For those of you out of towners who can't watch the game on local TV, or have an idiot cable system that won't carry the Shootout package, there is only one other choice for live broadcast of the Revs. Radio. For a couple of games now, I have the dubious "pleasure" of listening to the Revs radio broadcast with Jon Meterparel. He is so bad that he makes the worst American soccer broadcasters that you could possibly think of sound like Martin Tyler by comparison. He never does what any pxp guy must do in any fast moving sport (hockey, basketball, etc.), namely state who's got the ball, where are they, and what are they doing with it. I defy anyone who is listening to his broadcasts to have the faintest clue about what is actually happening on the pitch. In addition to failing miserably at his most elemental task, he also made the following comments from Dallas on Saturday night: - repeatedly referred to Joe-Max Moore, as Joe Max-Moore. Didn't we solve this problem in 1996? - gives location of players on the pitch by referring to the yard markers on the Dragon Stadium plastic grass. - makes several Ted Kennedy drinking jokes, with ice-in-glass sound effects, no less. - praises new film "Real Cancun" and thinks it should be nominated for academy award. - offers music critique of LL Cool J (who is most definitely NOT in the building). This is perhaps the greatest combination of incompetence and unprofessionalism I have heard in the telecast or broadcast of soccer that I can remember. I defy anyone in Revs management or WEEI management to listen to an entire match with him at the mic and say, with a straight face, that this guy should be broadcasting professional soccer. Can't we do better than this?
      It must run in the family: his sister was no great shakes (pun intended) as a GM. -G
At least we don't have to see his rodent face on tv any more. The guy is a fool, as any listener to WEEI well knows.
I don't remember this one...but isn't it sort of out of bounds for a Boston guy to make Kennedy jokes in Dallas? The Max-Moore thing was something that grated on me. That seems to be something that could be solved by reading the media avisory before the game. Given the was they butcher some of the Spanish names, I guess it wouldn't suprise me to find that they don't bother with that. Ted.
While we're on the topic of mispronouncing names, isn't Hernandez's first name supposed to be pronounced like it is, Daniel, and not Danielle? (as I often heard it pronounced on Saturday) Also, I can't seem to remember this Meterparel character for saying such stupid things when he was on the TV broadcast crew...but thats just ridiculous if he covered all those "soccer related" topics on the radio broadcast.
Actually, the proper pronunciation is "dan-YELL", according to the 2003 Media Guide. So they got that right on Saturday.
I believe he was their 'intrepid side line reporter', so his opportunity to say anything was minimized. In any case, I vote we tie him to Eric Frede and ship 'em both off to Syria or North Korea or whoever we're mad at these days.
If so, shouldn't his last name be "air NAHN des"? It does sound kind of wierd when they give an hispanic pronounciation to his first name, but not his last.
Meterparel makes me long for the days of Butch Stearns as the Revs' play-by-play man. And no, that's not a good thing.
OK, Ted Kennedy may have set himself up at times for jokes like these, but how many years has it been since he's had a drink? Regardless of whether he's a public figure, it's still a pretty cheap shot. Why not make a few yuks about Diego Serna and the Medellien Cartel, or that Dan-YELL Hernandez should be starring in the remake of the movie "Fatal Attraction" since he deals with stalkers so well. Or how about a few religious jokes about Christian Scientists? Or that JMM defies his Native American heritage, since he doesn't sit in his teepee on the reservation and drink whiskey all day long... Ha ha ha, that Meter sure is a funny guy! Howard Stern is getting bored with his gig, so with a wit like that, he's sure to get his big break soon enough... So in addition to bitching about him here, can we set up a petition to rid the Revs of this moron? Or at the very least, let that little imbecile know that if he doesn't get fired, all we want from him is to tell us who has the ball, what is he doing with it, and where on the field without using football yard markers (he's done this on fields without markers too). Maybe an e-mail campaign is in order to WEEI and the Revs, to let them know we won't put up with an idiot like this. Some people criticized Doug Chapman last year, and for whatever faults he may have had, he never disrespected the game nor his audience. I'd rather have a bland announcer who has shortcomings than someone who has so little respect for his sport and his audience that he feels it necessary to do the kind of crap we hear in every Meterparel broadcast. Tom
Re: Re: Meterparel Must Go! doug would be perfect for the radio gig - miles better than meterparel. that would be the perfect way for him to polish his 'game' if he wanted to get into the tv thing again. problem is, meterparel is probably already on the payroll, so it porbably doesn't cost them too much to have him do the rev games. i'll bet it goes something like this... hey meter, while you are up, get me a cup of coffee, drop off this drycleaning, and uh yeah, do the revs game. extra starch on the shirts this time! with all the clowning around - meterparel should go after the willie whistle gig, i think that has been vacant for years. - as for kennedy jokes, they are fair game, in dallas or anywhere. anyone as fat as him who thinks he is entitled to as much of my paycheck as he can take to buy his way into office, can just go drive off a bridge with his girlfriend.
