Nelson would be better if he were man of fewer words
I MOSTLY favor the analyses of ex-Yankees pitcher Jeff Nelson, provided we can find and/or watch the Yankees telecasts he’s assigned to work. He feeds us food for thought. The problem arises is that he continues to feed us when we’re no longer hungry.
He’s too often in the nasty habit of becoming Fox’s John Smoltz, who loses audiences by performing autopsies of every pitch. And too much too often makes for double-talk and viewer drowsiness.
Last weekend in Baltimore, a pitch that nearly hit Alex Verdugo in the head was curiously identified Nelson as “a sinking fastball.”
It’s TV, Jeff, sometimes just let it be TV.
Thanks for the laughs, Bob Newhart, the real kind, the clean kind and not the “Wooo!” substitutes for laughter following crudities that are commercially confused and sold as comedy.
Newhart, who was 94, provided sustaining proof that clean comedy is often far more funny — and creative — than the sound of flatulence.
I rediscovered the slow-beat, blank-look genius of Newhart on YouTube, often just after noon on Sundays thanks to the repetitive emptiness and phony laughter within NFL network pregame shows.
Speaking of unfunny comedians who rely on crudity, Kevin Hart for some superficial reason, remains a must-have addition to sports telecasts. He will join lead news anchor Lester Holt and
Snoop Dogg, gold medalist in the drug-arrests and weapons-possession events, within NBC/Peacock’s Olympics comeons and presentations.
Meanwhile, the world having become what it has been allowed and even invited to become, the Paris Olympics are likely to lose a fortune on just the employment and deployment of riot police and arson squads.