Minnesota Twins play-by-play man Dick Bremer may not be that popular in the Twins’ clubhouse these days. In an interview with WDAY 970’s Mike McFeely, Bremer said he was confronted by a member of the team for being too negative about their struggles.
“I make it a practice to go in the clubhouse every day and go down on the field, so if a player has a complaint about something I’ve said on television they have that opportunity,” Bremer said. “I was confronted in the clubhouse in the last homestand. I didn’t say what I wanted to say, which was, ‘Well, play better and the commentary will be more positive.’ You can’t mask the fact this team is a quarter of the way through the season with 10 wins.”
It would be interesting to know which player confronted Bremer and what the specific commentary was that upset him. As long as Bremer kept his criticism towards baseball — and there’s no reason to think that he didn’t — he is completely right.
If you’ve watched Minnesota play throughout this season and can really generate a lot of positive commentary, we either salute or optimism or question your realism. Imagine what it’s like for people who have to comment night in and night out.
This isn’t a matter of an announcer being nitpicky against a good, or even average team. If Minnesota finishes the year at 62-100, they will have done a good job between now and the end of the season.
The Twins currently sit at 11-33, which puts them on pace to win about 40 games this year. That kind of record would be bad enough to be included on anyone’s “worst single season team in MLB history” short list. They’re the worst team in baseball; even worse than the dreadful Atlanta Braves who have already fired their manager.
The Twins may not want to hear their hometown announcers being especially critical of the team, but the reality is that he has to be. If an announcer can watch a season like that without being harsh, he really loses a lot of credibility.
It may seem overly simplistic to say “if you don’t want to hear it, don’t play bad” but that’s the reality of this situation. At the very least, if you’re an MLB player and you play poorly, you need to develop some thick skin, because you’re going to hear well-deserved criticism.