.
 

8slim

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He's horrendous. He's trying soooooooo hard to be folksy and it's painful to listen to.

Maybe he'll get better over time. I hope NESN gives him that time doing PawSox games in an empty room.
 

grimshaw

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If it were only for a series, I would have thought he did so-so considering they just needed someone to cover for Eck who was covering for Remy. And he did have some decent insight at times, but I was too distracted by all the cheerleading.
 

soxfan121

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Gerry Callahan is now stumping for Curt Schilling to join the broadcast.

Then he went to break and came back to rail some more about why Colin Kaepernick doesn't deserve a job.
 

Number45forever

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Gomes said the phrase "nip it in the butt" roughly 8,000 times the other night. He's been a trainwreck and I hope he never does another game. I love the guy unconditionally, but he is not meant to be a broadcaster. I'd be fine with him on pre/post game shows but he should not be doing games. It makes me long for Steve Lyons, and that's not a feeling I'm comfortable with.

Jerry: get well.
 

joe dokes

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If it were only for a series, I would have thought he did so-so considering they just needed someone to cover for Eck who was covering for Remy. And he did have some decent insight at times, but I was too distracted by all the cheerleading.
That's where I was, for what little I heard (or listened to). He tried to give some insight, and occasionally succeeded. But Eck's act wore thin on me after a 10-game run, so YMMV.
 

Van Everyman

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Worth noting from today's media column by Finn:

Beginning to wonder if we’ve seen the last of Steve Lyons on Red Sox broadcasts. NESN has said his absence the last several weeks is due to personal issues, but that has done little to snuff out various rumors regarding his status. Two of his NESN colleagues have told me that Lyons has recently stopped returning texts.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/redsox/2017/08/03/dennis-eckersley-says-ready-move-but-david-price/wJu4NDm94CToOZ99rRqOKP/story.html?event=event12
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Found his commentary sort of creepy until I realized who it was. He's funny, genuinely cares, and an odd guy, but like Timlin, isn't trained to do this. I'd love him as a guy that pops into the booth for a couple innings regularly, but he's not an everyday guy.
I'm of this same line of thinking. I never really liked Gomes as a player, I thought that he thought that he was Kevin Millar v2.0 and he's not. His act seemed sort of premeditated while Millar seems like a natural goofball.

That being said, I don't think Gomes is that bad, TBH. I like a guy in the booth that is energized and who enjoys baseball. I don't think that Jerry Remy has that joy and sometimes listening to him is like listening to a guy talk about something that he's completely detached from. And Remy has an excuse, he's literally been doing this for 30 years, he has health issues and his son is a fucking psychopath. What I like about guys like Eckersley and Gomes is that they haven't really been doing this very long and you can tell--this cuts both ways.

I don't care that he calls the Red Sox "we", I don't care that he says "nipped in the butt", I don't care that he comes off "folksy". I think that Gomes is finding who he is as a broadcaster, and that's fine. What I do care is whether he allows me to have fun while watching the game and he does.

On the other hand, Dave O'Brien needs to shut up every now and again. He's a terrific radio announcer and you can tell, he loves to explain every single nuance that's going on. Dave, I have eyes, I can see what's going on. Just STFU for 10 seconds, please. For the love of god, just shut up.
 

8slim

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His act seemed sort of premeditated while Millar seems like a natural goofball.
It's the premeditated aspect you reference that makes me dislike him in the booth. He's just so obvious about it and it comes off as trying way too hard. It's like he's saying "look at me, ain't I a character" all game. I respect his enthusiasm but so much of what he's doing seems to be schtick. But its not like I'm not going to watch or anything, what can you do?
 

MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

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Huh - it doesn't come off as schtick for me at all. He just seems like a total goofball to me - from the beard to the suits to the game wraps he does with the studio hosts, it's all sort of ... off. But not necessarily in a bad way. Like the American flag suit that he wore or his tats, I think he just has non-mainstream tastes, doesn't give a shit, and generally says and does whatever comes to mind.

Millar actually seems more Guy Fieri or whatever than Gomes does for me. Obviously, personal taste plays into it.

