Marty Liquouri Question

Hey, thanks for the claification.

aarhus wrote:

Keogh went to Manhattan College, where he ran for Freddy Dryer, Liquori's high school coach. Jumbo was much better.

Fred Dwyer was a pretty good coach.

Jumbo was a legend.

No I do not have any of those videos... I just happen to have a lot of Ryun stuff since I did a doc on him seven years ago.

Bulldog35 -

Have you ever listened to the BBC/Eurosport commentators broadcast a T&F Meet/Marathon? If not, do youself a favor and tune in the next chance you get. Their style and approach is a hell of a lot better than what we get here in the States. If you have heard them then you already know how much better the commentary can be relative to the people NBC uses.

Is it too much to ask that the commentators.....

1. know the names of the competitors that are being shown on the screen?

2. know the correct pronunciation of all the competitors names?

3. present an unbiased point of view by not focusing almost exclusively on the American athletes?

4. stop trying to compare T&F events to (American football, etc. etc.)

5. eliminate the ridiculous "factoids" about the sport of running (ex. shoes that weigh as much as 3-4 slices of bread, etc. etc....)

6. realize that they are commentating on an event that is being SHOWN on TV and let the video/pictures speak for themselves more often rather than feel like they have to keep up a non-stop stream of babbling?

7. stop making references back to "when I was competing...."

8. do their homework BEFORE they interview a competitor after the race/event is over so that they ask some insightful questions rather than the lame, generic, stupid ones they now ask (ex. see every single interview conducted by Bob Neumier in Athens, or Liquori's interview of Brown and Culpepper after the marathon).

This list can go on and on and on, but I'm hoping that you get my point.

As much as I can't stand gymnastics I have to say that someone like Tim Daggart (former USA Olympic gymnast) is an example of a former athlete who is a good TV commentator. The only down side is that he, like just about every other gymnastics commentator, is EXTREMELY biased towards the American gymnasts. But it's clear they know their sport and are very comfortable talking about foreign athletes and offer relevant insights to the competition.

T&F commentators used by NBC tend to be impressed with their own credentials, can't relate to CURRENT athletes, and offer limited relevant insight into the event(s) they are covering.

I'm just tired of the babbling and annoying screeching that is being sent our way. I've remedied that the best I can by muting my TV and streaming the BBC/Eurosport commentary over my computer to replace the crap I don't like.

One final point...

From 1964 thru 2012, NBC will have paid $7,660,5000,000 (that's BILLIONS) for the exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics (1964, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012).

NBC is looking at Athens profits of about $50 million on $1 billion in ad sales and sponsorships. In Sydney they made a $60 million profit. Add to that the record $75 million they reaped from Salt Lake City winter games two years ago and you should get the picture that this is a HUGE business we are talking about.

Do you honestly believe that the commentators we saw in Athens for T&F were the best money could buy????? I don't. With that kind of investment at stake I would have looked under every rock to find the absolute BEST commentators on the planet. My real criticism lies with NBC since they ultimately hire the talent.

There are four years til the next Summer Olympiad, I only hope that NBC gets their act together before then to greatly improve the quality of their staff.

What do you think?

I couldn't have said it better!

I see your point and yes I have heard the Eurosport announcers and they are quite inspiring. Damn they make darts sound interesting! So yeah, you would probably have to look to Europe to get the kind of commentator your talking about. You want Bruce Jenner to cover the Decathalon? I don't even recognize this kat anymore! How about Renaldo covering the hurdles maybe Jim Spivey for the 1500? Let's bring Al Oerter or Mac back for the discus commentary. Who else?

I just wonder who would be good at that here. Rowdy Gaines is definitely good at that with Swimming. I think Mike Dodd and Karch are good at that with Volleyball. To me Liquori is on the right track eventhough he is a bit old school and he slips up at times I do respect what he has accomplished and I find alot of his chat interesting.

I thought his commentary about why the gal was running on the opposite side of the road was cool during the womens marathon explaining to Rawson why she didn't draft right behind her.

I thought Dwyer was slightly nuts.

I have to agree, marty's interviews with Dan and Alan were downright terrible. He could have had something prepared. His whole, "where do you think Meb finished ...?" Was insulting to two runners who really gave us quite an effort. Why not get into their races? Perhaps even a little bit and give those two guys a chance to bring Meb up. I know they both would have. And did we really need to hear how he bothered the shit out of these athletes on the day of their races by calling them to do prerace interviews. Who's idea was that and was it just lazy or plain stupid?

Bulldog 35 & Ray -

At the end of this post is a link to some interviews conducted by Tim Broe with Cullpepper, Keflezighi, and Browne after the US Marathon Trials in Birmingham this past Feb. Overlooking the obvious amateur-ish production and editing quality of the interviews I have to say that Tim did a better job of interviewing the athletes than Liquori did with Culpepper and Browne in Athens. Supposedly Liquori is the "expert" or the "professional", but in my book Broe actually did a better job and he is anything but a professional commentator/interviewer. This just goes to show that with a LITTLE bit of digging, NBC could have / can come up with suitable replacements for the likes of Carol Lewis, Larry Rawson, Marty Liquori and other such clowns. With a bit of coaching and experience people like Broe could be groomed between now and 2008 to be the lead commentators for NBC.

http://michiganrunner.tv/2004olympictrials/

Scroll all the way to the bottom of that page and watch the interview with Browne.

ROFLMAO

Clearly we must use quotations when being sarcastic or joking on here. Some of we old timers knew the tone of voice...or typing...

I remember Liquori going one on one with Kip Keino, remember him?, in track mile race and when Kip started fading Liquori yelled

"DON'T QUIT DAMMIT!!!"

Well said. Liquori is (or at least was) extremely knowledgeable and accomplished in the sport of distance running. I can't help feeling though that he may have mental lapses when in from of the mic. I know he is only 55, but he makes some errors that I know are from mental sharpness.

Also, I second the opinion that all analogies and comparisons to slices of bread and "quarter miles" and "sub-4:00 miles" should be left out.

At the end of the women's 1500 he said Holmes finished the last 400m at "close to 4:00 mile pace". She finsished her last 400m in 61.xx which is closer to a 4:07-08 mile.

just something like, "Her first three laps were around 63-64 and she finishes in 61-point ... that is great!" would have been fine.

The sub-4:00 mile isn't the holy grail anymore. The WR is 3:43 and it is run much less than it used to be. For anyone who truly understands the VALUE of 1760y under 240 secs ... you don't have to compare every distance race to it.

Of course there are reasons we don't know that each set of races DON'T get the ideal commentator, but it should have been Michael Johnson for the 200/400, pick someone (maybe a coach) for the 800/1500, and Shorter or Rodgers (or both!!) for the 5000/10k/mara.

I can't believe that those folks would cost too much (maybe Johnson would), or that they wouldn't be interested. Johnson was a commentator for someone else I know. But he was defending Oly Champ, WR holder and American and he went to the same school that Wariner goes to NOW. Hard to believe he couldn't have called at least the 200/400 for NBC.