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4/22/2010
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Fenton, MI
US
Edited Date/Time
3/5/2023 10:27am
Man he is a friggin natural at it. I think he raised the quality of the whole broadcast a few notches. He even made RC seem calmer and better at it.
Best broadcast in a while IMO
Replace home schooled RC with him!
DB, RC and Bubba is the dream team in the booth. Add in JT down on the track and, yeah, that’s what the broadcast SHOULD be.
I love Weege too so maybe half Weege and half DB.
James in the booth makes the show better. Period.
The Shop
This ^
I mentioned it in the broadcast thread last night but James could be the best of all time to do it , right next to David Bailey, if he dedicated himself to it.
I do think he has done better than Ricky already.
RC could see that suggestion coming from a mile away.
James has the best insight. It’s insane how good he is at analyzing dirt bike racing.
James needs to be a permanent feature for the entire SMX series - indoor and outdoor. Further, I wish I could rewind time and cheer for James the entire time he was racing. I obviously didn’t at the time, but he is the man.
Nobody other than maybe AC has studied more racing than James over the years. They study/studied film like combat sports athletes (JS7 got a theater made just to do it). And both amazing at analysis on broadcasts.
He’s doing great on there. They need to use him more on there. I’d like to see him do the nationals on there.
Way better than Ricky.......Bro
James is not nearly as good in the booth as people are making him out to be and Carmichael is not nearly as bad at broadcasting as he is being made out to be.
David Bailey was much, much better than either one of them at that job.
I think Carmichael is plenty tolerable and since he changed the sport and has made such an enormous impact on the sport, he should get a life-long mulligan.
I think having retired, phenom type guys like Stewart and Carmichael in the booth is awesome no matter how well you think they can do the commentary thing. This idea never happened because anyone expected the retired riders to be broadcasting professionals.
Having a good commentator and having ex-riders as guest occasionally would be much better than listening to ex-riders all the time that are not good commentators. Give Ricky a mulligan for his guest appearances but not for sucking at a job that is critical to the fan experience. The mentality that we should just shut up and deal with it because he is one of the greats at the sport, is why this same thing comes up all the time. I don't give a shit what background the announcer has, I care if he can do the job or not.
Ricky is not good at it, but in his defense, I am sure he is fed a bunch of stupid talking points from the fuckhead management. I forgot exactly what he was talking about at Daytona, but a relevant crash happened right in the middle of it and Ricky just brushed it off and made sure he got the rest of his scripted storyline in. You know it was something he was thinking about and making sure he finished because normally he has an exciting reaction to a crash.
AC in the booth has never excited me. It's almost like he is too polished and g rated. I just can't get into anything he is saying.
Does your boss give you a mulligan for literally being terrible at your job because you played high school football? NO. RC is awful at this job period. Watch the 250 race again and notice how long it takes him to form a sentence when Hunter and Thrasher came together. It was like he was under water or drunk. It was painful to listen to.
Now.......listen to the podcast he just did with the Vital guys and it's like an entirely different guy. Tells great stories, has an awesome memory, able to articulate, and offers a ton of value. That interview was terrific. This further proves he is not meant to be in that job and it doesn't make a shit bit of difference that he was the best ever riding moto. James on the other hand is great at it, but I doubt he wants to do it full time, but maybe so and that would be badass.
Agreed, I was being soft for some reason. He's much better.
Pit Row
I'm also not a fan of AC in the booth purely because he's too bland, I think James is the best we've maybe ever had from a racer. I'm just saying the analysis of certain situations is usually spot on from both, as it reflects their experience but also the amount of racing they've studied.
"Sucking at a job that is critical to the fan experience"
I don't think that Carmichael sucks. Not even close. I think criticism of him is more of an internet thing and is an inaccurate reflection of what the majority of people think of his commentary.
I also believe that only a small percentage of people believe that his commentary or anyone's commentary is critical to their experience. I'm old and as a result, I have been around a long, long time. I only see this broadcasting critique and criticism on the internet. I have never experienced talking with the many fellow SX/MX enthusiasts and riders,..over the last 56 years that gripe about this.
My son rides and has younger friends that ride and are all fans of the sport. He doesn't talk about the commentators and his friends don't either. I know this because I just asked him moments ago.
Obviously people are concerned but I think it is a very small percentage that even think about commentary.
You know when commentary is important ? When or if you are listening to a radio coverage of any type of race.
Pretty sure they're both home schooled? Both are legends and I love RC, but Bubba is way better in the booth. Nice to dream, but Art Eckman, Fro, and Bubba would be the Dream Team in the booth. Leann Tweeden or Erin Bates as the pit reporter. Or Leticia Cline or the either of the Lucas Oil girls Nicole Cesa or Carrie Bolling. Basically just a hot girl that speaks good English.
I liked James in there , but I'd still pick Ricky over him. Honestly , I think Blair should be a front man , and instead of Ricky or James.....I'd rather have Glover or Bailey. Glover last year was one of the best I've ever heard. Blair and Glover would be incredible.
You are right that it is not critical to the experience. Give me an option to have no announcers and I will never bitch again. But that will never happen so the announcer does, unfortunately, become a big part of the experience. If it's a necessary evil, than damn well hire the best person for the job. Ricky is just not that, he's not even the second or the third best person for the job. And I am far from the only one with this view. This isn't like some internet smear campaign against Ricky.
At Daytona this weekend, when Tomac tried to close out Webb and they bumped, Chase got real close as Tomac recovered. James noticed that although Chase was close, he bobbled and dropped back a bit. James was really paying attention to everyone - I had to rewind a few times to catch the mistake Chase made and James noted.
Didn't hear anyone else in the broadcast booth that was as in tune with what was going on during the race. Really glad James came out of shell post retirement and is providing this expert commentary.
Give me great camera work and keep the ticker working and updated to show the running order and the time intervals.
I'm able to see the race and see it well from the camera work and I really do not need someone to tell me how to feel about what I'm watching. If you let a commentator irritate you, I think that is on you. It is just of little importance to the overwhelming majority of people.
Buh buh but Ricky always says the same thing!
Amen buddy! These threads really show who has raced and rode in their life, and knows the sport.
The GOAT said "wow!" again at a guy almost crashing or "he needs to hit his marks" again! F'n RC doesn't know his shit! We need a monotone racer from the 80's on a few Xanax to come tell us how racing works in 2023. 🙄
I thought it was cool how James noticed Webb was jumping nose high after his bobble and said he might have had a bike issue due to that.
I think it was when he was telling the super long winded story about how great Deegan was. I think Thrasher went down and he was like "Thrasher went down, anyways Deegan".... I kind of laughed when he did that.
I really think Ricky is "NBC'ed" while Stewart just kind of wings it and comes off more natural. When Ricky was on James podcast he was a fine to listen to and seemed comfortable.
Give me great camera work and a ticker for timing, scoring and intervals and I can watch the race and see for myself what is happening.
The chatter in the booth is largely irrelevant to me..I'm able to filter it out and only keep what is said that is meaningful. Which means that I pay very little attention to what any of them say, including Stewart.
This isn't radio broadcasted.
James is a natural at the job . He picks up on things happening on the track , very quickly , and can verbalize his thoughts efficiently . That’s the trick to live race calling . Ricky struggles with this even though he has all the knowledge that James has .
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