I have been reading a lot about the Mid Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) on blogs lately and I must say I am a bit discouraged by what is being said. I just can’t figure out why there is so much negativity circling around the station. I get that it is owned by Peter Angelos and some folks aren’t big fans of him, but is that really a reason for such animosity towards a station that is trying their best to provide us baseball fans with the ability to simply watch baseball?!
I had a long season last year without MASN, as my cable provider didn’t offer it. It was frustrating to know a game was on and not be able to watch it. This year we 3 girls have been dedicated, serious fans, but we are still learning the game; the commentary provided by both Bob and Don has been extremely valuable. I learn something new every game and let’s face it, can you ever know everything there is to know about this game? In addition, I enjoy the Nats Xtra post game show just as much. Both Johnny and Ray are charismatic and positive even after a loss, and compliment each other nicely. They are also two of the nicest men I have ever met, and are very receptive to Nats fans.
As for the commercials on the channel, come people lets realize that these are meant to sell the team to viewers. They are entertaining and send a positive message about our growing team. Also for the inconsistencies during broadcasts and misspellings, those things happen everywhere. I tend to shake those off because MASN offers something greater, the ability for me to watch lots of baseball. I also feel for those folks in North Carolina who don’t have access to baseball. I know it must be frustrating. I dealt with it last season, but at least I had the ability to go to home games. These guys in NC don’t have that luxury. If I can help out by signing a petition or encourage the people in North Carolina to speak up to Time Warner, I’m all for it!
On days when I can’t make it to RFK or the team is away, I thoroughly enjoy kicking back on the sofa and tuning into the game with Bob and Don and our boys. I suggest we relax a bit, let the little things slide and embrace what MASN gives us, a lot of baseball! If this season has taught Nats fans anything it should be that a positive attitude goes a long way. Let’s take a page from the book of Manny Acta and his team and appreciate what we have.
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June 27th, 2007 at 11:34 am
I feel bad for NC fans who had baseball taken away from them, it is not a good thing. I disagree with the notion that Peter Angelo$’ MASN is doing its best to provide baseball fans the ability to watch games though.
I have several reasons for my vitriol towards Angelo$. The most obvious is his desire to keep the Nation’s Capital from having its own baseball team. His actions and his words indicate that he believes that he is exclusively entitled to our loyalty and money and if we are not willing to provide that, we should be punished.
As for MASN, I do not believe that Angelo$ has shown good faith to Nationals or Orioles fans. Since he is being heavily subsidized by the Nationals (90% of the television rights) it is reasonable to expect that he will use that subsidy to provide broadcasts that comparable to those of other MLB teams; thus far, he has not. The fact that nearly two seasons of Nats broadcasts were unavailable to fans like you and me occurred on his watch is an even bigger source of my contempt.
The sanctimonious attitude displayed by Angelo$ and his MASN flaks since 2005 is duplicitous and insulting. The frequent use of the term “monopolist” in regards to cable companies is one example. Angelo$ is a failed monopolist in a sense, no longer having the only major league team between Atlanta and Philadelphia, so him calling others that strikes me as the pot calling the kettle black.
If Angelo$ wants to destroy the franchise he owns, that is his business and Baltimore’s loss. If he wants to destroy the Washington franchise (which he doesn’t own) that makes it my business. I waited over 25 years for a hometown team (many waited even longer) and I refuse to let Angelo$ off the hook for what he has done or help him with his astroturf-roots campaign.
June 27th, 2007 at 11:41 am
some people cant be happy with what they have.
as far as a critique of the announcers go, Don Sutton is a very good “color guy”, but Bob Carpenter is ordinary at best. i honestly don’t watch Nats Xtra, but Johnny Holliday is a pro. Ray Knight does seem like a nice guy, and he signed a ball for me one day, but he adds very little insight and says “we” too much instead of “Nats”.
i suppose that’s the biggest overriding critique of the whole broadcasting operation; it seems like an arm of the P.R. Department rather than independant journalism.
there are worse things though. my biggest problem with MASN is the fluctuation in volume. the sound increases and decreases in random spots during the telecast. and it’s not my cable either. MASN and MASN2 are the only channels it happens on, and others have commented as well.
but it beats not having the Nats on tv at all like 2005!
June 27th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Steph, I have to agree with you. Just like the Nats, MASN seems to be growing. It’s a young regional sports network and it has the misfortune of having two last-place teams to broadcast, and I have to believe that they are doing their best, though it does seem way too “Baltimore-centric” for my tastes at times.
