# I swear, if Phil Liggett says that one more time



## mpetersen16 (Apr 26, 2006)

If Phil Liggett says "he better have something special" one more time, I am going to tell Bob Roll to stop holding back and kick his a**. He has said it at almost every single flat stage, and even managed to say it today for the tt when talking about Boonen. I wish he would get something new, surely he has other words to describe this. 
Matt
P.s. Bob Roll and Al Trautwig are great, COMPLETELY UNBIASED COMMENTATORS and I love it when they talk about "An American win in the tour"
P.P.S. Bob Roll is the man for calling Hushovd's prologue win


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## magnolialover (Jun 2, 2004)

*Haven't been following cycling too long..*



mpetersen16 said:


> If Phil Liggett says "he better have something special" one more time, I am going to tell Bob Roll to stop holding back and kick his a**. He has said it at almost every single flat stage, and even managed to say it today for the tt when talking about Boonen. I wish he would get something new, surely he has other words to describe this.
> Matt
> P.s. Bob Roll and Al Trautwig are great, COMPLETELY UNBIASED COMMENTATORS and I love it when they talk about "An American win in the tour"
> P.P.S. Bob Roll is the man for calling Hushovd's prologue win


Haven't been following cycling too long have you?

Phil Liggett has more cycling knowledge, and has seen more pro races that everybody posting on this board combined. The man is a wealth of cycling knowledge and has been around for a lot of important events during the history of cycling.

Bob Roll and Trautwig completely unbiased? What? Hardly.

Commentary coming from Phil and Paul is about 20 times better than Bob and Al. I like Bob, but would love to shove Al out of the booth.


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## 55x11 (Apr 24, 2006)

You are overly sensitive. Phil Liggett is pretty good. Except for his strange call when Hushovd was protesting McEwen, I have no issues with Phil.



mpetersen16 said:


> P.s. Bob Roll and Al Trautwig are great, COMPLETELY UNBIASED COMMENTATORS and I love it when they talk about "An American win in the tour"


I am not sure if you are joking or being secretly sarcastic, but you better be.


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## Argentius (Aug 26, 2004)

I think the unbiased thing was sarcastic...


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## Guest (Jul 9, 2006)

*You seem to be in a spot of bother.*

I love it when Paul Sherwin says that. Bob Roll is great. The only thing funnier than Bob is Homer Simpson. Funny, they seem to seperated at birth.


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## JaeP (Mar 12, 2002)

*Wrong 'em Boyo*



mpetersen16 said:


> P.P.S. Bob Roll is the man for calling Hushovd's prologue win


It was Al Troutfish who picked Hushovd's prologue win (and Bobbke, Paul, and Phil snickered girlishly).

Phil & Paul are, by far, the best cycling commentators. I had the unfortunate experience to watch OLN's "Prime Time Extended Tour Coverage" one evening and Bobbke and Troutfish were talking about real estate prices on French castles. WTF does that have to do with the price of tea in China?


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## botto (Jul 22, 2005)

JaeP said:


> It was Al Troutfish who picked Hushovd's prologue win (and Bobbke, Paul, and Phil snickered girlishly).
> 
> Phil & Paul are, by far, the best cycling commentators. I had the unfortunate experience to watch OLN's "Prime Time Extended Tour Coverage" one evening and Bobbke and Troutfish were talking about real estate prices on French castles. WTF does that have to do with the price of tea in China?


if i may: Phil & Paul are, by far, the best cycling commentators* for the English speaking audience*.

They don't hold a candle to Belgian, or even Dutch commentators.


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## Flatlander (Feb 28, 2004)

*"He is resplendent in his (insert jersey here) "*

I know it is tour time when the word resplendent re-enters the vocabulary....


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## magnolialover (Jun 2, 2004)

*Unfortunately...*



botto said:


> if i may: Phil & Paul are, by far, the best cycling commentators* for the English speaking audience*.
> 
> They don't hold a candle to Belgian, or even Dutch commentators.


Unfortunately, I don't speak Dutch, French, or Flemish... I know, sad isn't it?


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## mpetersen16 (Apr 26, 2006)

I was joking about the Bob and Al being unbiased, they are so biased it is not funny (actually it is). I love how they talk about a "win for America" and they seem to favor Hincapie, Landis and Leipheimer, whereas Liggett and Paul seem to be less biased, but still to be favoring the aussies. Phil might have more know how, but Bob gets my vote for favorite commentator because of his easygoing nature, and his goofy smile lol, plus his commentary is more fun and entertaining I think. Is there anyway I can make this into a poll without creating a new post?
Matt


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## asawlrider123456789 (Dec 22, 2005)

During the itt yesterday, I couldn't beleive that either Ligget orSherwin said that McEwen was going to pass boonen on the sprint, yeah it's a tt not a flat stage(that means there's no sprint). Thats pretty damn biased, Boonen catches him from two minutes behind and they think he's not going to drop McEwen. Come on.


