The Washington Nationals made a big statement when they fired Rob Dibble from their telecasts, unfortunately it was the wrong one. After Dibble made critical statements about the team's prized possession, Stephen Strasburg, Dibbs was removed from the broadcast booth by the team. At the time the MASN network claimed that Dibble had requested a few days off and that was the reason for his absence.

Obviously that was a lie.

The most egregious offense is that Dibble wasn't fired for cause. When he appeared on XM Radio and said "you can't have the cavalry come in and save your butt every time you feel a little stiff shoulder, sore elbow," only to have Strasburg diagnosed with needing Tommy John surgery a few days later, it was embarrassing but not a fireable offense. The team SHOULD have fired Dibbes long ago because he is an absolutely abysmal broadcaster.

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So here I am finishing up the last post on why MLB loves to pull videos down when this one rears it's beautiful little head. WATCH IT NOW BEFORE IT'S GONE. They really know a thing or two about calling a game over there Japan.

This post was supposed to be titled "Gaby Sanchez Goes Lex Luger on Nyjer Morgan" there was going to be a picture of a Lex Lugor action figure and it was going to be really fun. Then we were going to enjoy watching Morgan get what he had coming since he started barreling into catchers last week, culminating in last nights game against the Marlins when he separated Brett Hayes' shoulder.

But none of that is going to happen, since the MLB is scared of people seeing their product. Now all I can do is ask, "what gives?" It seems every other business in America has realized the value of viral advertising, choosing to consider this kind of publicity as a kind of free sample for their full-fledged product rather than copyright infringement. If you're mad at the idea that someone else might be selling ads on your content, figure out a damn way to make it yours but you're just THROWING MONEY AWAY if you actually pay some cubicle-monkey to e-mail cease and desist letters to YouTube around the clock.  Sadly, it's just another example of the disconnect between the Seligsaurus and the current generation of sportsfans.

It's the return of college football! I'm so excited it makes me want to spit all over the place.

The week one schedule and announcing assignments are provided for you below. I'll be at College Gameday on Saturday trying to figure out why I'm there and who I should root for. UNC might be without up to 16 of its players, but...yeah, LSU should probably win. For those of you wondering, Pammys will return and a note from your fearless leader emeritus should be posted at some point today explaining where he's taking his talents and why you're stuck with all the random names on the left for the time being.

Thursday, September 2

Presbyterian @ Wake Forest (ESPN3.com 6:30 p.m.) -- Ryan Rose & Warrick Dunn
Southeast Missouri State @ Ball State (7 p.m.) -- TBA
Rhode Island @ Buffalo (Time Warner Buffalo, 7 p.m.) -- Howard Simon, Ruben Brown
Hampton @ Central Michigan (7 p.m.) -- TBA
Murray State @ Kent State (7 p.m.) -- TBA
Marshall @ No. 2 Ohio State (Big Ten Network, 7:30 p.m.) -- Eric Collins, Chris Martin, Charissa Thompson
Florida A&M @ No. 13  Miami (FL) (ESPN3.com, 7:30 p.m.) -- Dave Weekley & Jeremy Bloom
Towson @ Indiana (Big Ten Network, 7:30 p.m.) -- Matt Devlin, Derek Rackley, Stacey Paetz
Norfolk State @ Rutgers (ESPN3.com, 7:30 p.m.) --  Dave Popkin & Drew Henson
Minnesota @ Middle Tennessee (ESPNU, 7:30 p.m.) -- Anish Shroff & Jay Walker
Southern Miss @ South Carolina (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.) --  Rece Davis, Craig James, Jesse Palmer and Jenn Brown
Florida Atlantic @ UAB (8 p.m.) --  TBA
Northern Illinois @ Iowa State (FSN Regional, 8 p.m.) -- Steve Physioc, Joel Klatt, Jim Knox
Southeastern Louisiana @ Tulane (8 p.m.) -- TBA
No. 15 Pittsburgh @ Utah (VERSUS, 8:30 p.m.) --Joe Beninati, Kelly Stouffer, Lindsay Soto
North Dakota @ Idaho (Altitude, 9 p.m.) -- Doug Anderson, Brant Boyer
Eastern Washington @ Nevada (9:05 p.m.) --  TBA
No. 14 USC @ Hawaii (ESPN, 11 p.m.) --  Mark Jones, Bob Davie & Robert Smith

