TBK-Light.com

Yep, you're spot on. It sucks, but it's the truth.

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Gael

It feels like Bestwick has gone from pretty good in his NBC years, to borderline unbearable at times since going to ESPN.

Not Marty Reid/Jerry Punch levels of badness, mind you, but he's getting there.

ESPN has this overly serious, dramatic, sparse commentary idea that they request their commentators are told to uphold from what I have heard. Not just in racing but all their sports. It's the worst.

There's definitely a difference in style between the "calm, "this race is happening underneath us and we'll just talk about what's on track in between pit road updates, strategy speculation, previewing the later stages of the race and cueing up ad breaks" compared to the European style of "talk about every little thing that's happening, describe how the car is going through the corner, how close he is to the next car, what position he's in, the gap in time," live descriptions.

Early in the race on the first restart Jimmie and Jeff went side by side for about 4 laps and (despite missing the start of it due to ads, OF COURSE) and the commentators reacted as if they were on the parade lap, saying "look at this racing, jamie little talked about the chances of this outside groove being not the place to be early on but it seems Jimmie is staying with Jeff" "Yes Jeff also said he'd be trying to go hard right from the off and hopefully the track would come to him and he'd also have a good car for the long runs as well as the short restarts..." etc etc

All the time my mind was screaming at them "C'MON GUYS THIS IS SIDE BY SIDE RACING, APPRECIATE THIS MORE! TELL US HOW AWESOME THIS IS AND HOW THANKFUL WE SHOULD BE FOR IT, IT'S SO RARE DON'T REACT TO IT LIKE THEY'RE IN A CAR PARK AT A SHOPPING CENTRE...THEY COULD CRASH AT ANY MOMENT AND THAT WOULD HAVE HUGE CHAMPIONSHIP IMPLICATIONS ARRGHHHHHH!!"

*sigh* But they've always been like that.
At least Mike "emphasises the wrong car during big crashes" Joy shows some excitement in his voice.

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

*flying horse-faced catch-fence rebound 360 pike*



AND THAT TORE UP THE FRONT OF NEWMAN'S CAR!

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Solid Snake's Twitter
RantingYoof

In the past 5 years, Ralph Shaheen's criminally-short tenure in the TNT booth in '09 has likely come the closest to sounding like a person who actually gives a shit about what's happening in the race.

Ralph Shaheen was EXCELLENT in the booth in '09. Why they stuck high pitched Adam Alexander in there is beyond me.

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Go Miami Dolphins!
Go New York Yankees!
Go New York Rangers!

I only hope it was a personal matter of Shaheen just feeling more comfortable as a pit road analyst, and not TNT completely dropping the ball on a great opportunity.

Seriously, this right here:

That finish combined with Ralph Shaheen on the call was pure gold.

It would have been great if Kyle wasn't talking over Ralph and Wally yelling "THERE HE GOES OOHHH NO"

Love this Busch North crash called by Shaheen as well:

Haha, nice. He says genuine emotion. The only time we hear this now is in the pre-race show review of the last race. With a post added audio. If you need a post added audio to fix things to look better, why not put Ralph or at least use this approach live!?

Shaheen had the most grating voice

This x 1000. Glad I'm not the only one who thinks that.

So you'd rather Adam Alexander? He sounds like he has a sinus infection and was just kicked in the balls when he talks.

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Go Miami Dolphins!
Go New York Yankees!
Go New York Rangers!

^^^haha so true.

I like Ralph. I grew up listening to him, so it all sounds natural to me.

Half the time with Adam Alexander, it sounds like he doesn't really give a shit. With Sheheen, you knew the moment was awesome. You don't even have to look at the video in the '09 Daytona clip to know that it was the most exciting moment of the year. You just have to listen to the audio.

I wonder if Bill Weber's still got that magician gig...

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-Joe.
Atlanta United FC | Cincinnati Reds | Atlanta Falcons | Tennessee Titans

Who ever said Adam Alexander was good? No, Sheheen's a great guy, knows his stuff, doesn't stutter when something major is going on, shows great emotion. All that is fantastic, but his voice isn't suited for play by play. It's hard on the ears for 400-500 miles. Pit reporting, sure, but not in the booth.

But that's just me.

Adam Alexander, I'm not even sure he has any business doing RaceHub (or whatever show he hosts).

I've always been a fan of Ralph. Seems like a good guy and he'll actually respond to questions online.

[youtubeidiot]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCBeOqK7ldA[/youtubeidiot]

Ralph did NHRA for a while too...