Dont get me started on NESN. Isnt Tom Warner supposed to be some kind of tv/entertainment wiz? NESN is awful on many levels...and considering it is the flagship television network for red sox baseball, that is disapointing and sad.
Lets start with the pre and post game shows. Can someone tell Tom Caron he has a microphone and doesnt have to shout? And secondly, i find it annoying to have a hockey first guy as out chief baseball studio host. A few seasons ago, i forget which, he was supposed to be doing color for the red sox game and he actually missed a play on the field because...from the red sox booth...he was watching the Bruins game. what the hell. I understand the boston sports guy need to be versatile and be able to speak intelligently on sox, bruins, celtics, pats..i just find his regular hockey mentions and references slightly annoying.
But it gets worse. Why in the world is it automatically assumed that a Hall of Famer (Jim Rice) or red sox HOF (Wakefield) can provide astute intelligent analysis. Jim Rice! Good lord. I loved Jim as one of the premier offensive presences in the game for a decade...but we all remember...he hated the media and sucked as a hitting coach because he didnt communicate well with the players. Why the hell he is an in studio analysts is beside me. I mean the guy actually said once that the sox wanna score some runs and add on, because scoring runs is what can lead to wins? Really? Wake is a pleasant enough man, but other than when Steven Wright pitches....does he bring anything to the table? Steve Lyons? I dont want a polyanna by any means but this guy goes out of his way to accentuate the negative for some reason. I guess his idea of being edgy? How about some of the great names from the past we've had to analyze. Remember the Jim Corsi era? And this sites name sake Sam Horn was actually an analyst for NESN and one time, in discussing the MLB playoffs said "thats why they call it the big dance". Do they Sam? Do they call the mlb playoffs the Big Dance?