In a radical departure from historically ignoring fans, a sustained outburst of complaints about terrible telecasts of Angels games has forced Bally’s Sports to change it’s shortchanging of Angels fans enjoyment of the game.
Spearheaded by Sam Blum of The Athletic and mobilized by an enraged Angels fan constituency on Twitter and fan blogs like this one, the Orange County Register is reporting that effective Monday evening, Angels broadcasters Mark Gubicza and Patrick O’Neal will be broadcasting the game on site. Prior to this, road games have been announced by the crew watching live video feed back at home. To make matters worse, when Matt Vasgersian is doing the play by play, he is somewhere in New Jersey and his “partner” Gubi is in Southern California.
There is no word on whether Vasgersian will ever actually see the team is purportedly the “voice of” in person this season but his announcing brand, heretofore stellar, has taken a big hit in the first ten days of the season. He called a home run a foul ball, he asked for clarification about what happened on plays after they had unfolded seemingly once or more per inning. Matty V has generally embodied the buddy you bring to the game who spends the whole time searching his phone and then looking up too late – we all know this type as they then distract us from enjoying the game by asking what is going on while it is still going on.
No matter what happens to Splatty Matty, understand that Sam Blum is the hero here. We have sat by and seen a team completely ignore it’s passionate bloggers for close to two decades. Over the years we have seen Mark Whicker, Alden Gonzalez Mike DiGiovanna, Jeff Fletcher and others carry Arte Moreno’s water as if it was their primary job over basic reporting. Remember, these are alleged “pro’s” who NEVER watch the telecasts. They report on the team to the fans but they are completely removed from forty percent of the fan experience – the telecasts themselves.
Years ago I asked DiGiovanna in some online forum about how terrible then play-by-play announcer Steve Physioc was. His smug, ivory tower reply was that every fan base hated its announcers. What an out-of-touch old fuddy-dud. But Sam Blum is different, he has a nose for news and understands who his constituency is – Angels fans! Jeez, what a shocking development. You can go back over Jeff Fletcher’s entire professional output and I will bet there is not one mention of the Angels fan unhappiness with Angels telecasts. Meanwhile, Sam Blum has been on the job less than a year and he caused a revolution – he heard us complain and asked tough questions, got the usual obfuscation BUT then kept at it, noted to his substantial audience just how terrible the product Bally’s (via the John Carpino organization’s cheapskate control-freakeness) Sports West was in a way that could not be countered by anything but the surrender we got as of 5:10 PM Pacific time this afternoon.
This is a new chapter. They listen because they have to listen because someone they cannot ignore is keeping them honest. And that pro is Sam Blum. He works for The Athletic but he demonstrated over the past four games that he also works for us.
I have to say, the work stoppage was a stake in the heart of my fandom. I did not read about the Halos this winter, and have only watched a few innings. I thought it was my stream’s fault when it seemed like the audio was so late that it was a joke. But that was the real broadcast? Woooooow! I am even more unimpressed. I still need to catch a bit of our favs, Trout, Fletch, Caveman, etc. but won’t be a full participant any time soon…
THE DODGER’S BROADCAST TEAM ALSO SUCKS.
I wonder if their throwing a tantrum about it over at True Blue LA? Yes Joe Davis sucks, but so what. BTW who would be a good broadcast team anyway which is very subjective, hell is there a hidden star 28 yr old PBP star in the Pirate’s triple A affiliate team? PEOPLE UNDER 40 DON’T CARE ABOUT THIS STUFF…….
Live from Houston Patrick and Gubi is already a lot better on the pregame!!!
This fanbase is so ridiculous.
So if we could just have the late Dick Enberg and Vin Scully as our broadcast team everything would resolve itself. We still have THE OLIGARCH telling our GM that we have to make do with a 50c starting rotation and a 3rd world level farm system. So we gotta listen to a bunch of casual fans who drive to the games in pricey European SUV’s, but the tradeoff is at least you won’t end up in a ambulance in our parking lot like over at the other place. Yep, it’s Matty V’s fault that we don’t have Trevor Story and Max Scherzer………Unbelievable…
😡 😡 😡
Dude, you comments are so unintelligible , this is all I get every time you post something.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_BU5hR9gXE
The “man” has a post to no likes ratio he’d like to maintain
Put down your mom’s crystal meth and go back to your one personality Gitcho.
