St. Louis Cardinals television analyst Al Hrabosky made quite the faux pas on Sunday’s postgame show.
Hrabosky and studio host Alexa Datt were discussing the outfit worn by Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas during the pitcher’s postgame interview following Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. Mikolas wore sunglasses and a cowboy hat. Paired with the pitcher’s mustache, Mikolas looked strikingly similar to the Ron Burgundy character played by Will Ferrell in “Anchorman.”
Both Datt and Hrabosky made the connection and briefly discussed it. Unfortunately, Hrabosky wound up confusing Burgundy with disgraced porn star Ron Jeremy.
Cardinals analyst Al Hrabosky is the latest to confuse Ron Burgundy with Ron Jeremy.
"Who was it that wore the cowboy hat with Ron Jeremy?"
Hrabosky managed to correct himself, but it was far too late by that point.
To be fair, this is a forgivable mistake, and Hrabosky is hardly the first person to make it. Still, it’s something he’s unlikely to live down anytime soon.
A cameraman capturing the 3000m steeplechase at the World Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. on Monday got a little too involved in the action.
Early in the race, the competitors were coming down the track and encountered a cameraman standing with his back to the runners. The cameraman was standing in between lanes 1 and 2, causing competitors to pick which way they would run to avoid the man.
Luckily there were no collisions or injuries as a result of the rogue cameraman.
You’re probably asking how this could happen. Well, there are often multiple events going on at the same time during track meets. In this case, the cameraman was capturing the women’s triple jump nearby.
One NBA player thinks that the “Undisputed” hosts need to get their facts straight (or more specifically, their Bridges).
Phoenix Suns forward Mikal Bridges called out Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe over an embarrassing error they made on an episode of their FOX Sports show this week. While discussing a possible trade package Phoenix would be able to put together for Kevin Durant, Bayless and Sharpe both confused Mikal for Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges. Take a look.
Mikal’s basketball resume is already pretty extensive. He won two national titles in college at Villanova, was a top-ten pick in the NBA Draft, started on a Suns team that made the Finals in 2021, and was recently named an All-Defensive First Teamer for the 2021-22 season. But even so, Bayless and Sharpe still could not differentiate him from Miles Bridges.
In fairness, it is easy to confuse Mikal and Miles since they both play the same position and were both part of the same 2018 draft class. However, there is one major reason why Mikal might not want to be mistaken for Miles right about now.
ESPN suffered a classic case of mistaken identity during Wednesday night’s St. Louis Cardinals-Atlanta Braves game.
In the seventh inning of the showdown between the two NL teams, ESPN cut to a shot of Braves pitcher Kyle Wright in the dugout. Unfortunately, Wright was only shown because the network thought he was actually teammate Max Fried, as evidenced by their graphic. Take a look.
That is a pretty embarrassing screw-up for ESPN, especially since Fried had just gotten significant airtime over the last couple of hours. Fried was the starter for the Braves and threw six shutout innings before exiting.
Wright did not pitch for Atlanta on Wednesday, having started in Monday’s series opener against St. Louis. For reference, here is what Fried, a left-hander as opposed to the righty Wright, actually looks like.
Fried ended up with the win after the Braves closed out the game by a 3-0 final score, so he is probably OK with being misidentified this one time. As for ESPN, at least their mix-up was not nearly as as mortifying as the one that this rival network once made.
Justin Thomas has a pretty straightforward name to announce, but the first-tee announcer somehow managed to get it wrong Saturday at the US Open.
Thomas was stepping up to tee off when he was inexplicably announced as “Justin Thompson.” Thomas’ reaction was hilarious as the announcer hastily corrected himself.
No wonder Thomas was so confused. It’s a pretty tough name to mispronounce or misidentify, and he just won the PGA Championship last month.
On the other hand, Thomas should be understanding here. He’s certainly not immune to a slip of the tongue himself. At least it provided a moment of levity ahead of what could be a make-or-break third round for many players.
The Washington Nationals made a remarkable series of baserunning blunders in Thursday’s game that led to one of the more ridiculous pseudo-double plays anyone will see.
The Nationals had a runner at second base with nobody out Thursday against the New York Mets, a seemingly safe situation to avoid two outs on one play. Josh Bell hit a routine ground ball to third, but Juan Soto tried to advance from second on the play. This ill-advised decision led to him getting tagged out. While Soto got himself in a rundown, Bell tried to take second, and seemed to have it when Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor threw the ball into right field.
