Monday, July 7, 2008

Goodman on Kruk & Kuip

Kruk and Kuip are the San Francisco Giant's TV announcers. They're like old friends. You tune in and share a ballgame together. They're both ex Giants so they have a real connection to the history and give you a few nuggets every game. They're also great inside baseball people.

Tim Goodman, the SF Chronicle's TV critic, wrote a pretty rough review of them. It was interesting because some of the stuff I liked about Kruk and Kuip, was blasted. Goodman has a line in his normal columns that says something like, "everything I learned, I learned from watching television." Well for me, everything I learned, I learned from playing baseball. Nothing teaches you the art of respecting an opponent, humility (getting a hit 3 out of 10 times makes you an All-Star), teamwork, and the unwritten code of guys like baseball. The reason I like Kruk and Kuip so much, is they reveal all of those little life lessons from baseball in their telecasts.

Anyways, I'm not sure if a Baseball broadcast should be held to the same standards as a sitcom or HBO special. Regardless, I thought Goodman's followup note on his blog was really interesting. Basically, he used his blog to clarify his stance. His article came across as very anti-Kruk & Kuip and his blog said that he was trying to be more critical of the direction of the program.

Interesting stuff that writers can clarify via their blog vs. waiting to be lambasted in the Letter's to the Editor section.