I like this British guy. Dathan is awful. Just because you can run does not mean you should be on the lead truck commentating. Thoughts
I like this British guy. Dathan is awful. Just because you can run does not mean you should be on the lead truck commentating. Thoughts
He has a huge speech impediment
Wow...
He's good I like his insight. It's more interesting.
Some people believe that excessive running can negatively affect the portion of the brain, which controls speech. I guess that Dathan could be a victim of that.
I mentioned this in the live discussion thread, but Ritz called the decisive move in the men's race right from the first step.
He's obviously inexperienced with announcing, but he provided some good insight and could improve his presentation with practise.
Ctydetftftff wrote:
Some people believe that excessive running can negatively affect the portion of the brain, which controls speech. I guess that Dathan could be a victim of that.
Does running have any effect on the part of the brain that keeps you from adding unnecessary commas to your sentences?
He commentated as if he trained for too long at extremely high altitude
If he had run the race instead, he might have had a shot at the win...
The use of the comma could be correct, It depends on what he means to say.
gdm wrote:
I mentioned this in the live discussion thread, but Ritz called the decisive move in the men's race right from the first step.
He's obviously inexperienced with announcing, but he provided some good insight and could improve his presentation with practise.
A blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then. Picking the right guy was probably a 50/50 shot anyway. He seemed fairly unintelligible and was totally scrolled by the Brit. He also agreed with everything that was said and gave no insight. I want the Brit guy to do all the commentary going forward.
Dathan wasn't great, but I really don't think he was awful, and the way the coverage is set up certainly didn't help him. When he's only called on to speak maybe once in every five minutes, it's hard to stay on the ball and keep consistent, quality announcing going.
I always like to contrast crappy NBC marathon coverage with top-notch cycling coverage. Phil Liget and Paul Tergat (cycling announcers) are constantly talking throughout the entire bike race. They might occasionally cut to someone else who's following the race on the ground, but generally they do all of the talking, and it's a much smoother, better-flowing presentation.
On the other hand, when NBC is constantly cutting between different people talking, some of whom are bystanders and have literally nothing insightful to say about the race, it's hard for Dathan (or anybody) to provide consistent and meaningful announcing about how the race is unfolding.
Didn't know Paul Tergat took up cycling commentating. Or perhaps you mean Paul Sherwen?
I actually thought he was quite good, and I'm usually pretty critical of commentators.
Or Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen.
Paul Tergat is famous for an altogether different reason.
I'm guessing it's not the easiest thing sitting in a vehicle, looking backwards from the direction one is driving, and being called on without any chance to prepare. Ed Eyestone is very good at this, but it does take some time getting used to. Ritz is trying to prepare for a career after his running days are over--coaching and/or commentating. It's hard to fault a guy for that.
It was windy, it sounded like he could hardly hear the questions, there appeared to be a delay in hearing the questions, Ritz's response, and the other guying talking over him... while riding on the back of a pickup or whatever they were in. Cut him some slack, Marv.
Montesquieu wrote:
I'm guessing it's not the easiest thing sitting in a vehicle, looking backwards from the direction one is driving, and being called on without any chance to prepare. Ed Eyestone is very good at this, but it does take some time getting used to. Ritz is trying to prepare for a career after his running days are over--coaching and/or commentating. It's hard to fault a guy for that.
Not on letsrun...
Montesquieu wrote:
I'm guessing it's not the easiest thing sitting in a vehicle, looking backwards from the direction one is driving, and being called on without any chance to prepare. Ed Eyestone is very good at this, but it does take some time getting used to. Ritz is trying to prepare for a career after his running days are over--coaching and/or commentating. It's hard to fault a guy for that.
So then why don't we just not have him on the vehicle. Can't he watch a monitor and give us the same insight as he could from the lead vehicle? Don't fault the guy for preparing for a life after running but do fault him for taking a job he seemed ill equipped to handle. I guess at the end of the day its just running but for a world class thon we should have world class announcers.
[So then why don't we just not have him on the vehicle. Can't he watch a monitor and give us the same insight as he could from the lead vehicle? Don't fault the guy for preparing for a life after running but do fault him for taking a job he seemed ill equipped to handle. I guess at the end of the day its just running but for a world class thon we should have world class announcers.[/quote]
First of all using the word "thon" shows you must of gotten lost on the wrong message board. Runner's World is a few sites over. Second, he's in front of the race to let us know what also happens when the camera is not filming the runners. Third, you are horrible.
carabiner wrote:
The use of the comma could be correct, It depends on what he means to say.
Indeed; he might have intended to come off as an idiot. No better way to do that than to write like one.
However, assuming he had intended to impart a cogent idea, he should have recognized the restrictive clause in his sentence and written: "Some people believe that excessive running can negatively affect the portion of the brain that controls speech."