While I am HARDLY a Peter Angelo$ fan, I know that he, too, will be gone someday, if he doesn’t sell the team first, and I hope that, in time, the Nats will focus their priorities on improving conditions with MASN. Right now, they are laser-focused on the new stadium, so we might have to wait a while.
It does annoy the bajeezus out of me as a DirecTV subscriber to have to figure out each day which channel the Nats are on. Some Fridays, they are on local channel 20 and blacked out on MASN, some Saturdays they are on 20 also. Some days, it’s MASN2. That drives me batty. A couple of times last year, I set my DVR to record MASN instead of channel 20 and got two hours of blackout screen (Aargh!) Maybe I’m wrong, but do ANY other MLB teams play roulette with their game broadcasts this way? Don’t Braves fans find their team on TBS no matter what? Don’t Cubs fans tune to WGN (or whatever the channel is) in Chicago without thinking twice?
I feel badly for the North Carolina fans. I need to re-read the whole issue with them, but I hope that DirecTV is picking up new customers there by the score.
As for Bob Carpenter, I really like the guy and he’s a BIG improvement over Mel Proctor from 2005. I’ve seen Bob prepare for a game, he works very hard, but makes it look easy. I, too, learn something new from Bob and Don almost every night, which is one reason why I record even the games that I attend, so I can enjoy their broadcast later. Yes, even the losses.
I get annoyed by the fans who dislike Carpenter because he isn’t (fill in name of famous or legendary play-by-play man here) Well, maybe I’m just a dumb fan who doesn’t know any better, but I’m perfectly happy with Bob Carpenter, and I think that we’re lucky to have him. So he brings up the Cardinals a little too often for you? Big deal, they’re a class organization with a storied history and I hope that the Nats can be where they are someday. Would you rather listen to someone like the guys on Fox who mention the Yankees with every other breath? (barf…) I have to believe that we could do a WHOLE lot worse than Bob Carpenter.
Knight and Holliday are both enjoyable to watch. I learn something from Ray Knight almost every day, too.
Yes, I get tired of the ads for Baltimore businesses which mean nothing to me, and if I have to see that “Baseball Bloopers” video ad one more time, I might take a bat to my TV set, but those Geico ads with Lauren Wallace always make me laugh. As Lauren Wallace says, “Whatever!”, it’s a small price to pay for getting to see my team on TV.
If you don’t like the MASN broadcast, then do what Redskin fans have done for years now: turn down the T.V. volume and turn on the radio. Charlie Slowes and Dave Jaggler are fun to listen to.
June 27th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
I wonder where you’ve read that criticism!
WFY covered the “why Angelos and MASN’s corporate structure suck” angle.
I like Don. I just don’t like Bob. I’ve said repeatedly that for me, it’s mostly a style thing. But lately, it’s gone beyond that as he’s screwed some things up. He’s not a terrible announcer by any means, and he certainly does work hard at what he does. I just don’t like the way he does it, just the way I may not like a particular band that you might love.
Sure, given the choices of having no baseball on TV or watching MASN, I’m taking MASN 1,000 times out of 1,000. But that doesn’t mean that the quality of their product is very good. If you compare them to other broadcasts around the country, they’re nowhere near the top. Yeah, they’re growing, and they’ve improved since ‘05.
But they’re not there yet. And some of the things they’ve done have regressed, and it’s frustrating to watch.
June 27th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
I don’t see it as a matter of negativity. It’s just an opinion.
I just find MASN’s work generally amateurish. Maybe it’ll get better; I hope so. I’m certainly happy to have the coverage in my area, but that gratitude shouldn’t really affect whether I find the product impressive or not.
I find Sutton great and Carpenter … significantly less than great. Holliday’s a pro, of course, and is becoming more baseball savvy by the week. Ray Knight is Ray Knight. He’s no better and no worse than when he debuted on Baseball Tonight in 1990.
The production values are abysmal, the cross-promotion between the Nats and O’s content is ham-fisted, and … yes, the smack-talk commercials are worth their weight in mockery and so much more.
Just callin’ it like I see it.
June 27th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
As has been said already, I think MASN is growing. Sutton is a huge step up from Wimpy last season and Darling the season before. I wonder if Carpenter will be here next season with his contract being up. Does anyone think there is a chance the Nats will pursue Sutton’s son eventually?
