A Couple Things Bugging this Ex-Radio Jock and Sports Announcer

Twins announcers Dan Gladden and John Gordon (again): The other day (I think it was Monday), Wrench and Puker were gabbing from the start of and throughout Jason Kubel's at bat about - get this irony - classic baseball announcers. Herb Carneal was mentioned, along with a long line of New York, Baltimore, and Cleveland announcers over the years, whom they did not name, nor share any real insight as to what they thought made these announcers great.

I certainly agreed with them on the props to Carneal, but then the irony of the subject matter was driven home when Gladden interrupted the boredom and said, "Here's the 3-1 pitch to Kubel."

Yes, four pitches had been thrown to Kubel, complete with crowd reactions, and the sound of the catcher's mitt popping, with the listener only able to guess what was happening on the diamond, before Gladden stopped to actually call a play.

Perhaps the pop of the catcher's mitt I thought I heard was the sound of Carneal rolling over.

KDWB's Dave Ryan and Gary Spivey (again): Dave took a call from a "truther" yesterday morning, and I was at first thankful when Ryan put the truther in his place. To my dismay, however, Ryan admitted to the truther that he hasn't done a lick of research on the claims these nuts are making, never heard of WTC building #7 collapsing, and that he has no time for the subject other than to simply dismiss it all out of hand, calling them all crazy nut-jobbers (or words to that effect) for believing this nonsense.

Hey, I'll agree with him on that last point, but only because I've read up on it, and have come to that conclusion logically. Dave, however, simply mocked and ridiculed the bunch, and in a moment of even more irony than the Gladden/Gordon incident, referred to his experience working with alleged psychic Gary Spivey to support his position.

Note to Dave: I realize part of your rant was a "bit," an act, and just a way to get more laughs from people thinking, "Oh , there goes Dave again." But seriously, using Gary Spivey, the guy who proclaims to exercise demons over the phone and radio airwaves, to drive home your point about other people believing ridiculous things, makes your IQ appear well below triple digits.

As a former radio announcer, I'm thinking maybe that estimate is a little high.