Bob Costas Was A Mess During TBS Broadcast Of Royals-Yankees Game 2 | Mike Gunzelman
Every time Bob Costas gets on the microphone to do play-by-play for the Major League Baseball playoffs, it only gets worse.
The famed broadcaster, a legend in the sports industry, has single-handedly destroyed all those decades of hard work and iconic calls this past week as he continues to get absolutely wrecked on social media for his clueless play-by-play.
During Game 1 of the ALDS between the Yankees and the Royals, I found myself repeatedly asking "What the hell is Costas even talking about?" Costas got so bad at one point that I had to take to my favorite social media platform and eloquently call him out.
Costas's pace, cadence, delivery, word choice, yadda yadda yadda, have all been infuriating for viewers. Speaking of Seinfeld's famous "yadda, yadda, yadda" - that was the last time Bob Costas was relevant in baseball, all the way back in the 90s when he was calling NBC's Game of the Week.
The problem is that because Costas so rarely does baseball PBP, he doesn't realize that the game has changed. No longer are we sitting down for four-hour baseball games and waiting to get results on the late night newscast.
This is the world of second-by-second delivery and information at our fingertips. MLB purposely implemented pitch clocks and various rules in order to speed the game up. So, when you hear Costas talk so damn slow in a monotonous voice, you have fans who are becoming infuriated - if they can even stay awake!
Most importantly, Costas is absolutely LOSING the younger viewer, something that MLB and the Turner Sports Network should 100% be worried about. The amount of tweets where people said they turned on the radio instead of listening to Costas call the games was WILD. When you have people willingly turning on broadcast radio in their homes in the year 2024, you know there's a serious problem with Bob Costas as the lead host.
BOB COSTAS IS FINE AS AN ANALYST, BUT NOT AS A PLAY-BY-PLAY HOST
Costas hasn't done himself any favors with his actual play-calling either.
This clip in which he sounds depressed that Giancarlo Stanton grounded into a double play to one of the league's best in Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., while also saying that it ISN'T Stanton's fault (well whose fault is it then, Bob?) has gone viral for all the wrong reasons. Costas's once-famed legacy continues to get tarnished by his own doing.
SAY WHAT, BOB?
One of my favorite moments was when Costas so boldly announced that Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole doesn't use the automatic Pitchcom device which allows the catcher and pitcher to better communicate pitchers to each other. "You see that Cole doesn't use Pitchcom… but you can see him old school, nodding ‘Yes’ or shaking ‘No…' as he has a real appreciation of baseball history."
Only for Gerrit Cole to LITERALLY use Pitchcom as Costas finished his sentence. Hell of a job there, Bobby!
It comes down to this: There is a unique art form to doing play-by-play. You want to be the voice of authority and in command but with a balance in your delivery and having some entertaining wit to you as well. The audience also wants a level of comfort in the announcer's voice. Instead, a major complaint by viewers has been that Costas talks down to the audience as if we are idiots or have never seen a baseball game before.
As I tweeted out, Bob Costas is doing PBP as if he is on the call for the Olympics, which he did for years, talking to an international audience about some random sport that nobody knows the rules of. It's like listening to a boring college professor give a lecture for two hours in which he talks in a few words every 30 seconds.
What's ironic is that last year myself and many others criticized Costas for acting the same way during his PBP playoff coverage. Yet, he didn't even bother acknowledging the situation at hand and maybe adapting.
The fact that ‘Bob Costas’ has been trending on social media with literally tens of thousands of posts absolutely destroying him in just TWO GAMES of broadcasts this week isn't a good sign.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF BOB COSTAS AS A PLAY-BY-PLAY HOST? TWEET ME: @TheGunzShow