Re: Re: Re: Meterparel Must Go! If we're stuck with Meter for this season, at the very least, a petition or e-mail flood could get him to tone down the stupidity. We can only hope. If this were one of those political talk shows on Sunday morning, Kennedy criticism is fair game. His views on taxes, defense, ejoo-makashin, whatever. Even in those circles, you wouldn't see anyone with an IQ higher than Rush Limbaugh make a personal attack on his drinking, which hasn't been a part of his life for several years. That is clearly not "fair game." Not that I'm surprised, but your comments are akin to chiding Mitt Romney that he should only be allowed one wife at a time, if your real disagreement is with his cutting social programs. Tom
Re: Re: Re: Re: Meterparel Must Go! i didn't want to disapoint you - i do agree that there are plenty of "legit" reasons to criticize pols from both sides ( and the ones in that stand firmly on the fence as well) - there is no need to go below the belt. it is more a 'cult of personality' - those types of comments are less than political, they are more aimed at the 'celebrity' of the pol, than the ideology. could have been a joke about madonna or howard stern for that matter. besides everyone, probably mitt included, knows that the utopian ideal of having many wives is much like communism - it doesn't work in the real world, and just causes collective suffering. and i agree that political comentary from soccer commentators (or actors and singers, or especially me or any other BS.com poster) is as worthless, if not more sot than rush's most recent rant or carville's latest diatribe. i take your quasi-politcal comments with a grain of salt - to take mine more seriously is not playing fair! on to more intersting topics- what the heck is doug up to these days? i have't seen any columns from him on MLSnet recently...
There are no John Motson's or Martin Tyler's or Andy Gray's or Alan Hansen's available to TV in the U.S. of A. What does it say when someone like Tommy Smyth is actually taken seriously by some people? Meterparel is bad because he disrespects the game and has shown little interest in learning anything about it over the past few seasons. It is just a gig for him while he waits for a Red Sox announcer to pass away. He and Woody Feldman were the worst broadcast team the Revolution ever had last season. Feldman may be an empty suit, but at least he shows he cares about the game. Meterparel doesn't care, and it shows. WEEI has given a sport they love to whip, if they mention it at all, their own whipping boy as a broadcaster. Very sad.
Mostly, it says that they are new to the game, at least on TV. I too liked Tommy Boy for a while; then I grew out of it. Nonetheless, it does sound like it wouldn't be hard to upgrade from Weaselparel, even here!
If anyone wants to rant to WEEI, you can e-mail Jason Wolfe, the program director, at Jwolfe@entercom.com. I sent mine in, with many of the points I made in this and other threads. I would encourage people to send theirs in with their own pet criticisms, just to not make it sound like one person wrote an e-mail and 100 people copy/pasted it. Do your own thing in your own words. Tom
It probably should be, but the Media Guide only specifies how to say his first name, not his last. Go figure.
Meter being the joke of WEEI is one thing Calling Harvard sports, fine Calling pro sports......the guys on local access do better As for Teddy K.....I'll quote 'Risky Business' " Who's the U-Boat commander ?? "
If he ever landed a Red Sox announcing job, there would be a riot in front of the WEEI studios to get him off the air.
He will never get a job of that caliber for the very reasons people of enumerated earlier: - His lack of professionalism - His failure to learn anything about the game and the team he covers and on and on it could go. He is just content to play the part of the fool on EEI's morning show. I would also consider that you guys make your gripes known to Jonathan Kraft, who, after all, is overseeing the Kraft's investment in soccer.