Friday, September 3

Villanova @ Temple (ESPN3.com, 5 p.m.) -- Scott Graham & Rene Ingoglia
Arizona @ Toledo (ESPN, 8 p.m.) -- Joe Tessitore & Rod Gilmore

Saturday, September 4

Miami (OH) @ No. 4 Florida (ESPN, 12 p.m.) -- Dave Pasch, Chris Spielman, Bob Griese & Quint Kessenich
Western Michigan @ Michigan State (ESPN2, 12 p.m.) -- Bob Wischusen & Brian Griese
Samford @ No. 20 Florida State (ESPNU, 12 p.m.) -- Rob Stone & David Pollack
Youngstown @ No. 19 Penn State (BTN, 12 p.m.) -- Eric Collins, Chris Martin, Charissa Thompson
Eastern Illinois @ No. 9 Iowa (BTN, 12 p.m.) -- Tom Hart, Anthony Herron, Lisa Byington
LA Lafayette @ No. 23 Georgia (SEC Network, 12 p.m.) -- Dave Neal, Andre Ware, Cara Capuan
Illinois @ Missouri (FSN, 12:30 p.m.) -- Joel Meyers, Dave Lapham, Jim Knox
South Carolina @ No. 16 Georgia Tech (ESPN3.com, 1 p.m.) -- Trey Bender & Jay Taylor
Weber State @ Boston College (ESPN3.com, 1 p.m.) -- Dave Popkin & Curt Warner
Colorado @ Colorado State (Mtn., 2 p.m.) -- James Bates, Todd Christensen, Roger Bailey
Connecticut @ Michigan (ABC, ESPN2, 3:30 p.m.) -- Sean McDonough, Matt Millen & Heather Cox
UCLA @ Kansas State (ABC, ESPN2, 3:30 p.m.) -- Carter Blackburn, Mike Bellotti & Brock Huard
Kentucky @ Louisville (ABC, 3:30 p.m.) -- Dave Lamont & JC Pearson
Purdue @ Notre Dame (NBC, 3:30 p.m.) -- Tom Hammond, Mike Mayock, Alex Flanagan
No. 5 Texas @ Rice (ESPN, 3:30 p.m.) -- Ron Franklin & Ed Cunningham
North Texas @ Clemson (ESPNU, 3:30 p.m.) -- Pam Ward & Danny Kanell
Jacksonville State @ Mississippi (CSS, 3:30 p.m.) -- Doug Bell, Brian Jordan
Coastal Carolina @ No. 24 West Virginia, (Big East Network, 3:30) -- John Sanders, Rene Nadeau
New Mexico @ No. 11 Oregon, (OSN, 3:30 p.m.) -- Joe Giansante, Anthony Newman, Joey Harrington
UC-Davis @ California, (CSN California, 4 p.m.) -- Jim Kozimor, Mike Pawlawski, Dan Dibley
Western Carolina @ N.C. State (ESPN3.com, 6 p.m.) -- Ryan Rose & Warrick Dunn
Tennessee-Martin @ Tennessee, (Video Seat PPV, 6:00 p.m.) -- Pat Ryan, Randy Smith
Richmond @ Virginia (ESPN3.com, 6 p.m.) -- Jim Barbar & John Gregory
Syracuse @Akron (ESPN3.com, 6 p.m.) -- Michael Reghi & TBA
Sacramento State @ Stanford (CSN Bay Area, 6:30 p.m.) -- Barry Tompkins, Mike McLaughlin
Washington State @ Oklahoma State (FSN, 7 p.m.) -- Bill Land, Joel Klatt, Emily Jones
Washington @ Brigham Young (CBS College Sports, 7 p.m.) -- Dave Ryan, Aaron Taylor, Brooke Olzendam
North Dakota State @ Kansas (FOX College Sports, 7 p.m.) -- Steve Physioc, Yogi Roth, Samantha Steele
Memphis @Mississippi State (ESPNU, 7 p.m.) -- Clay Matvick & Herm Edwards
Elon @ Duke (ESPN3.com, 7 p.m.) -- Dave Weekley & Derek Rackley

