This week's The Fletch. enjoy

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With the Braves baseball season underway, let’s take a second to look at how the announcing crews are doing. Jim Powell and Don Sutton on the Braves radio broadcasts are really a treat to listen to. When Sutton returned to the Braves broadcast booth, I fidgeted a bit because I remember how sometimes he can go Back in MY day-crazy, but he has truly been a delight thus far on the broadcasts. He KNOWS the game of baseball, and as a former pitcher, he knows what is coming and breaks it down in a way that Tim McCarver must be green with envy over. And kudos to Powell for not going overboard on the Jason Heyward home run on opening day. He knew the importance of the moment, yet he still let the moment speak for itself with a bit of silence to let the crowd noise come over the radio. It was a simple call but one that I will remember for some time because of the way it came off. Nothing overboard, just a call-and-get-out-of-the-way. Great job Jim.
Moving over to the television side, I don’t care that sometimes he misjudges the trajectory of the ball or switches his safe/out calls, I like Chip Caray in the Braves television booth. Harry was great to watch as I grew up on WGN and Skip was a true delight with his sense of humor, and now it just feels right to have Chip in the booth. He isn’t Joe Buck (who is MUCH better doing baseball opposed to football), but he is WAY better than Thom Brennaman, in terms of people who got their starts due to famous relatives.
And on the first Braves on Peachtree TV broadcast of the year, Braves fans were able to welcome back John Smoltz to the team after a bitter off-season two years ago. Smoltz seemed very confident, very comfortable, and quite honestly, he could be another Don Sutton in terms of knowing the situation and what is coming next. It was fun listening to him talk about what manager Bobby Cox was thinking, as he knows Cox so well, and Smoltz broke down the game in a way that kept my wife (a Braves fan the three times a year we go to the games) interested and me (a huge baseball fan) on the edge of my seat to hear the insight. Smoltz and Ernie Johnson Jr. were quite the duo in the broadcast booth and when you add in Joe Simpson, this booth is maybe the best it has ever been. I am serious. With all due respect to Pete and Skip, I like Ernie, John and Joe. Ernie brings something to the booth that has been missing the last few seasons, in my opinion. Johnson is a true professional in his presentation, yet you can feel his connection to the team. I could never have said that about former Braves announcer Jon “Boog” Sciambi. Boog was a play-by-play man that just happened to be doing Braves games. He knew the sport, but Johnson comes off as he knows the fabric of the Braves franchise. I know EJ is only doing 45 games this year for Peachtree TV, but I am looking forward to every single one of them.
One final Braves coverage thought, WOW it took just three games until 680 The Fan decided to throw the Braves onto one of its sister stations. So unless you were inside the perimeter, I guess you were listening to the game on Rock 100.5. And I also think it is funny that Leo Mazzone is allowed to miss chunks of the morning show because he had to work an extra hour on the Braves pregame show. If Leo is going to be with the Braves coverage, that is cool as he knows the game. He is the former pitching coach. But don’t treat him like he is a regular on the morning show. Let him JUST do the Braves stuff, please, which is what he probably should be doing anyway.

SO STOP TALKING ABOUT IT…
I think it is hilarious when a sports talk radio personality complains about a topic that in his opinion has been talked about to the point of vomiting, only he keeps talking about it. Recently on Pollack & Bell, Mike Bell was growling that he was tired of talking about the Tiger Woods’ sex story and hated that Billy Payne brought it up at his Masters press conference. Umm, Mike, if you are tired of talking about it, don’t talk about it. The topic goes away faster when you stop addressing it. You’re tired of Tiger? Don’t talk about that story and start talking about something else, and suddenly THAT’S what people are calling about, not Tiger. I know you are a veteran in this and everything, but …

A TRADITION UNLIKE ANY OTHER…
The Masters was last week and with all due respect to CBS, Score Atlanta was all over it. Not only did Score Atlanta Sports Sunday on 790 The Zone have our Masters correspondent Paul Mac call in the week before the tournament to break down the field, Mac also called in from the grounds of Augusta National just minutes before Tiger Woods teed off for his final Sunday round. Mac was able to give us a first-hand account of the pin placements, the location of the tee boxes, but also how the players looked on the driving range and on the practice putting greens. He was also able to give us a feel of how Tiger was treated by the patrons. To sum up, Mac said that Tiger was treated politely, but the aura that he once commanded was not there this year. To check out more from Paul Mac’s experience at Augusta, look for his column a few pages from now.
As for CBS, once again the Masters coverage was superb, and it left me wanting more. The lack of commercials is always a pleasure, and although Jim Nantz is good, I want more Verne Lundquist. The voice of SEC football is even better doing golf than he is during basketball season and the SEC basketball games.

CAN YOU BELIVE HE JUST SAID THAT!?!?
“Jesus Christ couldn’t turn around some of those teams.” Billy Packer, former CBS college basketball analyst was on the Rude Awakening recently and spoke about how some college coaches “tarnish” their coaching resumes with short stops in the NBA. I don’t have a problem with the statement at all but likely some fools out there listening to the show will flip out over the “blasphemy.” To those people I say, “Come on. It’s Billy Packer.” He has certainly earned the right to speak his mind on everything college basketball and he shouldn’t be afraid to speak his mind. It is refreshing to hear what everyone is thinking.