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Hello from Ken Levine
by Ken Levine on Feb 20, 2011 12:45 AM PST
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PrintHey there. I'm Ken Levine, one of the rotating announcers that will join Rick Rizzs on Mariners radio this season. Was here with Dave in the early '90s. Just wanted to introduce myself, and thank you guys for all the info and insights you all provide on this site. I'm doing a lot of homework and find this blog to be super helpful. Who knew they were no longer playing in the Kingdome? Anyway, hope to meet a lot of you when I'm up in Seattle. Also, I'm very accessible if you have any comments or complaints you want to express personally. My home email address is bossjock@dslextreme.com. Thanks again. Look forward to talking to you.
Ken
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And after reading through your blog
You give out a lot of good pointers for writing a sitcom that doesn’t suck. If only 95% of the sitcom writers out there followed your advice…
Two and a half men is an amazing sticom that simaltaneously documents Charlie Sheen's life as he sees it...
Through liquor and whores of course
"Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly, the ill deeds along with the good and let me be judged accordingly. The rest is silence." ~ Dinobot
by beastwarking on Feb 20, 2011 10:43 AM PST up reply actions
I'm....intrigued.
Mariners/D Broncos/BSU Broncos fan in Seattle
The first rule of Lookout Landing is...
Nice of you to stop by.
If you manage to sneak in some LL references in your broadcasts this season I will love you forever.
"C'mon Joe, GET WET!" - Jon Miller
Oh, gawd...
…it would HAVE to be some sampling of Game Thread Emotion….
Any guy that's responsible for Tom Tuttle of Tacoma is alright in my book.
by wazzu93 on Feb 20, 2011 9:09 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
.
Also a nice interview on KJR with Ken about Dave Niehaus. Around minute eight is a good story of when he first met him in 1969.
Thank you for collaborating with people that gave LL 75% of its funny jokes.
The only thing better than you stopping by is if three time soap box champ Ronny Beck could register as well.
I remember your law
The leadoff walk always comes around to score unless it doesn’t. Words to live by.
Sports and Bremertonians. Because we can.
by wackomann on Feb 20, 2011 10:47 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
Crazy!
I was going through my RSS feeds and had just finished reading your post at your own blog. Then I go to my next feed and it says Hello from Ken Levine!
Welcome. I hope you know how to make animated .gifs.
Just finished perusing your blog. Every word in your Natalie Portman Deserves Better post was true.
Oh my am I ever happy you’ll be broadcasting for us. Thank you.
by katal on Feb 20, 2011 11:05 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
Yes yes
but does anyone remember Levine when he announced for the M’s? I remember him being terrible. It’s nice to see a post on here from him, and I’m certainly willing to give him another chance, but hopefully his announcing has improved.
Yes, many of us remember Ken Levine announcing for the Ms
and many of us remember it fondly: http://sbn.to/hN6QUD
Oh boy look at this constructive comment!
When a relatively well known celebrity takes the time to register here and on top of that use his real name then I would appreciate if commentators with little to no credibility would refrain from saying that he is terrible at his profession. He very graciously offered us his personal email so if you feel so compelled to criticize him, please do it privately.
Ken showed some tremendous class by opening up an avenue of communication with us, it would be nice if you could show any at all in return before you and your 6 comments ruin it for the rest of us who actually do welcome his arrive in the broadcast booth.
by Robert on Feb 20, 2011 12:27 PM PST up reply actions 42 recs
I suspect he wants to hear both the good and bad.
Confident professionals usually do and Levine strikes me as a confident guy.
I remember him back in the ‘90s and I really liked him. I also remember that a lot of people didn’t like him. I guess his humor is not for everyone, but that’s probably a sign of quality. Looking over old LL threads , you’ll find a wide variety of opinions on him, including this hilarious comment from Jeff:
When helium wants to make a funny voice it breathes Ken Levine.
Good luck, Ken! Glad to have you back.
by morrow on Feb 20, 2011 1:17 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs
Constructive criticism would be one thing.
“He was terrible” isn’t an example of that.
No, it wasn't constructive, but it was honest.
And since Ken is “opening up an avenue of communication with us” I would imagine he’d appreciate honest opinions. If we only encourage positive responses, it makes the praise less meaningful.
I cannot and won't speak for Ken
but, if it were me, no I wouldn’t appreciate honest but nonconstructive opinions. Those are lazy. If someone cannot bother to come up with a critique of value then why should anyone bother to care to know what that person thinks?
I am not enforcing hegemony or groupthink, but this is elementary grade level social skills at play here.
by Matthew on Feb 20, 2011 3:11 PM PST up reply actions 11 recs
I don't have any problem with your characterization of the original post.
I’m only suggesting that he might appreciate a forum where he’ll receive honest feedback. It has nothing to do with any individual comment. But giving the admonishment “if you feel so compelled to criticize him, please do it privately” discourages people from giving criticism whether it’s constructive or not. Also, Ken seems to welcome honest dialogue since he wrote: " Also, I’m very accessible if you have any comments or complaints you want to express personally."
