Regular visitors to Awful Announcing know our disdain for ESPN’s Chris Berman. Whenever we mention Boomer on this site or our Twitter feed, the vitriol against him lasts for hours. No matter what Berman does, the reaction against him is very strong.
Well, here goes another story that will most likely spark more negative reaction. Chris Berman has once again been named as the host of the MLB Home Run Derby next Monday, July 13 on ESPN. And he’ll be joined by analyst John Kruk who called the event with Mr. “Back! Back! Back! GONE!” last year.
Whether Berman calls the Home Run Derby, his lone Monday Night Football game or the U.S. Open, the reaction on social media is overwhelmingly negative, yet ESPN continues to assign him to these events.
ESPN says despite all this, their research shows that Berman remains popular among viewers and fans. We have not seen this research and we have not seen evidence of this popularity. However, when Berman does appear in public, people do flock to him.
With ESPN’s new contract with MLB, it appears that the Big Man is firmly entrenched calling the Home Run Derby for years to come. So unless you have access to ESPN Deportes or MLB International’s feed of the event, we’ll be stuck with Berman for as long as he wants to call the event.
So it appears we’ll have to deal with Berman making local references whenever there’s a long home run for several years to come.
[ESPN]
