I can't believe the NYRR hired a guy who could barely speak English to be one of their lead commentators for NYC Marathon

wejo wrote:

NERunner03533 wrote:

Does everyone who lives in the US who watched the race speak pristine English?

That isn’t the point. He wasn’t very good and his English is poor for a lead analyst on ESPN. I’m not sure what he brought to the table.

Did you watch the broadcast?

Big papi doesn’t have great English but he is really good as an analyst on Major League Baseball broadcasts. But he’d never be the lead analyst on the game. He is on the post game show.

Mike Jones wrote:

Does it come with a happy ending wrote:

Who?

Mike Jones

ESPN is a joke wrote:

If they simply wanted to hire a great Hispanic announcer for the color commentary job, they'd have hired Des Linden.

If they wanted a legendary runner for whom English wasn't their native language, they'd have hired Bernard Lagat or Meb Keflezighi.

If they wanted to have the worse broadcast possible, then you'd do what they did - hire Juan Luis Barrios.

Can someone explain the logic behind this? Like what adult on planet earth who is on charge of US broadcast would think this is a good idea?

Why would you hire a no-name person who struggles with English as one of your key color commentators? Why would he be hired over Des, Meb or Lagat? I'd add in Rupp but we know why he'd be hired over Rupp.

juamarti wrote:

A few days ago, Barrios just signed a contract with New Balance, and since NB is one of the main sponsors of the NYC event along with TATA CS, they simply put him there in the broadcast. He is twice Olympian and knows about long distance event as a 2:10 marathoner. I thinks He was not bad at all.

didn't watch wrote:

Was it Rojo?

douglas burke wrote:

Nonstop bad jokes wrote:

I’ll take him all day over John Anderson. Just awful.

That is a blast from the past, I remember him winning the Boston Marathon in I think 1973, I think he spells his name Jon, though glad he is still around and broadcasting, so still involved with running.

ESPN is a joke wrote:

If they simply wanted to hire a great Hispanic announcer for the color commentary job, they'd have hired Des Linden.

If they wanted a legendary runner for whom English wasn't their native language, they'd have hired Bernard Lagat or Meb Keflezighi.

If they wanted to have the worse broadcast possible, then you'd do what they did - hire Juan Luis Barrios.

Can someone explain the logic behind this? Like what adult on planet earth who is on charge of US broadcast would think this is a good idea?

Why would you hire a no-name person who struggles with English as one of your key color commentators? Why would he be hired over Des, Meb or Lagat? I'd add in Rupp but we know why he'd be hired over Rupp.

watching the watchers wrote:

Is the app stream with Des/Galen available for replay or is it lost forever now?

I have no idea why broadcasters do that "one and done" all the time, not just races but every live event, it's a valuable commodity for long-term viewers.

Sting wrote:

Bring back Larry Rawson.