Arkansas State @ No. 22 Auburn (SEC Network, 7 p.m.) -- Bob Rathbun, Tim Couch, Jenn Hildreth
Stony Brook @ South Florida Big East Network, 7 p.m.) -- JB Long, Shaun King, Victoria Lim
[will air on SNY, Bright House Sports Network, and Metro Sports Kansas City]
Bowling Green @ Troy (ISP Sports, 7 p.m.) -- Sam Smith, Roger Schulz, Paige Greenberg
Western Kentucky @ No. 8 Nebraska (FSN PPV, 7 p.m.) --  Ron Thulin, Richard Baldinger, Brent Stover
Utah State @ No. 7 Oklahoma (FSN PPV, 7 p.m.) -- Bill Jones, Dean Blevins, Elissa Walker-Campbell
San Jose State @ No. 1 Alabama (CTSN PPV, 7 p.m.) -- Chris Stewart, Tyler Watts, Barry Krauss
Tennessee Tech @ No. 17 Arkansas (ARSN PPV, 7 p.m.) -- Scott Inman, Jimmy Dykes, Quinn Grovery
Northwestern @ Vanderbilt (CSS, 7:30 p.m.) -- Matt Stewart, Chris Doering, Allison Stewart

Portland State @ Arizona State (FS Arizona, 10 p.m.) --  Tom Leander, Juan Roque, Jody Jackson
No. 12 Wisconsin @ UNLV (VS, 11 p.m.) --  Joe Beninati, Kelly Stouffer, Lindsay Soto

Sunday, September 5

2010 MEAC/SWAC Challenge Presented by Disney: Southern vs. Delaware State (ESPN, 12 p.m.) -- Jay Walker & Charles Neal
Tulsa @ East Carolina (ESPN2, 2 p.m.) -- Mike Gleason & John Congemi
SMU @ Texas Tech (ESPN, 3:30 p.m.) -- Mark Jones, Bob Davie & Holly Rowe

Monday, September 6

Navy vs. Maryland (from Baltimore) (ESPN, 4 p.m.) -- Mike Patrick, Craig James & Quint Kessenich
No. 3 Boise State vs. No. 10 Virginia Tech (from Landover, Md.) (ESPN, ESPN Radio*, ESPN3D**, 8 p.m.) -- Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit & Heather Cox

*ESPN Radio -- Radio: Bill Rosinski, David Norrie & Joe Schad
**ESPN 3D -- Joe Tessitore, Tim Brown & Ray Bentley

Coverage Maps can be found at HD Sports Guide, but you'll need a magnifying glass.

Schedule and announcing assignments provided by ESPN & The 506.

This year's Butler vs. Duke National Title Game was one of the NCAA's highest watched championship games ever and will be one of the most watched sporting events this year reaching nearly 50 million viewers in the US.

For play by play announcer, Jim Nantz, it was just another bullet point in an illustrious 20 year career leading NCAA Tournament coverage for CBS. But for Clark Kellogg, in just his second year as CBS's lead color commentator, the classic title game was a jumping off point for a very exciting offseason.

In addition to losing (maybe intentionally) to President Obama in a game of HORSE/POTUS, Kellogg received some clarity about his future as CBS partnered with Turner Sports to successfully outbid ESPN and others to retain the rights to the to the NCAA Tournament.

In June, Kellogg who also serves as a commentator for the Pacers, would add a executive role with team as VP of Player Relations.  To round out an interesting offseason, Kellogg added another role to his expanding presence in sports as Capital One announced yesterday that he'll be an initial member of their advisory board for the newly formed Capital One Cup, a high profile competition among collegiate athletic departments.

How a site named Awful Announcing gets 20 minutes with someone as high profile as Clark Kellogg is somewhat of an enigma although a lot of the thanks goes to Don Povia from HHR and Blogs with Balls.

After the jump are some of the highlights from the interview before we got off track and started asking him about movies like Tin Cup and Happy Gilmore.

Buffalo Wild Wings, like EA Sports' Madden '11, are wisely choosing to use one of the most popular play-by-play announcers around to help reach their target audience: Gus Johnson.

In their latest commercial to gear up for the football season, Gus provides the play-by-play commentary for a football game televised in the background of a Buffalo Wild Wings bar. As is usually the case for the announcer who is most known for doing NFL and NCAA Basketball games on CBS, he's pretty much screaming on the call.

Here's video of the commercial after the jump:

The man was butchered.  At least get your money back, bro.  Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode "The Barber." And since Reali asked, I'd say my "level of concern" is high to quite high.

