Sorry for posting this to hockey-l folks.  I tried to send it
directly to Greg Sorenson, but the Clarkson mailer does not recognize
the address I had for him.  Unless you're interested in Don Cherry
and Hockey Night In Canada, please discard.
 
To: Greg Sorenson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: ESPN/CBC and Cherry
 
>I'm CBC-less, and would be interested in what he had to say about Bure. I have
>a pretty good idea...
 
Greg:
 
     I was referring to the "Coach's Corner" segment between periods
on Saturday.  Evidently Cherry has historically bad-mouthed Bure as a
soft, cherry-picker (no pun intended) type who isn't a rough leader in the
mold of the godlike Doug Gilmour.  He did praise Bure's hustle against
Calgary somewhat, and I think he liked the vicious elbow on Churla in
the Dallas series, but generally he dislikes Bure (who also has the
effrontery to not be Canadian).  Anyhow, on Saturday's segment, Cherry
was reading (proving that he is at least semi-literate) from an article
in one of the Vancouver papers about how the local gay community had taken
a liking to Bure because of his "androgynous (you can imagine how Cherry
butchered the pronunciation there) good looks," etc.  It was all rather
pointless, inane, and had nothing to do with the game.  His straight man,
Rod McLean (I think that's his name), likes to interject his puns into
the conversations, and sometimes these are actually good.  On this occasion
he closed the segment by saying "who needs the Big Apple when you've got
Cherry - he knows about all the fruits," in obvious reference to the Bure
article.  I can't do it justice; maybe someone transcribed the whole thing
on rec.sport.hockey; some people actually take the time to post "Coach's
Corner" summaries there.
 
>Say what you will about Cherry, but he is the personality the US
>hockey-broadcasting market is missing--a knowledgeable figure who can be
>annoying, but is at least animated and enthused about the sport he's covering.
>Imagine NFL broadcasts without John Madden. NCAA hoops without Dick Vitale.
>(Baseball's pace doesn't really allow for such a figure, though I'd imagine
>arguments could be made for Harry Caray, Rizzuto, Harwell, etc.). While I'm
>not a huge Madden or Vitale fan (especially not Vitale), I'll attribute a fair
>share of their sports' TV success to their presence.
 
     Well, I do catch Cherry when I can for entertainment value.  However,
he is only on for a few minutes in between periods one and two.  If he
was the full-time color commentator (like Vitale) I think he would ruin
the broadcast (like Vitale).
     By the way, I like Gilmour and the Leafs, as Cherry repeatedly
reminds us he does.  I can't imagine how much he would annoy me if I
didn't like the Leafs.
 
Thanks,
-Glenn