Cohen and the Clock

[Edgy MD]

Gary Cohen's absence from the booth in the recent Padres series has proved ironically fruitful, and not just because Keith Hernandez' classic self-mythlogizing exchange with Gelbs over his flight into town.

For Gary Cohen — even as his reduced schedule suggests a figure who is trying to sidle into semi-retirement — is a field that never lies fallow.  Not only did he usefully inject himself by text into a broadcast this weekend, reaching out to the booth in addressing a highly relevant official scorer's error, but he interrupted his weekend "off" by appearing in Jeff Passan's Sources Tell Jeff Passan podcast.  (Admittedly, his part was probably taped earlier as the focus of the podcast — as is the focus of all things — was Keith.)

All of this is to say that the nut of Cohen's argument, as summarized by Awful Announcing, was that he absolutely celebrates the advent of the pitch clock, even while acknowledging the ironic point that what has made the Cohen/Hernandez/Darling team so celebrated was largely the gross surplus of dead air in the pre-pitch clock era, and his team's ability to sustain a fascinating level of discourse while digressing onto unanticipated topics.

And, of course, triggering Keith's barely filtered level of candor.

It's really interesting, in that Cohen clearly knows he has long had a good thing going, but resents it.  He resents how "mentally exhausting" it was to sustain a broadcast, and probably moreso resents how his extended workdays had diminished his private life — something you sense from him, but only Keith (of course) has the temerity to say out loud.

And then the added level of irony — even as they get more days off as they age, they are seemingly spending their time, often enough, watching the broadcast and texting the booth.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I thought this was going to be about Steve Cohen and how the Mets are running out of time this season.

[metirish]

So did I,  specifically about Cohen's five year WS timeline 

 

Anyway, I never really thought about all the dead air GKR filled pre pitch clock and other changes in the game , but I guess it makes sense,  interesting to hear Gary say it though

[whippoorwill]

This is a great story :)

[ashie62]

Just about everything becomes mentally and physically challenging at 60 something

I'm thinking of Dana Carvey as the angry old man on SNL

It's funny because it's true

Nice work ageedc

[Radar]

1 hour ago, ashie62 said:

Just about everything becomes mentally and physically challenging at 60 something

I'm thinking of Dana Carvey as the angry old man on SNL

It's funny because it's true

Nice work ageedc

Yeah, at 83 challenged doesn't even begin to cover it. Oh darn where the he.. did I leave that remote.