Hahaha
Now if we could only get the new owner of The Athletic, the cheap ass New York Times let Sam Blum go to Angels away ball parks we would really have something.
Major League kudos to Sam Blum.
Gotta say, cutting ties to Rich Waltz was a disservice. He was doing a good job, workmanlike, steady. He never had a chance to get integrated into the team, develop a relationship with Gubi, get into the fabric of things. That is a shame. Remember, Victor didn’t become VICTOR overnight. These things take time. Obviously, being a broadcaster means you are part of the team, on the plane with the coaches and players, developing relationships to bring richness and insight to your craft. Dropping in from 2000 miles away is clearly not working at all. It’s not just confusing, it’s impersonal.
Wow, what’s this odd feeling of being listened to called??
Wow Rev!
I didn’t know we were allowed to discuss Sam’s stellar and timely reporting here. Hopefully we’ll get an update on the still appalling treatment of Angels minor leaguers.
I’m off to MMP. I’ll be the goofy looking guy in section 112 next to the amazing woman in the #27 jersey. The real #27 btw, none of that Altuve shit.
Cheers and LFG Halos!
Enjoy the game and hopefully an Angels win.
And they say bullying doesn’t work
Pfft.
It doesn’t, otherwise we’d have all Top 10 of Baseball America’s top prospects. Maybe then, I wouldn’t be posting images of guys we thought weren’t very good back in 2016.
I don’t care about broadcast teams either, along with catchers and field managers.
…ok?
We don’t care that you don’t care about broadcast teams, etc.
But, thanks for sharing. 🙃
The RARE Lana smackdown lol
TY 🤣
My vague memory is that Ron Fairly, who became an Angel broadcaster, was an idiot.
But he had a nice voice.
Fairly was OK, Bob Starr was the idiot. but, having to follow Dick Enberg on Angel and Rams radio, pretty much anyone would have been. I can’t believe however, there have been calls for the HR Pimp Waltz (OMMMGGGGOOOOOHHHHTTTTAAAAAANNNNNNNIIIIII!) to return. He was worse than Darrin Sutton, who was worse than “Fizz”. I thought it was impossible in the same season for the Angels to have TWO play-by-play announcers, who were worse than the worsy ever.
One continuing problem we have is how everyone we let go or trade seems to improve in their new environment. This year it looks like Heaney, Cobb, and even Bundy seem to have markedly improved on their new teams. Our failure to maximize our own pitching has really become a problem, especially because Moreno seems unwilling to invest in top end pitching like Rodon.
Cobb resurrected his career with the Angels. We chose not to resign him. With Heaney & Bundy, the jury is still out whether their careers are part of a renaissance or will continue to falter. I just don’t see Bundy having long term success since his stuff has deteriorated to borderline level and will probably not recover. Heaney on the other hand, had seemingly breakthrough performances for us last year followed by real stinkers. case in point last April 9, 2021 where he pitched 6 scoreless innings against the Blue Jays while striking out 9. Obviously things did not end well. Considering he’s making $8.5 million this year, I think I’d rather have Michael Lorenzen
Cobb is throwing uo to 96 mph?? Driveline student.
Exactly. The Giants and the Angels didn’t fix Alex Cobb, Alex Cobb fixed Alex Cobb.
I think Bundy is the kind of guy who will give you one good year followed by one bad year. I don’t see him being consistently good. This is his pattern. He was pretty darned good his first year with us in the COVID shortened season. Unexpectedly good. But then last year he was total crap. So who is he? I don’t think he is either one. His true worth is somewhere in the middle. I think he is due for a good year this year. I just would not want to be the team getting him for 2023 expecting production and then getting the big letdown instead.
