An Open Letter To WEEI
It’s no secret to anyone who’s seen me whinging on social media about how bad the calling of baseball games can be these days, both on television and radio that I lament the loss of the way games used to be called which has been supplanted by a format where the play-by-play almost is of secondary concern.
After an especially good weekend of game calling on WEEI if not an especially great weekend for the Red Sox themselves, and in the spirit of letting people know when they are seen or heard that I’ve been trying to cultivate of late, earlier today I sent the following to soxbooth@weei.com.
Hello. I’m a born and raised Red Sox fan from upstate New York who now lives in Portland, Oregon. I watch games through MLB.TV and prefer the WEEI audio when doing so.
I just wanted to compliment WEEI on the current stable of announcers for Red Sox games, who seem as a whole to be leaning into the old-school “audio description” style of calling games, as compared to the newer “podcasting” style which often seems to see game calls as an afterthought (Rob Bradford being the main example of this truly awful approach).
I’ve especially been very impressed by Cooper Boardman, but in general the lineup of Flemming, Middlebrooks, DiNardo, and Boardman has been working really, really well.
Please keep this up.
Listening to WEEI coverage has been so pleasant this year so far, and I hope it continues in this direction.
If there’s anyone else out there who prefers this approach to the calling of games, please let them know. Sports and sports media has its share of problems, and sports fans are known for letting them hear it. They’re not quite as known for letting them know when they get it right, and I’d love it if WEEI heard some encouragement on this count.