Then Bell got greedy, trying to take third on the bad throw. He was promptly thrown out as the Mets recovered quickly.
One of the most ridiculous double plays you will see 😳
Note that this is not technically a double play, since there was a lot of action between the two outs. That doesn’t make it any less embarrassing or ugly from Washington’s perspective.
The Nationals are 11-22 and heading for a lost season, and plays like this are why. This was arguably even worse than this ugly effort from the American League earlier in the season.
Either ESPN screwed up on Wednesday or we may just have stumbled upon another frozen envelope situation with the NBA.
During their coverage of the Golden State Warriors vs. Memphis Grizzlies playoff series on the show “NBA Today,” ESPN aired a graphic stating that the Warriors were up in the series 3-2. Take a look.
— warriors burner 🔥 (3-1) (@warriorsburner) May 11, 2022
But the reality is that the Warriors currently have a 3-1 lead in the series, as Game 5 between the two squads did not tip off until several hours after the ESPN graphic aired. If the Grizzlies do indeed win Game 5, which is taking place in Memphis, expect the tin foil hats to show up in full force.
Nov 7, 2021; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith warms up before action against the Los Angeles Chargers at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith made the most of an awkward moment at Sunday’s Philadelphia 76ers playoff game.
Smith was among the Eagles players in attendance for Game 4 of the 76ers’ series against the Miami Heat. As is often the case, his presence was highlighted on the Wells Fargo Center jumbotron during the first quarter. There was just one problem: the graphic identified Smith as a “former Philadelphia Eagle.”
Smith is, of course, very much a current Philadelphia Eagle. He led the team in receiving yards as a rookie in 2021, and the organization expects him to be a dominant force in the offense for years to come.
Fortunately, Smith had a pretty funny reaction to the screw-up, joking that he got “fired on my day off.”
Jan 6, 2020; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) looks on during the second quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
The NBA may have accidentally leaked the winner of the MVP award in pretty awkward fashion Friday.
The league’s postgame news story on Friday’s playoff game between the 76ers and Heat may have outed Joel Embiid as the MVP winner. Users noticed that on the front page of the NBA’s playoff coverage that the blurb for the game cited Embiid as “Kia MVP,” though the award has not been given out yet. The text could be seen on both the league’s mobile app, as well as the front page of its playoff news site.
The original text remained up for at least 20 minutes before the “Kia MVP” phrasing was replaced with “Kia MVP finalist.”
The NBA usually does not publicly announce the MVP until around the time of the NBA Finals. This year’s announcement had been highly anticipated, with voting expected to be tight in a three-way race between Embiid, Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Accidentally outing the winner this early on the league website would be a huge screw-up, especially when even other stars were weighing in with their picks.
To be clear, it is possible that there was simply a word missing, and the phrasing was intended to include the word “finalist” all along. Even if that’s the case, it’s a needless error that will probably start some unwanted speculation and conspiracy theories.
ESPN had some major techical difficulties during Game 1 between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday.
During the first quarter of the contest, the broadcast audio cut off for ESPN around the time that Dillon Brooks hit a jumper with under five minutes left in the period. The game noises and in-arena commentary from announcers Ryan Ruocco and Richard Jefferson was instead replaced by a loud, scratchy hum that sounded like something from the bowels of Hades. Take a listen.
As soon as the broadcast cut to commercial, the audio was back to normal. When the game returned, ESPN studio hosts Mike Greenberg, Jalen Rose, and Stephen A. Smith provided commentary instead as the issue was still persisting. Greenberg stated that there were technical difficulties on-site in Memphis and that they in the studio could not hear anything from inside of the arena either.
ESPN eventually ran an “audio difficulties” message in the upper right corner of the screen.
The game audio briefly returned before the end of the first quarter, and the commentary from Ruocco and Jefferson eventually did too in time for the start of the second quarter. The issue lasted about 20 minutes in real time.
But before the issue was fully solved, a funny moment came when Ruocco could be heard loudly testing the audio while on the air during live play.
The Grizzlies-Wolves game was just the second official NBA playoff game broadcast by ESPN this season (after the Dallas-Utah game earlier in the day on Saturday). Needless to say, it was a pretty inopportune time for audio difficulties (that also plagued other ESPN NBA broadcasts this year) to hit.