I like and am thankful for MASN even if it does help Angelos out. I think the criticism is good to an extent though as it pushes them to keep improving the product.
June 27th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
This is a great discussion. Sure MASN’s not perfect, but I can’t imagine living in NC and missing out on games all together.
Games on MASN are way better than no games at all; I think we all realize that.
I too happen to agree with you Steph - I enjoy Bob, Don, Ray and Johnny a great deal. I have learned so much, especially from Don, this season.
I totally feel the frustrations you’ve all mentioned, but I like the spirit of this discussion.
We all want what is best for Nats fans and because of last summer, I think we all know how frustrated they must be down in NC.
June 27th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Great post and great discussion about MASN! I don’t live in DC right now and it is awful having to go up to a bar that has DirectTV just to see the game, so everybody should be glad that the games are on local TV (most of the time :)) in the first place regardless of the content.
As for what I have seen of MASN, it seems pretty decent and it is still in its infancy so let’s let it progress and continue to evolve into a quality product.
June 27th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
I always find it funny when people critize announcers. My first thought is I wonder if these people ever played a sport. My second thought is, presuming they did, how much of the game do they truly know. Finally, I wonder if they would ever have the stones (read balls) to go out and announce a game… It’s not easy, just ask popular ESPN columnist Bill Simmons who did three WCC (Pepperdine and Gonzaga’s conference) games and said he was scared sh*tless and was surprised at how hard it was… and that was freaking WCC basketball games.
So lay-off the play-by-play guys… As for Peter Angelos, he is what he is, and you are never going to change him. And lets not act like MASN is Cablevision and providing Balitmore with a $200 million payroll..
I am right there with you StephH…
Jason
June 27th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Finally, I wonder if they would ever have the stones (read balls) to go out and announce a game… It’s not easy
Having known a big league play-by-play man all my life, I know more than most. That said, Carpenter’s work with the Nats is unimpressive — which is an unpleasant surprise to me, because I liked his ESPN work.
June 27th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Jason,
With all due respect… that’s a lame excuse. Of COURSE it’s a hard job. Of COURSE I can’t do it.
I can’t play shortstop on a major league level, but I can tell you that Felipe Lopez is pretty poor defensively.
I don’t have the qualifications to be President, but I can tell you my opinion on him or any other, despite never holding an elected office!
You don’t have to BE something to have an opinion on it. And if you can support the opinion with examples and comparisons, as most people here have, then it’s valid.
You might not AGREE with it, but you can’t dismiss it if it’s supported.
June 27th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
I think that it is important to remember something here with regards to the play-by-play announcing.
I believe that the Nationals wanted someone in the booth who wasn’t going to talk “over” fans heads, someone who would announce as though the viewers weren’t 100% baseball -educated, which is a safe bet for the D.C. market a couple of years ago.
Someone I know has written that they don’t like the way Carpenter talks “down” to the viewers, feeling that such announcing is insulting to the savvy Nats fan.
Well, I’m grateful for the nightly education I get and have gotten over the past 2.5 years. If we had some intense announcer who spoke in pure baseball jargon all the time, I’d have felt marginalized. The club wants to be inclusive, Stan Kasten has said so himself. They know they have the hard-core baseball fans, but they want to be welcoming, not intimidating, to the casual fan, the less-educated viewers. They want “Mom” who has to sit and watch the game with “Dad” and the boys to feel welcome and included.
Bob Carpenter does this very well. He’s not “intense”, he’s relaxed. He’s folksy without being boring, he has a pleasant timbre to his voice and a nice cadence, he knows his history and respects the game so very much.
And as I said before, they have the unenviable task of trying to make an entertaining broadcast out of the performance of a losing team. It’s GOT to be easier to do their job when the team is winning.
June 27th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Those are some good points, Joe.
Like I said, my initial dislike of Carpenter was based on style, and that’s a matter of opinion. He’s not a terrible announcer. I just don’t think he’s a very good one.
It’s probably worth pointing out, too, that Carpenter was not a hire of the current regime. MASN gave him a two-year deal before the Lerners took over.
June 27th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
My favorite MASN moment of the season so far was April 4th, the first win of the season. Game tied in the 9th, Da Meat Hook at the plate with the bases loaded — fly ball down the left field line, Marlins’ Josh Wilingham lets it drop hoping it would drift foul…but it’s fair! — winning run scores! — and MASN declares: “Grandslam!” Awesome.
But hey, we all make mistakes. For example, I just misspelled “Willingham”…