If we’re going to call people out for farting on air, we need to be fair and address other yucky bodily functions as well.
During the sixth inning of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast between the Houston Astros and Chicago White Sox, someone had to clear their throat. Typically, not a big deal, but instead of a mild cough or a polite “ahem,” Sunday night’s loogie hock was one of the grossest things I’ve ever heard.
We know it wasn’t Karl Ravech, because he was talking during the incident, which leaves David Cone, Eduardo Pérez or a production staffer as the culprit. In case you missed it, you can listen for yourself to judge if I’m being too sensitive to the gross sound of moving a lump of phlegm.
Someone kept hocking loogies in the Sunday Night Baseball booth pic.twitter.com/531HsVL5oN
— Brandon Contes (@BrandonContes) June 20, 2022
If it was just the one giant hock followed by a spit, I think I would have let it slide. But a second one occurring in the same inning was too much to ignore. Throat clears are necessary when you’re someone who gets paid to talk for a living, and I’m certainly not blind to the fact that loogies happen. But usually, they’re masked by the cough button, turning your head away from the microphone, or at least the ringing sound of a spittoon. Whoever was behind these loogies projected them so loudly that it almost seemed as if they wanted it broadcast on national TV.
Let’s acknowledge that we hope whoever it was suffering from the backlog of phlegm was just dealing with a mild sniffle or allergies and nothing more serious than that. And let’s also acknowledge that the cough button is every broadcaster’s friend.
[ESPN]
