Who is the idiot "tom" who is commentating with Ato bolton?

Here's what I posted in another thread regarding NBC's American TV commentary:

It's absurd how dumbed-down the commentary is for most of the races. Tonight I watched the TV broadcast after watching the Internet broadcast exclusively for like five days and I can hardly stand how uninformative and simplistic most of the analysis is. I'm not hating on the people so much as I'm sure they're doing what they're told, but there is nearly zero interesting context provided for most of the action and whenever there is a big in a race, it's just, "and here we have the start of the (event name), it's (big name), out of the block... there's (another top contender), but it's (big name)... And down the home straightaway! It's (big name). And there's the gold medal (said with little hype)."

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I see someone in this thread beat me to a spot on Hammond impersonation.

The bottom line is Hanmond has his job because he has a great voice. I'm sure he works hard at what he does, but he just doesn't have the passion or the insightful, nuanced commentary for the sport. That can only come from, at minimum, several years of really loving track and field and it cannot be faked with a booming, epic voice (which he does have) or by reading some facts off notecards.

Given how long he has been commentating track, I would have thought he would have developed some of that love of the sport and sophisticated analytical ability, but it seems like he never will. Whether that's something inherent in him, lack of effort, or the result of directions coming down from the top ("keep it simple and just keep yelling about Bolt and whatever Americans are in the race!"), I have no idea, but I do hope a change is made for the sake of the sport. I think track would immediately impress and intrigue more people if they just let the Internet team take the reins.

?.......?? wrote:

He's like the pilot on "Airplane."

"So Jimmy, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"

You have won letsrun. Thank you for this perfect comment.

Said It Before wrote:As bad as Tom may be, Ato and Sonja are the absolute worst. Their commentary is pedestrian, and their speech patterns and over-annunciation is absolutely grating.

Completely wrong.

Boldon is the best guy on NBC, followed by Hutchings. SRR is new at the job and working on her smoothness but has lots of insight into what is going on and is very personable. Trey Hardy has also done a good job despite being new as an analyst. Hardy knows his stuff and isn't as sour as Dwight Stones. I think SRR and Hardy will both work out well for NBC.

Hammond is a good announcer for horse races, but terrible with track. He plainly is not doing the preparation necessary to know who he is watching, what is happening in front of him, and what it means. You can't just bring in a guy for big meets who ignores the sport rest of the time and expect him to do a good job.

Tom Hammond is a poor man's Jerry Gergich.

Yeah, I think Ato is solid. He is severely hamstrung by having to tiptoe around Hammond. If they got Hutchings and Ato together and rely on Hutchings for distance and Ato for sprints, I think the commentary would be great.

I am liking Trey Hardee so far - genuine and knowledgeable and the hype he brings is believable.

Neigh to Tom wrote:

Boldon is the best guy on NBC, followed by Hutchings

Just like a Gold medalist at the Special Olympics.

Everything about NBC is vomitous.

[quote]Sweet Nell Fenwick wrote:

To be fair, maybe he's impressive as a commentator of other sports. That I don't know./quote]

Believe it or not, he is even worse in figure skating. He finally retired from announcing that sport after Sochi, and has been replaced by Terry Gannon.

Intergalactic wrote:

Yeah, I think Ato is solid. He is severely hamstrung by having to tiptoe around Hammond. If they got Hutchings and Ato together and rely on Hutchings for distance and Ato for sprints, I think the commentary would be great.

I am liking Trey Hardee so far - genuine and knowledgeable and the hype he brings is believable.

Tom Hammond isn't that bad, but he did get the decathlon 2nd and 3rd crossed up.

Trey Hardee is good. He's new and there was some awkward timing and pauses, but he was energetic and knowledgeable, didn't over-talk, didn't fake laugh or try to talk like a DJ, and pretty much only talked about himself when prompted.

Ato is real good if a bit authoritative and a bit verbose at times. Was it me, or was he harsh about Prandini?

Neigh to Tom wrote:

Said It Before wrote:As bad as Tom may be, Ato and Sonja are the absolute worst. Their commentary is pedestrian, and their speech patterns and over-annunciation is absolutely grating.

Completely wrong.

I'm not wrong; not even close to being wrong. The problem is that your mere opinion is inexplicably biased, flawed and in disagreement with my factual statement. Try to be objective and learn to know the difference.

Ato is terrible. His so-called insight might be valuable to someone who just crawled out from under a rock for the first time in 100 years, but otherwise he doesn't add anything that your garden variety couch potato wouldn't be able to easily deduce. Just because he spits out "analysis" in an over-excited tone doesn't lend credibility to the information.

elephino wrote:

Tom Hammond isn't that bad, but he did get the decathlon 2nd and 3rd crossed up.

Trey Hardee is good. He's new and there was some awkward timing and pauses, but he was energetic and knowledgeable, didn't over-talk, didn't fake laugh or try to talk like a DJ, and pretty much only talked about himself when prompted.

Ato is real good if a bit authoritative and a bit verbose at times. Was it me, or was he harsh about Prandini?

Tom Hammond is that bad, man. Have you listened to the online broadcast at all? The amount of helpful context, insightful analysis of performances, and genuine appreciation for what is happening is on a completely different level. Tom Hammond literally just reads the names of the favorites and the Americans off a piece of paper.

I have a vague recollection of the Prandini thing - what did Ato say?

I actually like Trey. He was great talking about pole vault. He has a ways to go, sometimes leaving commentary short (maybe some like that), and relying on similar phrases a bit too much, but I like him.

Kenny Albert has done a very good job. Did he announce on any of the college cable channels he has done a solid job.

SRR has been taking voice lessons for sure,she will smooth out.

Both Tom and Ato are L.A. dweebs

Noted: thanks for posting the details,

.... and that was just one of many mistakes. In the 400m he said that the US runner, Merritt, was way ahead using his 200m speed. You could see Van Neikirk maintaining the separation down the backstretch.

I agree that Kenny Albert, Marv Albert's son, is really good for general commentary. He does his homework and lets the action take center stage instead of his voice. Hutchings, Dwight Stones and Trey Hardee are excellent color commentators in my opinion. I am not a fan or Hammond or Bolden at all. The jury is still out on Sonia Richards. She was an awesome athlete and I think she will become much better as she gains experience and confidence in the broadcast booth.