Here is a rivalry we can all get behind. Umpire "Country" Joe West and Hawk Harrelson are at it again, according to Aaron Gleeman. Calling for the "cross up" to hit a fat, old umpire is pretty devious stuff. Hawk isn't one to shy away from Dale Gribble-like conspiracy theories, and certainly believes the country singing umpire has it out for the Pale Hose.



This isn't a fresh beef between these two, as the video shows. Hawk calling for the suspension and/or retirement of Joe West in that video is good stuff. In Hawk's defense, West was recently voted the 2nd worst umpire in all of MLB. Still, how can you stay mad at a man who has pipes like these? Here's a quick fast forward to my personal favorite part of Hawk's rant.

I'm kind of surprised that this all happened. Hawk was having a fantastic week before these shenanigans. His boy, Mariotti, spent some time in the clink and his smiling face now rules the top of Awful Announcing.

Follow Brady on Twitter @Brady_Green

-- The following is a post written earlier this summer on Mike's personal blog --

This has not been the best year to be a Major League Baseball umpire.  While other major sports move forward with their integration of instant replay and other technologies to increase accuracy of calls, baseball seems to lag behind.  Many claim it's too old a game, too traditional, that it needs to retain its "human element." Hall of Fame umpire Doug Harvey even went so far as to say if you use technology to get calls right, we might as well get robots to replace the players.  Wish I made that up.  So the Worldwide Leader went ahead and rushed an Outside the Lines study of MLB umps, and they'd like you to believe that they're blowing WAY TOO MANY calls.

[T]he "Outside the Lines" analysis found that an average of 1.3 calls per game were close enough to require replay review to determine whether an umpire had made the right call. Of the close plays, 13.9 percent remained too close to call, with 65.7 percent confirmed as correct and 20.4 percent confirmed as incorrect.

"That's high," said U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, a Hall of Fame pitcher. "They shouldn't be allowed to miss [that many]. I have seen some calls this year that just -- that curl your hair."

-ESPN

Of course, the one call that curled everyone's hair this season is the one that cost Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a place among baseball's elite and made him a martyr instead.  And I do want that to be fixed, I'm just not buying this study.  I'm always amazed at how often the crew DOES get the call right, even when I'm completely befuddled at home.  Sidebar: that exact call is in fact among the hardest, since umpires *watch* the bag and *listen* for the snap of the first baseman's glove, which you don't get on an underhand toss to the P.  Anyway, it's no secret that I'm a wannabe mathemagician so, if you're willing, hit the jump and we'll dive into some numbers.

Read on...

I can't say I've been completely enamored with the FIBA World Championship, but I somehow found myself channel surfing this afternoon and stopping upon the Lithuania vs. Spain game on NBA TV. What a delectable treat that turned out to be.

As if the game wasn't great in and of itself, the announcer calling the action made it sound like an instant classic. I have no idea who the dude was (feel free to let us know in the comments UPDATE: Liam Canny), but he sounded like a Third World country's Gus Johnson.

Here are some of the highlights:

• He used "hold on to your hats" and "put on your seatbelts" in successive phrases.

• "Hold on to your hats!" was kind of a catch phrase for him. He said it at least 3-4 times in the 2nd half.

• Anytime there was a fast break or a turnover he'd say, "Uh-oh!" Like, uh-oh, I may have just pooted.

• Bounce passes were "delicious."

• He described individual NBA players as "the NBA player."

• At least twice, he exclaimed, "I love this game." Another reason for this?

• When the camera would pan the crowd, the announcer was very descriptive of what was shown, like, "a fan from Lithuania is cheering," or "a fan from Spain is cheering."
  

• Late in the game, a couple of times, the camera would be scanning the crowd as the action restarted. Our buddy would yell out, "Please get back to the action!"
  

• Rubio threw an alley-oop and the call was "oh, nice pass... and Fernandez with the send it down!"
  

• "sends it down" was a common call for dunks.

• The best line of the day: "If you are Lithuania, DON'T FOUL! Ok, you fouled there. That's ok."

Highlights of the game are below with this mystery man calling the scintillating action! Also, the game will be replayed Wednesday on NBA TV at 5 p.m. I'm recording it and will update with some more potent quotables (and hopefully his freaking name -- Liam Canny).