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Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Blunders

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Look: This ESPN Baseball Hall of Fame graphic is a total disaster

July 21, 2019
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For the vast majority of baseball fans, Sunday’s Baseball Hall of Fame inductees are household names. ESPN’s graphics department, however, did not get the memo.

During Sunday night’s Baseball Tonight telecast, ESPN’s analysts discussed the 2019 Hall of Fame class in front of a large backdrop with each inductee’s name and picture on it. There was a big problem, however: the graphic misspelled Roy Halladay’s name and completely butchered Mike Mussina’s.

This isn’t the first time ESPN has made a pretty big mistake graphically during a baseball telecast, but this one is particularly egregious. They’re Hall of Famers, and Halladay and Mussina both played fairly recently. How do you mess that one up so badly? It’s so bad, in fact, that it’s reminiscent of this iconic nightmare from several years back.

ESPN shows picture of Aaron Hicks during CC Sabathia montage

June 2, 2019
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ESPN

ESPN made a pretty glaring graphical error when reviewing the career of CC Sabathia on Sunday Night Baseball.

During the Sunday night telecast, the broadcast ran a montage of some of Sabathia’s most notable career numbers, combined with various pictures of the Yankee left-hander. The one problem: one of the pictures used was not of Sabathia, but rather of outfielder Aaron Hicks.

It’s not tough to tell immediately that something is wrong here, and Yankee fans watching the game pointed it out right away. These things do happen sometimes, but you’d really think someone would have caught this one before it made it to air.

Whoops! Ball boy at Indians game snags fair ball

May 28, 2019
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Players and coaches make many mistakes throughout the course of a 162-game MLB season, so it would be unfair of us to expect the ball boy or ball girl to be perfect. One of the young men working a recent game between the Cleveland Indians and Tampa Bay Rays needs to keep that in mind.

During the ninth inning of Cleveland’s 6-3 loss to the Rays on Sunday, the ball boy working the right field line had an embarrassing moment when he fielded a ball that was clearly fair and handed it to a young fan. Even the fan realized it was a mistake and tried to immediately give it back.

The ball clearly bounced twice in fair territory, but the ball boy was asleep at the wheel. Fortunately, the play did not impact the outcome of the game. It was ruled a ground-rule double, and a double likely would have been the result anyway.

It’s interesting that the flub took place in the ninth, as baseball has been examining a number of different ways to speed up the pace of the game. Perhaps the Indians ball boy would have benefitted from a shorter game in this case.

Stephen A. Smith goofs again, thinks Mike Scioscia still manages Angels

March 19, 2019
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Stephen A Smith

Stephen A. Smith was at it again making yet another mistake that brings his credibility into question.

Smith was interviewing ESPN baseball reporter Jeff Passan for his radio show on Tuesday and talked about the Mike Trout contract. Smith asked Passan whether the big deal for Trout puts more pressure on manager Mike Scioscia.

There’s only one issue: the Angels parted ways with Scioscia and replaced him with Brad Ausmus. Passan had to gently break that to Smith.

That’s a bad look for Smith. Yes, there are plenty of managerial changes that happen each offseason and it’s sometimes hard to keep up with them, but it shows a lack of preparation.

To me, this is a manifestation of someone who is spread too thin being asked to cover subject matters where they’re weak. That’s how we had the embarrassing mistake with Smith and the Chargers during the fall.

Clueless Charley Casserly thinks Dez Bryant played for Cowboys last season

March 12, 2019
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Charley Casserly

Charley Casserly has been spending a lot of time talking NFL with Stephen A. Smith lately.

Casserly, an analyst at NFL Network, embarrassed himself on Monday while discussing Cole Beasley’s free agency status. He said the Cowboys didn’t utilize Beasley enough because they were throwing the ball to Dez Bryant too much last season.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Bryant of course was released by the Cowboys last year and declined to sign with interested teams until midway through the year. He eventually signed with the Saints but tore his Achilles’ tendon in his first week with the team and didn’t end up playing in any games.

Casserly has put a target on himself ever since making highly-publicized comments about Kyler Murray’s supposed negative combine performance. You would think he would be on top of his game ever since making that comment, but saying things like this hurts his credibility. Maybe he and Stephen A. should team up for a football show.

Watch: Hapless Knicks score on own basket

February 24, 2019
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Knicks logo

The New York Knicks’ nightmare season continued in comical fashion on Sunday.

The Knicks entered their game against the San Antonio Spurs with the worst record in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. They have been the subjects of jokes for much of the season. On Sunday, the Knicks found a new way to be embarrassing by scoring on their own basket when there wasn’t a Spurs player remotely near the rim.

If there’s one play that sums up the 2018-2019 season for the Knicks, it may very well be that one. Even head coach David Fizdale had to chuckle. On the bright side, New York’s dreadful season may result in the franchise getting the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft. Not even they could mess that up, right?

Watch: Kevin McHale caught calling someone ‘dickhead’ on hot mic

February 12, 2019
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Kevin McHale

One of the first rules of broadcasting is to always be careful whenever a microphone is around. Kevin McHale forgot about that lesson.

During Tuesday’s “Players Only” broadcast of the Boston Celtics-Philadelphia 76ers game on TNT, McHale was heard calling someone a “dickhead” as the telecast came back from a break.

It’s unclear about whom McHale was speaking, but it was pretty obvious he thought he was off-air at the time.

The “Players Only” is consistently one of the worst broadcasts in sports. The lack of cohesion and direction makes their games nearly unwatchable. Perhaps this was an attempt to spice things up!