His enthusiasm added a lot of excitement to an already exciting race. Makes me wonder why he doesn't have a more prominent role on national broadcasts. It's just a bunch of skinny guys running around if you don't know what you're watching.
His enthusiasm added a lot of excitement to an already exciting race. Makes me wonder why he doesn't have a more prominent role on national broadcasts. It's just a bunch of skinny guys running around if you don't know what you're watching.
"WHAT BALLS THIS GUY HAS!"
Add that to his famous "All these Africans see a white guy out in front and let's be honest, they don't take him seriously. . . . " - - believe this was from a San Diego clip.
This guy is so awesome.
+1. Guy was awesome. Thought he was going to have a stroke in the middle of the broadcast.
WIsh that his old podcast was still being made.
i agree. he had some classics in this coverage
"It's a sneak attack"...as Wanjiru is clawing back, trying to stay outside of Kebede's view. haha
I agree--Tony's excitement was awesome, even if he did say some seriously dumb stuff while caught up in the moment.
Toni was awesome. He used analogies from other sports in a way that non-fans of running could not only understand, but could be entertained by. At the same time, runners and educated fans weren't put off by his commentary. He showed once again that he is the best commentator in running by far.
Ed Eyestone was just about in tears with laughter a couple of times over the last 5K.
Also, overall, the TV production of the race has been really, really good. A good mix of elite and "normal" coverage, personal interest stories, etc. and none of the major race moves were missed due to cuts, commercials, or other segments.
One criticism is, again, almost no discussion of top Americans, even though Hartmann and Lewy-Boulet both finished in the top ten with very competitive times. As always, it would be nice to see some discussion and TV time for people coming in around those Olympic Trials qualifying times. It's another interesting angle that has really never been highlighted. It's at least as important as a three minute segment talking about tortillas at the aid station in Pilsen.
Overall, best marathon I've seen televised. Much better than NBC/Universal, which I've been happy to pay $5 per view for.
I thought Kastor did a good job. My feed had poor sound,very low, but she sounded confident and had a good flow to her comments.
TV Toni is always "on" on raceday.
simply the best...he and Ed are always an excellent duo. great feed from nbc made for good marathon watching. well done.
No one studies the sport on all levels like Reavis. He has by far the best perspective and there really is no comparison to other announcers. His time will come.
Deena should stick to running, very dry tone and no excitement compared to men.
As anyone who watched Chicago this morning knows, Toni Reavis was on fire during the broadcast.
Before I saw this thread, I wanted to start a thread to see if we could compile Reavis' best quotes because we may never see another performance like this from a road-race announcer. Reavis was offering such classic commentary (occasional cursing, references to Wanjiru's balls) that people on the boards were wondering if he was drunk.
We better record this moment because I think there's a good chance Reavis gets fired by NBC after this performance (ironically also his best performance out of many good performances).
I'll start off with a couple quotes that I actually wrote down as I watched the race and was supposed to be getting splits:
Referring to Kebede with 4 miles to go:
"He's back on the horse, but he ain't whipping the horse yet!"
As Kebede pushes the pace:
"Kebede's just taking a baseball bat to these guys!"
Referring to Merga (who, on cue, stopped about 22 miles in and DNF'd)
"Merga deserves prize money and pace money because he'll drive them to a fast pace but he has the courtesy not to win."
I don't have the "balls" quote because I was so shocked that I heard him say balls (referring to Wanjiru's) that I forgot what he said.
All of these quotes were also basically screamed at the top of Reavis' lungs so that by the end of the race he had no voice (but was still, I might add, screaming)
Looking forward to the responses
I hope you're wrong about NBC firing Reavis. When you consider what they put on TV these days, the word "BALLS" can hardly ruffle the American public's feathers. It will be interesting to see the backlash in any case. He might just get a boost professionally.
I like when Ed asked him if he thought some of the guys that fell off pace might come back...he said,"OH HELL NO!!"
I was hilarious!!
I think the 'balls' quote was something to effect of "This guy has footballs!" when Wanjiru was kicking.
I also remember an awesome comment shortly after the baseball one that had something to do with a head wound that won't stop bleeding. Does anyone remember this?
Yeah the head wound one was awesome but I can't remember the exact wording. It was a metaphor for one of the early surges, something like "when it hits, there's blood everywhere."
northern boy wrote:
His enthusiasm added a lot of excitement to an already exciting race. Makes me wonder why he doesn't have a more prominent role on national broadcasts. It's just a bunch of skinny guys running around if you don't know what you're watching.
Absolutely right. Toni has given LDR a voice for more than 30 years.
An announcer with some "foot-balls".
Toni mentioned "balls" two different times. The first time was just a "he's got balls" type reference. The second was a similar quote using "footballs" instead.
was it tony that compared Wanjiru to a linebacker because of his legs relative to his competitors??
i found that laughable
My favorite Toni Reavis line was something about "He (Kebede) just can't seem to put a stake through this guys heart!"
I guess Toni had Halloween on his mind.
Just a side note: Toni Reavis is a sub 3:00 marathoner, so he speaks from experience.