Count down

As if Chris Berman’s “back, back, back,” idiotic nicknames, and repetitive use of area landmarks that prove nothing more than the man can read a map weren’t enough to want to stay away from the annual Home Run Derby (sorry, the State Farm Home Run Derby presented by Shell), imagine my surprise when I was greeted by the Counting Crows at the outset of the broadcast.

The Counting Crows. Way to go, fellas.

This year’s All-Star festivities are in San Francisco, an area renowned for some of the best rock bands of our time, and the best baseball can do is the Counting Crows? Besides, isn’t Huey Lewis supposed to show up at every San Francisco sporting event?

As one commenter summed it up on Awful Announcing (which does a great job of breaking down the not-so stellar evening for ESPN), “Did anyone else catch the irony of a network whose big summer project is ‘Who’s Now’ broadcasting a live performance by the Counting Crows (who are not ‘Now’)?” Perfect.

As for Berman, well, there’s really no need to explain how grating the evening was. You could actually hear the collective groan from the crowd when the ESPN announcer introduced St. Louis’ derby entry last night as Albert “Winnie the” Pujols over the PA.