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## chuckice (Aug 25, 2004)

asawlrider123456789 said:


> During the itt yesterday, I couldn't beleive that either Ligget orSherwin said that McEwen was going to pass boonen on the sprint, yeah it's a tt not a flat stage(that means there's no sprint). Thats pretty damn biased, Boonen catches him from two minutes behind and they think he's not going to drop McEwen. Come on.


It was Sherwen, he was joking and it was funny.


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## 55x11 (Apr 24, 2006)

asawlrider123456789 said:


> During the itt yesterday, I couldn't beleive that either Ligget orSherwin said that McEwen was going to pass boonen on the sprint, yeah it's a tt not a flat stage(that means there's no sprint). Thats pretty damn biased, Boonen catches him from two minutes behind and they think he's not going to drop McEwen. Come on.


He was surely joking, but it did seem for a moment that there was a bit of rivalry going on and McEwen didn't like being passed like that. I was thinking the same thing before Sherwen said anything.

I can assure you Sherwen and anyone who watched more than one grand tour knows that ITT doesn't matter for sprinters. But I would have enjoyed it if they went for an all-out sprint in the end - with time trial bikes, no leadouts and all. That would have been awesome!


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## rogger (Aug 19, 2005)

botto said:


> if i may: Phil & Paul are, by far, the best cycling commentators* for the English speaking audience*.
> 
> They don't hold a candle to Belgian, or even Dutch commentators.


Flipping heck! They're WORSE than Herbert "Mumble" Dijkstra, Maarten "Ow Ow Ow" Ducrot and Mart "Sjappo" Smeets?


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## FondriestFan (May 19, 2005)

Bob Roll sucks. He's a total Lance / Discover fanboy. I'm sick of his ass-kissing of Lance, Hincapie, or any other Disco rider. Man, Bob, STFU. Stop smoking that freaking weed.


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## dwells (Mar 30, 2005)

magnolialover said:


> Haven't been following cycling too long have you?
> 
> 
> ... I like Bob, but would love to shove Al out of the booth.


Bring back Kirsten Gumm!!!!


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## mohair_chair (Oct 3, 2002)

If you have any smarts, you'll watch or tape the morning coverage and miss Bob Roll completely.

I'm sure the Disco / American focus comes directly from the network. Tried to watch the Olympics in the past 20 years? If you ain't a bonified star or you aren't an American, you ain't on.


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## LukeVelo (Jun 26, 2006)

FondriestFan said:


> Bob Roll sucks. He's a total Lance / Discover fanboy. I'm sick of his ass-kissing of Lance, Hincapie, or any other Disco rider. Man, Bob, STFU. Stop smoking that freaking weed.


Bob Roll is on the payroll and the kool-aid. Disco owns OLN, Bob does Trek commercials, Bob rode with Lance on training rides in GA after his chemo. If you can just accept Bobke for the salary boy, cheerleader, eating the peanuts out and Lance's poop, he's rather entertaining to watch in a train wreck kind of way. The ONLY thing that I kinda like about Bob and Al's coverage is they are actually quiet for a bit, that's prolly because they have run out of stupid things to say, but it's nice to just have some natural sound sometimes, but still, Phil and Paul rock!

If you have ever seen Team America: World Police, you can just see Bob as one of them singing, "America, f*ck yeah."


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## LukeVelo (Jun 26, 2006)

Whoops, double posting


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## halfnhalf (Apr 16, 2006)

I always get a kick out of Paul when he says " (insert any riders name here) is totally concentrated blah blah blah". When Paul says this it always sound funny, plus it makes me think of orange juice.


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## ziggurat22 (Jul 13, 2005)

Despite Al's almost complete lack of cycling knowledge (despite covering like the last 5 tours), Al is a familiar voice to New York sports fans. The guy's been on the Madison Square Garden network for nearly 20 years and has anchored/hosted pre-/post- games shows for the Rangers, Knicks, and Yankees (before they moved to their own network) as well as various specials. He's still there. 

You gotta give the guy some credit, whether you like him or not. He's been in the business for a long time, he covers a lot of different sports, and gives the illusion he knows a great deal about all of them.

Is Al a smug d1ckhead? You betcha. A buddy of mine and myself saw him outside of Yankee Stadium back in '93 while we were waiting for the team to arrive before a game. We asked for a picture, autograph, or something to that affect and he totally blew us off (as well as other fans).

I guess my point is that despite Al's many flaws as a commentator, his familiararity is somewhat comforting and to see him come from covering NY metro area sports for so long to such a historic international event is kind of cool.


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

i think he also does the voice overs for a hangover medication.


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## theBreeze (Jan 7, 2002)

*Al - very slight improvement over the years*

At least he has stoppped tyring to relate anything in cycling to some other sport. I haven't heard a single reference to something baseball, football or basketball yet this year. Think he's figured out that enough Americans have some bit if cycling knowledge that they don't need/want that anymore? 

I will admit that I don't watch the "enhanced" prime time coverage but record the early morning with Phil and Paul. That first half hour with Al is plenty!


