ESPN softball announcers serve up big ol' matzo ball
God bless you if you've been watching the NCAA Softball Tournament. The NBA and NHL Playoffs are raging, Brooks Koepka is turning major fields into in-memoriams, and even tennis is about to get crazy. But if you've been tuning into ESPN 2 for some of that edge-of-your-seat collegiate softball action, you were rewarded on Monday afternoon when announcers Mark Neely and Danielle Lawrie embarked on one of the year's most painfully awkward in-booth interchanges. Gotta love live TV, folks.
Rustle up a pair of headphones and settle in. If you can't find those, dime your phone's volume on the subway and if anyone complains just say, "You're welcome." The whole debacle begins with Neely and Lawrie—a former College World Series-winning pitcher with the Washington Huskies—discussing the psychological challenges of being up there on the mound all by yourself.
"I was fortunate. I got to work with Ken Ravizza, and he was one of the absolute best." Lawrie says of the longtime sports psychologist, to which Neely responds, "Who’s still out there, doing what they do best—doing what he does best."
Beside the jumbled pronoun usage, everything is going fine up until this point, where after a pregnant pause, Lawrie feels compelled to remind her partner that Ravizza actually passed away last year.
"Yeah...oh," is all Neely can muster in response, before forging bravely ahead in to the white-hot cauldron that is Michigan vs. James Madison.
Needless to say, if you're laid up this week jamming on some daytime TV, consider trading the General Hospital for some college softball. With gems like this leading the way, there's literally no telling what might happen next.
Originally Appeared on Golf Digest
