Figure Skating Announcer: DICK BUTTON Love him or Hate him?

[rossshow]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv.../48-button.htm

In 1948, Dick Button became the first American to win a figure skating title and is credited with being the first to complete a double Axel in Olympic competition.

[socrfan2]

Ooh, how did I miss this one?

My favorite Dick Button story: as long as he's been broadcasting, everything is always "so unfair" and "[insert name of US skater here] was so much prettier than [insert name of evil Russian skater here]." The judges are biased, it isn't fair, they don't give our skaters a fair shake, etc., etc., etc.

Then, Scott Hamilton comes along, and for probably the first time since Peggy Fleming, a US skater is the current established #1 King. And he goes out for his long program at "his" Olympics and lays an absolute egg -- a program that, objectively graded, might have been the worst of the night.

But now Button's commentary is 180 out from what he's been saying all these years when it's the American underdog trying to catch the Russian favorite. Now, it's "just remember, when he wins the Gold Medal, as he inevitably will, that the judges aren't voting on tonight's performance, it's his entire body of work" and "he's been so good for so long, and tonight he gets the medal he so deserves."

Where's that barf smiley. Oh, here it is.

Dick Button is a has-been putz (and I think his commentary is bitchy). His great achievement in the sport is a double axel...a jump that the average 8-year old girl skater can handle today. And his claim to fame (and therefore, what keeps him employed as a commentator) is that he can tell a toe loop from a salchow on the fly...not that anyone in the spectating audience much cares. And he can say, "OOOOOOOhhhhhh! Too bad!" with the best of them, with a pseudo-"I give a shit that X skater just fell on his/her ass" tone (but usually implying that they "deserved" to end up there since they commited some skating "sin" like failing to complete a rotation, or two-footing a landing.

Yeah, right, Dick. Let's see you in a death spiral, and then we'll talk.

Beth

[kailin]

I enjoy watching any figure skating competitions -- because I've never been able to learn to skate (tried, but have always had weak ankles) -- enjoy having the detailed descriptions of the techniques.

Have never paid much attention to who is describing the moves -- there's a female announcer I hear a lot.

btw, Michelle Kwan was offered a commentary post with NBC for this Olympics, but declined. Said she didn't want to be any distraction.

I'll predict that we'll hear her as an announcer in the future, though.

I like to compare her to Beverly Sills in opera -- I hope she'll be allowed to play a similar kind of role for her sport as Ms. Sills has for the Met and for opera.

hmmm -- I was just a baby when Dick Button won that medal -- there's something amazing to me about people who stay with one passion like that for their ENTIRE lifetime!

[kim]

mine is the - "don't know" - vote...

um - who is dick button...?

- i don't think that i've watched the olympics since something like 1973...

:sticktnge

[Heartland]

Can't stand him. He's catty and petty, and he's consistently negative about almost everyone. He takes so much away from the joy of spectating. Any announcer who thinks it's okay to say that a skater's costume looks like his dining room drapes is in the wrong line of work. He even went so far as to mention one skater's "lovely figure" this week ... as if they all don't have awesome bods. Get rid of him. Michelle Kwan will be more than welcome by me to take his place.

[Heartland]

http://www.frogsonice.com/skateweb/a...k-button.shtml

The Dick Button Drinking Game:

Here's a drinking game all skating fans can play the next time ABC broadcasts a skating event.

Some of you may be familiar with "Hi Bob," the game in which you watch an old episode of "The Bob Newhart Show" and drink everytime someone on the show says "Bob" or "Hi Bob." Well, my drinking game is called "Hi Dick."

Here's how you play:

Every player has his or her poison of choice at the ready. Rules are as follows:

Each player picks a skater in the competition. If the skater is known to be one Dick Button likes (Brian Boitano, Paul Wylie, etc.), that player has to drink every time Dick praises him/her for even the slightest little move. If the skater is known to be one Dick Button dislikes (such as Alexei Urmanov), that player has to drink whenever Dick criticizes him/her. If he criticizes the skater for being unmotivated, the player has to chug.

Every time Dick utters the word "nice" or the phrases "first rate," "this young lady," or "this young man," everyone has to take a drink. If he says "HOW nice!", everyone has to chug.

Also, everyone has to chug when Dick calls upon his Harvard erudition to describe a skater, or a situation at a skating event, in a way that only he seems to comprehend (such as calling Kate Robinson "the quintessential pre-Raphaelite heroine").

I hope everyone has fun playing "Hi Dick." I am sure that if you play the game according to the rules, you will wake up at some time the next day with a hangover the size of Dick's ego, muttering, "Who won anyway?"

[kim]

i have since realized - (since i last posted in here) - that - i do remember - from - a way long time ago - who dick button is...

[kim]

p.s. i just thought - you all - would / should / be happy - to know...

[Steamcleaner]

Thank you Ramona. I know that I am very happy knowing that you remembered....anyone else.....anyone -- ???

[kim]

you're welcome...

do you want to know - how - i remember...?

well - everybody - just - must - want to know...

so - i shall tell...

back when i was five - i used to sneak into baseball games - there was an old - wroght iron fence - around this baseball field - and - some years previously - super strong person - (like popeye) - had - bent the iron - so there was - a tiny little space - that a five year old - could squeeze through...

and - after i'd squeeze through - i'd run up to the top of the bleachers - to the press box...

since i was such a cutie - all the sports press guy's liked me - they'd let me stay - and - i'd sit up there with them...

i got to know - bob uecker - among others...

- so anyway back in those days i sort of followed who various sports press people were...