Either way this isn't really the place
Mr. Levine is doing something nice for us here by reaching out to us. That’s not the time to criticize him.
If I mow your lawn for you, the correct response is “Thank you” not “You’re a terrible broadcaster.” It’s common courtesy.
That doesn’t mean he should be immune from criticism, but that doing it right here and right now is a little bit misplaced.
Determined, Jonesing Commentor
Honestly, I hadn't thought of it that way.
I suppose you’re right, though. If he’s doing LL a favor, then by all means, if you can’t say something nice you shouldn’t say anything at all.
I posted this
before going to work today, and I was curious whether there would be any reaction. I’m glad there was, and I’ll go into a little more detail for Matthew’s sake. I was in high school when he was here, and I’m not going to pretend that I remember everything super clearly, but what I remember is someone who wasn’t interested in the M’s. Obviously, not everyone can be Dave, but I thought he was condescending, and uninterested in baseball and the Mariners. I thought his voice was high and annoying and his humor didn’t get through to me. LIke I said in the original post, I’m certainly willing to give him another chance, and maybe he’s improved or maybe my taste has changed. By the way, saying he’s better than Valle and Blowers isn’t high praise.
by mikethomas22 on Feb 20, 2011 7:47 PM PST up reply actions
So, you're saying your opinion is uninformed, or at least informed by hazy memories.
Also, writing something to provoke a reaction is pretty close to trolling. You’re entitled to your own opinions, but not your own rules for posting on the site/behaving around others.
And, if you like the humor on LL, you’ll probably like Levine better now.
by yuniform on Feb 20, 2011 7:52 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs
You're entitled to your opinion.
The problem is that voicing it in this forum is an absurdly dickish thing to do.
by Aaron Campeau on Feb 20, 2011 8:50 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
When you have an unexpected guest come to your house
do you criticize their haircut, clothes, and car right in front of them after you invite them in?
Ken Levine, whom I do not know nor have I ever met, was nice enough to come here and say “hey boys and girls, just wanted to say hi”, and you proceed to be a dick. Nicely done.
As others have said, if you have problems with Mr. Levine, that’s one thing, but in a thread that he himself authored either be nice about it while he’s here or shut the hell up.
by pdb on Feb 20, 2011 9:17 PM PST up reply actions 4 recs
Hm.
I think when I heard Ken Levine the first time, I was considerably older than you are now.
And I thought of him as humorous, entertaining (more so than the team that was playing at the time) and an offbeat choice as a color man. He certainly cracked Dave up numerous times. He certainly wasn’t uninterested in the Mariners. And he was an above average choice for an announcer at the time.
I think my opinion is worth at least as much yours.
Ken Levine has always been my 2nd favorite ever M's announcer.
I’m excited to see that not change this year.
"Life does not cease to be funny when people die, anymore than it ceases to be serious when people laugh." - George Bernard Shaw
by Tyler Jorgensen on Feb 20, 2011 2:53 PM PST up reply actions
Ken Levine is the most awesome thing in the history of awesomeness.
What're ya gonna do with those pies, boys?
Ken's tribute to Dave following his passing was absolutely supurb.
Wonderful writing.
"A bad day at the track is better than a good day at the office."
And Down The Stretch They Come | @PressThePace
Oh and I can't wait to listen to you on the radio.
I don’t think I had the chance to listen to you before
I still use DSL
Mariners/D Broncos/BSU Broncos fan in Seattle
The first rule of Lookout Landing is...
by appleshampoo on Feb 20, 2011 3:29 PM PST up reply actions
No. DSL (all else being equal) is superior to cable.
With cable, your speed is limited by your neighbors usage (its a shared connection).
Writing from beautiful Yuma, AZ
by Ballard Erik on Feb 20, 2011 6:49 PM PST up reply actions
Sure, but...
A lot of DSL providers have slow backbone networks and so they slow down as well. And really, when is all else EVER equal? At least here in Minnesota, cable offerings are so much faster than DSL, it’s hilarious. A very small number of people can get an expensive super-DSL from Qwest, it’s fiber to the node, but it’s STILL not fast than the high end cable and almost no one can get it ye t.
And it’s pretty rare to actually see slow downs, at least out here. And they are usually of the form of “Darn, only ten Mbps instead of my usual twelve to sixteen. How are you mister DSL? Still cruising at 7.5 Mbps?”
I've always objected to cable for exactly the reason mentioned - the speed isn't consistent.
And now I just upgraded my DSL to 19 Mbps (still only 1 Mbps upload, though), so I couldn’t be happier.
I like using semi-colons; they make me feel smart.
