You may remember Brian Collins, the Ball State University sportscaster who, back in 2005 was one of YouTube’s biggest stars thanks to a horribly awkward highlight package when he was working the anchor desk for a broadcast. The crowning moment of the infamous clip was his would-be catch phrase, “Boom goes the dynamite.”
Sadly, Collins was mocked for this, with people claiming he was nervous, not prepared or out of his depth. According to the Wikipedia page of the incident, however, Collins was a last minute fill-in for the regular sportscaster and the real problem was that the teleprompter guy messed up and Collins had to fly with no script. Either way, it led to widespread mockery and, eventually anyway, sympathy for Collins. “Boom goes the dynamite” can still be heard from time to time.
The latest appearance: Ron Darling, Cal Ripken, Gary Sheffield and Pedro Martinez doing their own “Boom goes the dynamite” promo for TBS for the postseason. While one hopes that they reached out to Collins for his blessing (or at least gave him a heads up) and don’t offer it in a mocking spirit, it’s hard not to laugh at this. I think Sheffield’s performance is the best, but they all shine.
Oh: and even if this was how they actually called games for TBS, they’d still be better than a lot of national baseball broadcasters who will remain nameless.
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