I just don’t want somebody who is that inconsistent. We need to win now. We need guys we can count on. Bundy is not that guy.
I think you’re right to a large degree. Bundy’s stuff isn’t very good. However, he is capable of mixing up his usage of pitches and keeping guys off balance. That works for a few months then hitters adjust and start lighting him up.
Rinse, repeat, and it is a rocky ride.
He’s an inexperienced & gritless WTY circa 2016.
Although WTY never threw up on the Bronx like Bundy did, so I at least have to give him credit for that.
Much love for Sam Blum. He’s doing a good job here.
The decision to let Rich Waltz is as Arte as it gets. Here we had a solid professional in house but Arte had to go with the “big name” which is underperforming.
Baseball is different than other sports. Fans generally want one voice for TV and one for radio. And although we know deep down there’s no real team loyalty, we at least feel that voice is “our” guy.
Matty V just doesn’t bring that. He’s a hired gun who drops in when he can. And he drops in remotely, making us feel like a second or third priority.
Well said, Jeff. “Fans generally want one voice for TV and one for radio. And although we know deep down there’s no real team loyalty, we at least feel that voice is “our” guy.
Yep. You hit the nail on the head Jeff. In addition, I think most of us really question where Matty V’s rooting loyalties lie. I mean, he seems to get pretty excited when opposing batters hit one out of the park on us. Last year one of our posters (can’t remeber who) seriously believed Matty V to be an A’s fan. Maybe it is true. I would not doubt it.
He grew up an A’s fan and based upon his recollections last year, he still is.
It’s beyond me why Carpino cannot get this simple task right. It’s been like fingernails on chalkboard ever since Victor flipped us the bird. Trash the Matt vagabond approach and hire a permanent TV play-by-play announcer.
Don’t be a slave to another teams feeds, get everyone onsite.
Because Carpino doesn’t give a S#$% and isn’t a good communicator. I worked for the Halos for 5 years andwitnessed first hand the horrible leadership coming from him and his staff.
BTW all, you can tag users in comments now., ie., @Rahul Setty . You can also hover over a username/picture to get info about them (post count, etc.)
Never mind on the user tagging. That seems to have broken things when enabled so it’s disabled for now.
Get them all onsite for all games and can Vasgergian since he can only do remote. Sam is doing great work!
If we can cut Upton we can cut MV
“”Every fan hates it’s announcers”, Tell that to the Dodgers about Vinny or the Cubs about Harry or the Yankees about Mel. I happened to love Enberg. What a stupid statement for anyone to say. Did Phillies fans not love Kalas, Mets fans loved Ralph Kiner. The Bay area loved Lon Simmons as they now love Jon Miller. Yankee fans would not listen to games without the scooter, Phil Rizzuto. In all the Padres bad years they had Jerry Coleman. (We had him in ’70 & ’71).
I grew up with Red Barber, Mel Allen, Phil Rizzuto, Lindsay Nelson. It was a thrill to hear them call the games.
And then Scully, Drysdale, Fairly.
Anyone saying everyone hates their announcers is a fool
Well Sam ya dun good by us end we will not ferget tis. Taday you’s git ta wear tat dar cowboy hat fer yer good werks. Yahoo!! 😃 😃 😆 😎
This is a “be careful what you wish for” scenario. I for one cannot stand O’Neal’s vocalization. It is flat and monotone. I can only hope he grows on me.
Give O’Neal time. To be fair, it took Victor quite a while to get comfortable and become the beloved pxp announcer we all loved. O’Neal needs time and experience – something he definitely would not get with Matty V calling games from NJ. So this is a good long term move.
Big kudos to Sam for sure. He cracked the exterior of a very tough nut – ie the Angels Org.
Maybe next he can take on the battle of getting marketing dudes like Carpino and Kuhl separated from baseball operations This would include hiring a real President of Baseball Ops and a supporting cast that is knowledgeable about and is focused on running a baseball team and not marketing dollars.