This past October, from the moment ESPN announced it had entered the mix to televise the Masters, the fear and loathing among golf fans in anticipation of Chris Berman’s (right, with Ty Cobb-like grip) smothering presence has grown by the day.
With the Masters just three weeks away, e-mails, once expressing mere anguish, have begun to arrive carrying vague “goodbye-cruel-world” threats. The imagined sounds of Berman on the telecasts – “K.J. Choi To The World, for par” – have made people tense as a mousetrap.
Relax.
Berman will have nothing to do with this year’s Masters telecasts, no presence whatsoever. There’s not even a pro-am for ESPN to show him clowning in. Mike Tirico will be the only ESPN person seen through the network’s Thursday and Friday, 4-7 p.m. window. And Tirico is assigned to conduct interviews from Butler Cabin.
The rest of ESPN’s telecasts will be in the hands of CBS and CBS personnel. Berman won’t even be a member of ESPN’s three-man, on-site “SportsCenter” team.
Hmmm. ESPN’s first Masters, four ESPNers assigned to be there and none of them Berman? Would NBC leave Bob Costas home during a biggie? Would CBS give Jim Nantz the week off? Would Fox leave its robot in the shop? With newly purchased rights to the Masters, wouldn’t you want your No. 1 guy to be there in some role?