But I agree that he genuinely seems to enjoy watching the game and that has an effect on my enjoyment. Baseball, especially with the pitchers that take 40 seconds per pitch and some of the all-business culture, can be a bit joyless at time. Gomes puts some joy back in the broadcast. In the bottom of the ninth the other day, he was like, "I'm on the edge of my seat. I have no idea what's going to happen here." Which was exactly how I felt.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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It's the premeditated aspect you reference that makes me dislike him in the booth. He's just so obvious about it and it comes off as trying way too hard. It's like he's saying "look at me, ain't I a character" all game. I respect his enthusiasm but so much of what he's doing seems to be schtick. But its not like I'm not going to watch or anything, what can you do?
I completely and totally get that, I really do. Like I said, I think that Gomes is 180 degrees different from Remy and right now, I dig that because I'm kind of sick of Remy's I've seen everything that needs to be seen in baseball attitude and I'm glad that there are two new guys who approach the game from a different POV.

Gomes reminds me of a coach/manager that's hired after the hardass leaves. Sorta the Pete Carroll to Jerry Remy's Bill Parcells. After listening to the same guy talk to you game after game after game for 30 years, I want something different. Gomes is different, but he's not Steve Lyons different. Lyons also wouldn't STFU either, so when O'Brien and him were in the same booth it was an all-out sonic assault for three and a half hours. At least Gomes is quiet for a bit.

I 1000% agree that you're not going to learn a ton more that you didn't already know from listening to Gomes describe a ball game. And I think that's okay, for now. Would it surprise me if I was sick of Gomes after three weeks, three months, three years? No. I think that this is an act that eventually wears thin. Just like Remy's patter.
 

LoweTek

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I think Ron Darling is widely thought of as the best baseball color analyst. I recall there was some talk of him coming to NESN a few years back when Remy's return was somewhat in doubt. He has won a sports broadcasting Emmy, grew up a Red Sox fan in Milbury, MA and went to Yale. Seems like a natural fit.
 

ledsox

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I thought Gomes did an ok job and I appreciated the enthusiasm and positivity. A couple times he went over the top but it seems he really likes the club and gets down there for bp to check the work the hitters are doing. I only heard him do a couple or three games but I heard improvement. I Wouldnt mind hearing more from him.
 

Reverend

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I think, in terms of deciding how much slack/rope to give Gomes, we should consider he was probably fucking terrified when he started.

I find it kind of endearing. I mean, like... Jonny Gomes... you brought home the trophy with what might have been one of the most likeable, most enjoyable, most I-can-get-behind-these-guys! teams in the history of sport. Give'em hell Jonny!!!

I love that he respects the position of Red Sox broadcaster so much as to have been so nervous.

And also: The job is terrifying.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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I think Gomes got progressively better in his time in the booth. Better than Timlin for certain.

Not sure why they don't do the "stunt casting" like they did a few years ago (first time Remy was out?) where they brought in a bunch of folks to do color. Why not rotate it among some of the local stations sports guys (Lynch, Burton, etc) as they'd bring some viewers with them (and vice versa) and some of the Comcast and NESN folks (Trenni, Curran, etc)?
 

joyofsox

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Good God, isn't this the truth. NESN with their endless promos, idiot non-baseball booth guests, and crappy production could make Vin Scully un-listenable.
But Vin would have never let us know "what's trending on social media", so he gets a thumbs-down.

It's so hard to pick the worst aspect of a NESN broadcast, but this feature [sic] might be it.
 

YTF

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Gomes was not good, but I don't think that he was horrible. He was way too soft spoken and as others mentioned, he was monotone. I'm curious as to what experience (if any) that he has at this. If this is his first shot at it I give him a pass for being thrust into the middle of what might be a no win situation and honestly for a stretch of a few games I'll take him over Lyons. I found him to be a likable guy, just not ready for the role he was put into. I still find it hard to believe that this franchise couldn't find more qualified replacements for Remy and Eck.
 

Zincman

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Timlin and Gomes were no more equipped to do insightful analysis than I am prepared to play ss for the Sox. We deserve better than a monotone, speak no evil analysis. Its hard to imagine either was appropriately vetted before being thrust into the booth. This is not amateur hour.........check that, perhaps it is and the FO doesn't give a shit. Where's Mark Bellhorn? Or Salty?
 

JimBoSox9

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Gomes was not good, but I don't think that he was horrible. He was way too soft spoken and as others mentioned, he was monotone. I'm curious as to what experience (if any) that he has at this. If this is his first shot at it I give him a pass for being thrust into the middle of what might be a no win situation and honestly for a stretch of a few games I'll take him over Lyons. I found him to be a likable guy, just not ready for the role he was put into. I still find it hard to believe that this franchise couldn't find more qualified replacements for Remy and Eck.
It doesn't get more fair than this.