I like Larry, but during the Berlin 5000m telecast he and Stones are talking about the dominance of the Kenyans-Ethiopians in the 5 & 10. Larry points out that the East Africans dominate the distances and the West African countries do well in sprinting. He then adds that the Caribbean athletes produce good sprinters too because they "immigrated" from West Africa.
Larry, I think that was a forced immigration called the "slave trade".
i was a bit disappointed about his comments about broadcasting "without a walking stick" or something like that. i realize he is a good guy but the statement he made a couple of times bothered me and i am tolerant of whatever people say.
I must point out that he correctly predicted that the last lap of the 5000 would be under 60 seconds "because I'm looking at leg turnover". You might also take into account that the last 8 laps were right around 61 seconds. I long for the day that Larry Rawson can make it through an entire broadcast without saying "I'm looking at leg turnover". Why does it bother me? I don't know.
I caught that too. WOW. You beat me to posting the thread. All those West Africans hopped on their yachts and set up shop in the islands.
I thought he did a great job as usual, especially considering the circumstances of the broadcast.
Lookin forward to many more broadcast and thanks ESPN for brodcasting those Golden League meets
Where's my cane?
not stevie wonder wrote:
i was a bit disappointed about his comments about broadcasting "without a walking stick" or something like that. i realize he is a good guy but the statement he made a couple of times bothered me and i am tolerant of whatever people say.
LARRY RAWSON HATES BLIND PEOPLE!! I noticed his labored Stevie Wonder allusions too -- just dumb. I don't even give the guy a fair hearing anymore; I listen with a jaundiced ear and nit-pick him to death.
This isn't supposed to be an "I hate Rawson" post. I think he does a good job overall and lets Stones get his rocks off occasionally. (Like last week at Carson when Larry said Robison was moving up and Dwight said "well he can't since he dropped out 150 meters back", but it was Robison still in the race.)
Larry usually tries to be educational for the new viewer. That's why he mentioned the 60-second lap time. I just thought it was an "Other than that Mrs. Kennedy, how'd you like your stay in Dallas" comment for the "immigrating" africans.
Well you could turn it around in a way for the crew.. In Rawson style! "Imagine you folks at home trying to call a meet based just off a feed. Try it right now you folks at home as we are watching this meet.
Come up with some statistics for entrants into an event just entered at the last minute.....
Heck try to come up with something interesting to say at your local high school meet before each event"
Good job guys.
He also pointed out that distance runners from Kenya and Ethiopia are "falling out of the trees over there."
Note to Larry: Kenyans and Ethiopians are not monkeys. They do not live in trees. They live in houses and go to school and walk upright on the ground.
I guess if the Kenyans and Ethiopians are falling out of trees, they would not be very good rock climbers or window washers. Keep them close to the ground
Yes we do walk upright friends and are not monkeys. I do live in a very nice cycad tree though.
you "emigrate" FROM, you "immigrate" TO
they walk upright until they get old and have scoliosis of the back. Then the government gives them a cane and they walk around Nairobi or Addis Abba looking like a talk skinny Yoda. After that they are relegated to cheap massages and cough syrup to take the pain away!
Good to see a few people here have a British sense of humour.
Thank you, der, for saying what we all should be saying. I'm with you.
Dang, but we're a heartless bunch here at letsrun.
We get live track, as it goes down, and we simply must bitch or our heads will explode. Larry Rawson walks that fine line of providing interesting commentating for us diehards, but he also tries to lure in the neophytes, helps them to understand what's going on to perpetuate the sport we all love--and he did it off of a blind feed. We think we are so smart--that we could do it tomorrow if someone would only ask us.
Cut him some slack--you'll feel so much better. You can only carry around that resentment for so long. People made fun of baseball announcer Harry Carey for years--but Cubs and Cardinals fans would give their left nut to hear him call just one more game.
If I ever meet Larry Rawson, I swear to God I will buy him dinner, wash his car, follow him home and mow his lawn, and thank him profusely for all that he has GIVEN to our sport.
trailrunner65 wrote:
you "emigrate" FROM, you "immigrate" TO
If you opened an account at the Emigrant Savings Bank, does it matter where you came from, or do they care where you're going to?
It might not have been any better if Larry Rawson had said, "There are a lot of athletes of West African heritage in the Caribbean because their ancestors were placed in shackles and hauled off to work as slaves."
That probably would have gone over about like Jimmy the Greek's gaffe did.
So running is so popular and lucrative for the Kenyans that they're falling out of the trees over there, is it? Big deal. NASCAR is so popular in the U.S. that drivers are moseying out of trailer parks everywhere.
The Berlin women's 800 race was the best one they've called in years. Both Larry and Dwight understood that the first lap split was incredible, got excited, and had me screaming at the tv for Jelimo the entire 2nd lap.
This unlike many races before where the middle distance races go off at unbelievable paces and the yahoos are talking about false-start rules, Kenyan to U.S. high school comparisons, and other nonsense.
1.) i doubt he was referring to them as being minkeys, you oversensitive twit
2.)wtf is a "jaundiced ear"? are you referring to a yellow ear? seriously, stop trying to sound smart.