I’m watching the 1999 Daytona 500 on EPSN Classic. What a delight! Mike Joy, Ned Jarrett and Buddy Baker are calling the race. Bill Stephens, Ralph Sheheen and Dick Berggren are in the pits. Delightful!!! The race is good, but the call makes it even better.
I’m sitting here wishing, desperately, I could hear this team call the race on Sunday.
I love Mike Joy. Darrell Waltrip is fine – he’s no Buddy Baker, but he’s fine. It’s the third member of the current FOX play-by-play group that’s my problem with the current crew. Larry McReynolds should not speak on television for a living. He doesn’t add anything of value to the broadcast. He spends time repeating other people’s words and listing irrelevant stats. Stats can be manipulated toward any end, therefore stats hold little value.
The current people on the desk for the FOX NASCAR broadcasts, Chris Myers ad Michael Waltrip, are alsp problematic. Mikey Waltrip should not be on the FOX desk. His style is not conducive to national television. He is incapable of appearing unbiased when talking about members of his team. Just because ESPN allows Brad Daugherty to get away with that sort of behaviour, FOX needs not follow ESPN’s lead in that respect. Michael’s voice is shrill and rough on the ears, especially surrounded by and compared to the trained, experienced broadcast voices of Mike Joy and Chris Myers. Myers is tolerable n small doses, but this whole thing of having the booth talk to the desk during the race increases the Myers-Waltrip dosage to intolerable cruelty levels.
I crave the days of knowledgeable, professional broadcasters who strive to improve their game with every broadcast. Instead we’re assaulted by shrill Michael Waltrip, and Larry McReynolds. My ears long for a kinder, gentler time.
The early and middle of the race was good, but the end of the race was spectacular and the call was equal to the fantastic racing!!!