wifeisafurd said:
SmellinRoses said:
Listened to her broadcast of ISU game - think she has a ways to go. Not that she can't get there...
For relative newbie, I thought she did a great job, and one day will make a fine replacement for Starkey. Starkey is 77 and in good physical health, and loves doing Cal games not played at Washington State (if you want a good rant from Joe, just say "Pullman") . If I had to guess, Starkey retires at 80, it being one of those seminal birthdays. Hopefully, he isn't waiting for a Rose Bowl.
With 3 more years of play by play under her belt, Kate should be ready.
Many of the things that Starkey leaves out are irrelevant if one is doing TV. Most people don't think about the call of The Play being incredibly horrible, because either it is played accompanied by a video clip, or played accompanied by the video we all have indelibly seared into our minds. Imagine sitting in our car listening live and trying to figure out what is going on. While it wasn't the easiest call to make, of all the calls of The Play, TV or radio, Starkey's is probably the worst at giving information (and there are definitely some calls that are MUCH better at giving information), so we can't just blame it on being a tough call to make.
While it is nice if the TV announcers tell me down and distance, and perhaps the names of the players involved, the picture on the screen and the graphics will let me know a lot of that stuff. "He's got a man!" The excited call that gives me no information is really OK if I can tell what is going on from the picture I'm watching. The incoherent call of The Play doesn't matter if I have a picture to watch. Starkey's inability to convey much of the information that a radio listener needs is a problem, if you are listening without a TV picture or the actual game in front of you (and these days, getting the TV picture or the actual game in sync with the radio is a problem).
Kate doing the ISU game tells me little about whether she'd be an improvement on Starkey in terms of conveying information, because TV play-by-play requires different skills than radio. You say that Kate should be ready with 3 more years of play by play under her belt, but I can only think, Starkey hasn't gotten ready for Cal radio play-by-play in 45 years on the job, what makes him think that Kate will be ready in 3 years not on the job and doing only occasional TV games? Maybe she would be ready, but unless and until we hear her do a radio game, we don't know if she has those skills. The good news is that it is highly improbable that she would be worse than Starkey.
I love Starkey, he's a great Bear. I just can't stand to listen to his play-by-play unless accompanied by live or video action.
