FanSided

The Legends of Nightmares happened during a Diamondbacks game?

By Jake Oliver |
Apple TV+ MLB Dbacks vs Cubs
Apple TV+ MLB Dbacks vs Cubs / Ronald Martinez/GettyImages
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A true story of Apple TV+'s Friday Night Baseball coverage between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs was truly a Legend of Nightmares, at least to those watching it. According to Katie Nolan, Cliff Floyd, and Stephen Nelson, the Dbacks' Legend's Race was the true Legend of Nightmares. Katie would've liked their "necks to be shorter" or so the runners "can't see". That's just one of many issues that plagued this coverage. There are plenty of comments on Twitter about this coverage. I guess negative publicity is still good publicity?

Heidi Watney too often sounded like a robot due to audio issues I presume? The bias towards the Cubs was clear as Stephen Nelson made fun of Daulton Varsho's bunting. You must have an Apple Account to be able to watch the Diamondbacks vs Cubs game, and if you do, then it's free to view. However, that is just too much work, since now you have to worry about when games are on Bally Sports, Fox Sports, MLB Network, ESPN, Peacock, and Apple TV+. I highly doubt people want to do that.

Cliff Floyd needed help saying lines, and Katie Nolan was making fun of his struggles. Stephen Nelson kept announcing players' names wrong and then laughing about it. To his credit, he did own up to it at least. The entire broadcast felt incredibly slanted towards the Cubs or just nonsense. Of course, that's when they actually would talk about the game or the teams. Too often, they would just get lost in their own conversations and miss plays that were happening.

When Christian Walker was walking up to an at-bat, the announcers felt they needed to point out how Walker just gives them "country vibes" and almost missed the fact that he got a run-scoring hit.

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Perhaps one of the most bewildering moments is when they are singing the Cubs' praise and saying how the Cubs just do "the little things right". The Cubs are 11-19 yet they are acting like they are the ones who have the Diamondbacks' 17-15 record. To be fair, the announcers definitely trashed on the Cubs at times too, but it certainly felt way more towards the Diamondbacks.

Heidi Watney kept trying to get Luis Gonzalez to come into the pool with her, despite then asking him how his family is doing. It was a clearly awkward interview. To make it even more awkward, Heidi's forced to wear giant headphones that keep making me think she is wearing giant white ear muffs.

For more on how this broadcast went, check out the next slide, surely it gets better right?

The Diamondbacks were stuck on Apple TV+, but had awesome uniforms
The Diamondbacks were stuck on Apple TV+, but had awesome uniforms / Norm Hall/GettyImages

Cliff Floyd needed help saying lines, and Katie Nolan was making fun of his struggles. Stephen Nelson kept announcing players' names wrong and then laughing about it. To his credit, he did own up to it at least. The entire broadcast felt incredibly slanted towards the Cubs or just nonsense. Each of them struggled to say words or names such as "Mesquite High School", "Disseminated", or even "drives". Also, I've never heard a ball hit "fast", I've heard "hard" or "strong", but never fast. Thought that was an interesting way to describe a ball hit off the bat.

When Christian Walker was walking up to an at-bat, the announcers felt they needed to point out how Walker just gives them "country vibes" and almost missed the fact that he got a run-scoring hit. I know one thing and it's that these announcers made me miss Steve and Bob so much. Bally Sports would do well learning some from Apple when it comes to cameras and information.

There were some positives to the broadcasts. The Camerawork was excellent and way better than Bally Sports Arizona. Plus, while the information on the screen could get to be too excessive, a lot of it was cool and interesting like the %chance of a player hitting into a double play or HR.

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Two parts I really enjoyed were Gonzo saying that the best acquisition the Dbacks made in the off-season was getting Brent Strom to be the team's pitching coach. I loved that. Then, I'm hoping it's true, the announcers attributed a quote to Strom saying "Give me 48 hours with Mark" to get Melancon right after some struggles in the 9th inning by the Shark.

I know one thing, I won't be missing Cliffy, Katie, or Stephen. I sincerely hope this is the last Apple Game for the Diamondbacks this year. I will be enjoying the Legend's Races that occur at the Diamondbacks games.

Don't just take my word for it. Look at these tweets.

At least the Diamondbacks proved that they could win against a strong team like the Cubs. 4-3 was the score of the win with a season-high 12 hits. Mark Melancon gets back on track with a Save. The team is 15-7 since April 20th. Not bad at all. Thank God the Dbacks aren't on Apple TV+ next week though.

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