Chris Berman is Rod Black is Chris Berman

ESPN's broadcast (seen by me in Canada via Roger's Sportsnet) of last night's MLB Home Run Derby was one of the most painful-to-watch television productions I have come across in a long time (mind you, I don't watch that much TV). At the forefront of the giant turd was Chris Berman, from ESPN. The producers of Sesame Street show much more respect for the intelligence of their audience, than did the braniacs at ESPN who gave us the caricature that is Chris Berman hosting the show: belting out the same "Back, Back, Back..." line he has used for 25 plus years, or yelling out for cheers from various sections of the crowd at the opening of the show.     

I was thinking about the broadcast today, and I concluded that Chris Berman is the Rod Black (long time TSN/CTV sports broadcaster) of American Sports Broadcasting (or more accurately Rod Black is the Chris Berman of Canadian Sports Broadcasting).They both show up to events unprepared, with nothing interesting to say, and yet blather on with their respective annoying shticks at relatively large sporting events within their country. Also, both rely on the fact that they have been at their networks since the beginning of time to still get high profile gigs. Sports is often an old-boys club, and these dinosaurs have reaped the benefit of this fact for a long time. 

In Berman's defense, I think that people actually liked his broadcasting at some point in time (I was really too young during the period I allude to though, so can't say for sure either way), while for Black, I am quite confident that his longevity is due solely to the fact that he was on the ground floor at TSN. All I can say is the best before date on both of these dudes has long passed. There is way too much talent in the sports broadcasting communities of both the US and Canada for both Black and Berman to still be given prime time work.