It’s been a rough week for MLB announcers, and that includes Los Angeles Angels play-by-play broadcaster Matt Vasgersian.
On Friday night during a wild game between the Angels and Texas Rangers, Vasgersian fell victim to visual deception. In the top of the seventh inning with Los Angeles leading 7-6, Jared Walsh hit a blast down the left field line. The ball exited the park, but Vasgersian didn’t initially see it.
Matt Vasgersian channeling his inner John Sterling on this one @Starting9 pic.twitter.com/kXmzrCU2oq
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) April 16, 2022
“And it’s fouled away,” Vasgersian said before immediately realizing his error. “Check that. It’s hit well the other way and it’s gone!”
How could Vasgersian have gotten it so wrong? That’s a product of location. Rather than calling the game from T-Mobile Park, he was calling it from a secondary location via satellite feed.
Some TV networks have been cutting costs by not paying for announcers to travel to locations, which sometimes leads to errors. In the Angels’ case, they are trying to make Vasgersian’s busy schedule (he also hosts for MLB Network) work with the team’s traveling schedule. The result is him broadcasting many games from a remote location in New Jersey. Even as talented of a play-by-play announcer as him can’t avoid errors sometimes when broadcasting remotely, which results in a poorer product.
The Angels are committed to Vasgersian, so this problem might not be going away. The Angels ave gone cheap and are not only doing their TV broadcasts remotely for road games, but also their radio ones.
The good news for Vasgersian is that his error wasn’t even the worst call of the past few days. That distinction belongs to New York Yankees radio announcer John Sterling, who completely botched a call on a Giancarlo Stanton fly out.
It is high! It is far! It is gone!!
but caught. pic.twitter.com/d8APN8XIVQ
— John Sterling Calls (@JSterlingCalls) April 14, 2022
Unlike Vasgersian, Sterling was very much in the park when he made his call. Oof.