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## nate (Jun 20, 2004)

LukeVelo said:


> Disco owns OLN


No, they don't.


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## Live Steam (Feb 4, 2004)

Flatlander said:


> I know it is tour time when the word resplendent re-enters the vocabulary....


"His eggs are laking!" Yup. Phil uttered these words a few stages ago. I think it was when describing Kessler's failed attempt at reaching the line on stage 2. Phil is priceless.


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## ChilliConCarnage (Jun 1, 2006)

nate said:


> Disco owns OLN..... No, they don't.


Comcast and NewsCorp own OLN.

Disco owns Disco.


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## sirthx (Dec 23, 2005)

There is obvious pressure from the network to hype American riders and I totally understand it. One of the main reasons the NHL ratings in America have sufferd over the last 10-15 years is becuase the NHL opened to European players making American hocky stars much more rare. So many players with Eastern Euro names that it no longer feels like a North american sport. OLN knows this and that's why they try to capture the American audience by constantly talking about American riders.


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## Jesse D Smith (Jun 11, 2005)

ziggurat22 said:


> Despite Al's almost complete lack of cycling knowledge (despite covering like the last 5 tours), Al is a familiar voice to New York sports fans. The guy's been on the Madison Square Garden network for nearly 20 years and has anchored/hosted pre-/post- games shows for the Rangers, Knicks, and Yankees (before they moved to their own network) as well as various specials. He's still there.
> 
> You gotta give the guy some credit, whether you like him or not. He's been in the business for a long time, he covers a lot of different sports, and gives the illusion he knows a great deal about all of them.
> 
> ...


You asked for Al Trautwig's autograph?


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## BenWA (Aug 11, 2004)

*"...around about..."*

My favorite is how Paul say's "around about" every third sentance. Ex: "Well, Phil, I reckon these riders are touching speeds of around about 80 kilometers per hour on these descents." or "Our SRM link up is showing Boonen's heart rate at around about 190 beats per minute." :thumbsup: 

I think it's funny how some people get seriously annoyed with commentary. Don't take yourself so seriously folks!

p.s. don't be hatin' on the Bobke, if 1/2 the people in cycling had a sense of humor like his things would be A-okay.


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## ziggurat22 (Jul 13, 2005)

Jesse D Smith said:


> You asked for Al Trautwig's autograph?


I don't remember for sure, but we were basically waiting for the Yankees as they arrived at the Stadium before the game. He bascially walked up with a couple of other MSG guys, and we (as well as others in the crowd standing around) were like, "Hey Al, Al, what's up?" and he acted like no one was there, just walking by. He should have given at least a 'hey' or 'hello'. I mean, we're not talking Howard Cosell or John Madden here, we're talking about a guy who had relatively high exposure on a regional sports network. At the time, very few outside of the NY/NJ/CT metro area would know who he was, and I reckon the same could be said today. 

If we were looking for autographs or pictures, it was from actual Yankees. If we did ask Al, it was out of desparation. It's not like Mattingly or Boggs, or even a young Bernie Williams was just giving out autographs at the time.


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## Sprocket - Matt (Sep 13, 2005)

*Anybody catch this comment from Phil this year???*

He actually made a comment about "little robbie hustle popping out from under Harry Potter's invisible cloak with only 200 meters to go to the line"

And my wife loves to hear Phil use the word "reckon"....

Paul and Phil get my vote... Bobke, he's entertaining... And COMPLETELY NUTS, it's fun.
Al needs to go away... We don't need a "booming announcer voice" to make the sport more favorable to the american audience... which is the only reason I think they brought him in to begin with... If I wanted that, I'd ask them to get James Earl Jones. THIS IS OLN!!!


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## Fogdweller (Mar 26, 2004)

halfnhalf said:


> I always get a kick out of Paul when he says " (insert any riders name here) is totally concentrated blah blah blah". When Paul says this it always sound funny, plus it makes me think of orange juice.


Paulisms are the norm at my house. "Honey, I've completely and utterly finished doing the dishes..." At least OLN has dropped Sam Posey from the squad. In '89, when Lemond entered Paris on fire, Posey said "His thoughts are all his own". It still haunts me in dreams to this day...


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## JHawkWX (May 4, 2006)

Can't believe you guys left off the best "phil-ism".... his pronunciation of Team "Leaky"gas. Sorry, potty humor I know, but gets a chuckle out of my wife and I every time.

Somebody tell Bobke that his hand gestures are worse than the weekend weather man on channel xx.

:thumbsup:


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## stevesbike (Jun 3, 2002)

It's actually kinda interesting to catch parts of both the morning and the evening broadcasts. Paul/Phil are typically English in their use of understatement, such as when Mayo was cracking today they said "he's in a spot of bother." That's my favorite-sounds sort of like Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin doing the commentary. Bob, on the other hand, is totally over the top. I'm sure he'll say Mayo's legs feel like a nuclear bomb exploding up a mouse's butt or something bizarre-it's a good combination


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