Besides giving fans distorted and incorrect information, O'Brien speaks with self-imposed authority, convinced he's The Undisputed King of Baseball Knowledge. Yet he clearly seems to make stuff up on the spot - and he
never corrects himself (or no one in the truck bothers to correct him). Also, what I mentioned above is far from the extent of his bizarre statements. Here are some more from 2018:
June 27: O'Brien makes a big fuss about how J.D. Martinez is the first Red Sox batter to have 25 home runs before the end of June. ... However, every season does not begin on the same day, so judging performance according to the calendar makes no sense. The 2018 season started on March 29 (the earliest Opening Day in history). When Ted Williams hit 25 HR by the end of June in 1950, the season began on
April 18. O'Brien seems utterly ignorant of this difference.
July 6: O'Brien proclaims: "The Royals have never lost more than 100 games in a season, although this team is on a pace to blow right by that, set a new club record." ... The Royals lost 100+ games in 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006.
July 25: O'Brien said it was "very rare" for a first-place team to increase its divisional lead during a road trip. ... At that point in the season, the Red Sox had improved its AL East lead in 5 of their 8 road trips (63%). From 2016-18, the Red Sox improved their place in the standings on 14 of 32 road trips (44%). If something happens almost half the time, it is not "very rare".
July 26: O'Brien says Brian Dozier would make a "good leadoff man" because "he's hit a lot of home runs". He added: "He's hit 28 career leadoff homers ... a second baseman who packs a punch." ... Actually, Dozier has hit 114 HRs as a leadoff hitter. And he came into that game with the worst on-base percentage in Minnesota's starting lineup (.306). That OBP was only .008 better than Jackie Bradley. I don't think any announcer would push for JBJ as a "good leadoff man".
August 23: O'Brien says the 2018 Red Sox "have had a lot of big hits on 3-0". ... At that point, the team had 110 PAs that ended on a 3-0 pitch: 105 walks, 3 outs, 2 hits. Two hits is not "a lot". ... This information is easily found at B-Ref.
To these strange comments O'Brien adds nonsense "stats" and bizarre terms like "slide-in double" or referring to a fastball as a "swifty". ... He's simply Jonny Gomes or Steve Lyons with a better voice.
***
Re Ty Cobb and the Twins:
This was the on-air exchange:
Dave O'Brien: Dustin Pedroia took a walk in the first inning. Hitting .289, two homers. . . . And lots of hits against Minnesota in his career - .360, his career batting average. Against the Twins - how about this? - only two guys have a higher career batting average in major league history. One is Mark Teixeira, who of course retired after last year, .362. The other? Ty Cobb. .378. Dustin Pedroia, .360.
Dennis Eckersley: They were called the Twins back then? I mean, when Cobb was playing? What was their name back then, I wonder? ... Just curious.
O'Brien: I'm looking. ... I think so.
Eckersley: Huh.
O'Brien: It's a minimum of 200 at-bats, by the way, that kind of career average. . . . And a 1-2 on the way ...
Bizarre. It's like saying that Babe Ruth hit 108 career home runs against the Oakland A's. ... Eckersley knows something is not right, but either he's not completely sure (though that has never stopped him in the past or he doesn't want to blatantly expose O'Brien. Also, if O'Brien was "looking" for an answer to Eck's question, as he says, why did he not find (and tell us) the right answer?
That was the top of the third. In the top of the fifth, O'Brien addressed the matter:
O'Brien: We were talking earlier about Dustin Pedroia's .360 career batting average against the Twins. And in franchise history, against Minnesota, against that franchise - the Twins have had variations of their franchise's name. We were talking about - what were they? They were the Washington Senators -
Eckersley: Right.
O'Brien: - in the time of Ty Cobb.
Eckersley: Then Clark Griffith took them to Minnesota, I believe. Don't hold me to that, but I think that's what went down. [Clark Griffith died in 1955. His nephew, Calvin Griffith, moved the team to Minnesota.]
O'Brien: So it all comes under the banner, these days, of the Minnesota Twins franchise. You're talking about records against them.
That's an awkward correction. How hard would it have been to say: "We were talking earlier about Dustin Pedroia's .360 career batting average against the Twins and how Ty Cobb was one of only two players to have a higher average. Of course, Cobb never played against the Twins, they began in 1961, well after Cobb's playing days. But before this team was the Twins, they were the Washington Senators - and it was the Senators that Cobb played against. Major league baseball considers the Senators and Twins to be one franchise."