"What did we do to deserve?"
This iteration of professional surfing, known as the World Surf League, has been on an amazing slide to absurd irrelevance since its founding in 2015 circa 1976. Each Chief Executive made to look competent by the preceding CEO. Paul Speaker to Sophie Goldschmidt to Erik Logan to Jessi Miley-Dyer?
Wild times with the whole show, once bastions of rebels and Ritchie Collins now a silly circus wherein Logan openly courts his surfers whilst Joe Turpel and cast jibber-jabber such happy mush as if they were assistants in a classroom of mentally challenged preschoolers.
We, of course, the mentally challenged preschoolers.
And I suppose, if we choose to be myopic and dull, we’d imagine all professional sporting leagues do the same sorts of things. Treat their fans with open disdain, force a company line that bolsters “the product” while ignoring the truth but ho, turn your eyes to baseball and the ultra-staid Major Leagues and witness team-hired announcers calling their own manager “horrific.”
The New York Mets, if you follow, have been having a tough season. A new owner poured millions upon millions into the team at the beginning of the season leading to soaring expectations. Those have not been met, excuse the pun, the fans are revolting and the announcers are talking real talk.
After a recent loss, Gary Cohn, salary paid by Mets, declared, “The Mets 42nd loss of the year is their most horrific. Buck Showalter tried to stay away from his best relievers and the Mets paid the price.”
Baseball fans were overjoyed with the truth painted as truth.
“One of the reasons why the Mets broadcast crew is so fantastic is their aversion to sugar-coating what they see,” one wrote, adding, “Too many crews avoid the faults of the team they cover, usually with silence. Gary, Keith and Ron don’t insult their audience’s intelligence.”
“Painful to hear but true,” another wrote.
“Excellent announcing,” yet another.
Back to Turpel and pals, though.
Why?
What did we do to deserve?
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Listening to Turpel say E-lo is worse than listening to Shannon
Who cares about WSL? No one. Even groms don’t care. So many top quality off the tour and work their own brands w/o WSL. Only clothes companies are on Tour, and who cares. Baggy cheap is in, namebrands out.
From what I’ve been told Joe Turpel is a nice’ guy. and in some circles of the big business world nice guys finish last…in this case…last in the eyes of real surfers. Ones that cannot stand seeing huge purses for tiny waves…while the big wave tour is the WSL ugly sister hidden in the back seat of an Edsel waiting for her next blind date to come….and go… the surf camp surf fiasco is so sorry and difficult to watch…all it magnifies is the short comings of the judges and their subconscious bias. and to hear the announcers justify the location without spilling the beans on why it was included and how they were hoodwinked only makes me turn away from the contests and their lack of any excuses for holding events at places of not late drops and little consequence… Trestles for a world championship site? El Salvador and Rio where the waiting period is more exciting than the waves themselves. BRING BACK THE TRIPLE CROWN…let Pipeline separate the mice from the elephants. and give the viewer something to cheer about. the talent on tour is there when the field is sliced…so put more emphasis on making the tour, and let the select few who are fortunate to go for the big bucks ride places where lives are on the line…and not the fricken yankee dollar.
by goodness, had one yesterday…still don’t look like the commercials. tasteless. spit out the last bite.
Working on Disc Golf to overcome Pro Surfing and make it to ESPN
larry brown sports. he bring’s a brownbag!
Have fun on your trip! Caught a few live so far and it’s been a big improvement.
Skateboarding is the only “cool” board “sport” left. And the olympics will do their best to ruin that in due time. The money is already drying up. Brands are failing. Surf and snow are jock activities for dork tech riches. If the WSL stays the coarse and kills pro surfing it won’t be because it’s awesome. It just won’t look awesome to the jocks. And I can’t wait. My dad was blessed with such a time after the beach blanket bingo era. Surfing sucks and everyone should check out sports. Go play with your balls. You’ll love it. We will be over here riding boards that are hard to learn on in black wetsuits without leashes.
steel wheels
get kieth hernandez and Bill Bouckner and Strawberry on the landline…so painful. so David Cone! Jeter tossed Big Papi’s congratutory jersey onto the floor…all left-handers.
Rick Sutcliffe was solid in the booth and didn’t pull any punches. Same on the field. Ask Padres Eric Show but he is lo longer with us.
Only surfers think surfing is cool. And marketing executives. Mountain biking and basketball would be way above surfing at this point.
I’ve never had any interest in baseball until about the last two weeks of sept.
I’ll watch a few games from then.
Just like surfing, I never had any interest in watching contests until the end of the season ….. Oh wait then The Groper fucked it up.
It’s a long wait from Chopes until Pipe. Thanks idiot.
Chas going back to the 80s on this one! Mr. T and Major League references, and the last time MLB was relevant. I guess it takes work and vision to turn surfing into a more boring sport production than baseball. ELo knocking it out of the park
In what was a harbinger of the Mets season, one of their key pitchers Edwin Diaz suffered a season ending knee surgery celebrating the Puerto Rico team’s win over the DR.
It’s very fitting to compare the WSL to the Mets.
Totally agree. Wondered at first whether clock would take away natural feel but the increased pace has more than made up for it.
Went to my first Dodger game recently, it was amazing, as opposed to the rio, surf ranch events
Not too many things better than a Dodger game at Chavez Ravine.
A Cubs game at Wrigley Field comes in a close second.
Cubs not in Chi-Com, but Catalina Island! early 60s
Mr, Wriggley owned much of avalon if I remember right
spearmint gummer
https://thumbvista.com/wp-c…
“How ’bout them Mets”
Cuz it’s One, Two
Three Strikes you’re OUT
In E-Lo’s Surf League!
Unless you’re Kelly.
The Mets and WSL have a lot in common. Pissing away millions with minimal success to show for it.
can always go to a Broadway play…
Well Chas the deceptive headline could have delivered had you asserted the movie Major League is officially cooler than the WSL.
BTW, speaking of Sophie have you noticed the damage she has thrust upon the US Ski and Snowboard team? She is perfecting the art…
she getting the ski team to strap a snowboard on each leg?
Based upon their performance ex-Mikaela that might be part of the problem!
sucked me in with the baseball headline and the promise of some new poll or study or something comparing growing enthusiasm for MLB (generated by wise updates to out of date policies resulting in a faster pace of play, ground balls making it past non-shifted infielders, stealing on the rise) with the waning prospects of WSL (fueled by an epidemic of changing the good things and leaving in place the bad, all per the whim of a tone deaf CEO and the recrimination of the gods of surf decreeing that no swell shall appear ever again during a contest window) … only to find nothing but a random anecdote about the Mets’ broadcast team. This one hurt, it really did.
Fool you twice….
got a free Carl’s burger as Kersh threw 10 stikeouts. and spit it out! MLB &WSL.