we will be fine without

I have written about the limited number of households that are able to see the Dodgers on television. And I have written about how we could have chosen the provider that offers the Dodgers, but we didn’t, for a variety of reasons.

I have therefore not been able to listen to Dodger broadcaster Joe Davis. Joe did the majority of road games for the Dodgers on television last year. This year he will be doing the majority of games, period on TV. This due, of course, to the retirement of Vin Scully. Charter Communications, operating under the Spectrum brand, broadcasts the Dodger games and owns the distribution rights. They decided to allow KTLA channel 5 to broadcast ten games in April and May, mostly to convince viewers to drop their provider and switch to Spectrum. So I got hear Joe Davis a few times during the past week.

I agree with Los Angeles Times baseball writer Bill Shaikin who stated, “Davis delivers a clean broadcast.” True, as far as it goes. But Shaikin goes on to write:

And yet, we couldn’t help thinking there was something generic about it all. Scully was the last master of the one-man booth. He talked to us, not to a broadcast partner, regaling us with stories of ice skating with Jackie Robinson, and the history of beards, and did you know that Uggla was Swedish for owl?

Absolutely. Davis is not Scully. He shouldn’t and he won’t try to be. As Shaikin pointed out, Davis works will with color commentator and Dodger pitching great Orel Hershiser. But the two have very similar voices, and it was sometimes hard to tell who was talking, although if it was a game call it was obviously Davis.

Shaikin wrote, “The Dodgers broadcast sounded good Monday, and at the same time it sounded just like that of every other team.” Exactly. (Except for the Giants. They have Jon Miller on the radio and Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow on television.)

Terry and I will be fine without the Dodgers on TV. We can listen to Charlie Steiner and Rick Monday on the radio, and I personally think that they are the more enjoyable team to listen to.

That will work.