New Year’s suggestions for Maine sportscasters

Instead of calling them New Year’s resolutions, maybe we should just be a little more honest and pragmatic and call them New Year’s wishful intentions or improbable goals.

With that in mind, here are a few that may or may not fall within the realm of unlikely accomplishments for 2005 in the television-radio-Internet-sports world.

. Given the continuing trend of “outsourcing” or downsizing local TV and radio news sportscasters or eliminating sports departments altogether, it would be nice to see those involved in this trend to at least pay attention to daily scores and results. It’s not that difficult or expensive to put the Bangor, Brewer or Southern Aroostook boys and/or girls basketball scores on, even if it’s just part of a graphical scoreboard which heralds the end of the “sportscast.”

A couple of stations do a fairly good job of that in this area, but sometimes even they appear to either not have enough personnel to do this task as completely as it should be done, give it short shrift because of other breaking news, or blow it off entirely. Particularly frustrating is the practice of providing few, if any, scores from central, northern or eastern Maine on a weekend newscast emanating from a station outside of Bangor. If you’re going to promote the “local” nature of your newscast, back it up with local scores. Make sure scores from Portland area schools are accompanied by those from the Augusta, Bangor and Presque Isle areas as well.

Like it or not, Maine is a provincial state with sports fans who can be very narrowly focused when it comes to their sports interests, and let’s face it, anyone can get the latest Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins or Celtics news on ESPN, New England Sports Network, Fox Sports Net New England, the radio, the Internet, their cell phone, or even a pager. Why not provide them with something they won’t get from those sources: namely local high school and college scores and news?

. Yeah, yeah… I know. It’s an annual gripe, but since it’s showing no signs of going away it bears repeated griping.

There are enough Stuart Scotts and Kenny Maynes in the sportscasting world today … Too many, actually. So stop with the bad jokes, the “signature” calls, and the bad use of slang when calling a home run, a key basket, a touchdown or a big play. More often than not, those “signature” calls only signify that the person using them is lacking talent, confidence, or original ideas.

Want a sportscaster to emulate? Try watching clips of Dick Enberg, who used a no-nonsense approach to play-calling and became well-known, well-respected, and well-liked for the most simple of expressions. When a big play was developing, the veteran TV play-by-play man would simply utter an “Oh my!” and continue on in describing the action. That’s the way it should be done. “Oh my” is my kind of call. Scott’s “Boo-yeah!” on the other hand, deserves to be roundly booed. In fairness to Scott, his “cool as the other side of the pillow” line is clever and crafty, as long as it’s not overused.

. This applies more to local radio announcers than TV personalities, but it’s a good thing for everyone to keep in mind. When calling high school games, it’s fine to question strategy or play selection during a sportscast, but publicly pillorying a coach or player is too extreme. These coaches and players are not earning their living from the sport. In fact, they receive nothing other than the occasional award and a school letter or, in the case of most coaches, a small check. They’re not professionals, so don’t critique them as such. That’s not to say announcers should be homers. Even Johnny Most would wear on Celtics fans after a while and nobody should go to that extreme, but there is a good balance to be struck and announcers are well served by finding it.

Happy sports viewing, listening and playing to all of you fans, athletes, coaches and officials alike. This year will be a tough one to beat after witnessing the unprecedented success of the Patriots and Red Sox, but that’s the allure of the promise of a new year. You never know.

Happy New Year.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or aneff@bangordailynews.net