I haven't looked for internet in a while but I assumed DSL was for people who lived out in the boonies and didn't have cable available
I was also under the assumption that DSL was the same price as cable but considerably slower. I guess I was wrong.
I'm surprised Mr. Levine hasn't weighed in on the whole DSL vs. cable thing.
Maybe he has a dial-up connection.
I always thought DSL stood for dick sucking lips
by Dewey N on Feb 21, 2011 11:48 AM PST up reply actions 3 recs
This is, in fact, a post welcoming Ken Levine to Seattle
Can we keep it that way please?
by pdb on Feb 21, 2011 1:04 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
I live ten poles from Comcast:(
DSL from Frontier just arrived last week! A whooping 2.5 Mbps on a good day. It is my best option. Don’t expect any animated Gif’s from me.
This is really cool, thanks for stopping by!
Great blog, too. I totally agree with your thoughts on “Cedar Rapids.”
Milton Bradley apologist
by sanford_and_son on Feb 20, 2011 12:27 PM PST reply actions
If you have any pull at all within the Mariners organization
I plead for you to follow through with the suggestion you made in your book 20 years ago and to have the Mariners hold Bat night on the same night as 1 dollar beer and delinquent teen night.
by Robert on Feb 20, 2011 12:34 PM PST reply actions 10 recs
Welcome bsck to the booth Ken!
I was a little too young when you were in the booth the first time, but from what everyone here says I am exciting to hear you this year.
Well, I remember hearing Ken when he was in the booth...
…and I thought he was fine. I like Ken better than Dave Valle, Ron Fairly, or Mike Blowers – two of whom will be in that booth this year. While clearly not an “insider,” he kept the mood light and humorous: “Welcome back to the Kingdome, where the Rangers are killing the Mariners…” And they were.
"Who knew they were no longer playing in the Kingdome?"
Haha. Welcome back, Ken. We’re gonna need as many old friends as we can get this year. Nice to have you back on board.
"Gold medal, silver medal, bronze medal; for me, potato." - Emil Zatopek
I am thrilled to have you back as an announcer
I was quite young during your first stint as a Mariner’s announcer, but I still remember you being hilarious. One of my favorite lines that you said back then was during a rather depressing game during a rather depressing (routine) Mariner’s season. You said something to the effect of:
“listening to Mariner’s baseball is like reading a Stephen King novel. Don’t do it in the dark. It’s too scary.”Looking forward to having you back.
by Attractive Nuisance on Feb 20, 2011 5:37 PM PST reply actions
Given your writing prowess, I have to say I'm very ashamed to see your inappropriate apostrophe use
:(
Determined, Jonesing Commentor
Oh, I thought the announcer rotation,
meant that each Mariner got their own announcer.
by Attractive Nuisance on Feb 22, 2011 8:54 AM PST up reply actions
Given your writing prowess, I have to say I'm very ashamed to see your inappropriate comma use
:(
Determined, Jonesing Commentor
by Corco on Feb 22, 2011 11:45 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Whatever dude,
you put a hyphen in “un-quarantined.”
by Attractive Nuisance on Feb 22, 2011 4:37 PM PST up reply actions
I also said SW Nebraska was the worst and SW Nebraska is one of the best parts of the country
I was a young idiot back then
Determined, Jonesing Commentor
and SE Wyoming sucks and SE Wyoming is the best part of the country, hands down
Determined, Jonesing Commentor
Wyoming is a punishment.
Dawg! He put da team on his back!
Die in a fire that is just warm enough to eventually burn you but not so warm you demise quickly
Determined, Jonesing Commentor
It would still be preferable to spending time in Wyoming.
Dawg! He put da team on his back!
I am happy you were one of the announcers they picked
I always enjoyed it when you filled in, looking forward to listening to you this season.
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.
Batting Pi
I forget the player who was batting .314 at the time. But i remember Ken saying he was batting pi. He then said “Only me and a couple engineers out there will get that reference.” I’m neither Ken nor an engineer but i loved that remembered that to this day.
Welcome aboard! I'm curious to hear your stance on volcanos?
Dawg! He put da team on his back!
Thanks for stopping by, Ken!
I appreciated your tribute to Dave Niehaus, and am looking forward to your contributions in the booth!
Welcome back
Don’t change a thing, in my mind you are in the top two of my favorite announcers. I’m sure Tom Hanks agrees.
Welcome.
Ken, I still remember your quip about Felix Fermin and his nickname El Gato, which you said was Spanish for “The Gato.”
I also really liked your book, which in retrospect is a great tribute to Niehaus. I know you blog a ton, but if you ever put out another book on baseball, you’d have at least one buyer. (Is that enough to get a book deal?)
Expressing my opinion
about his announcing skills is extremely dickish? Have any of the authors of this blog ever expressed their opinions about our announcers in a negative fashion? The answer of course is yes. LIke I’ve said twice now, I’m going to wait to see how I feel this time around, but my original opinion of him was not good at all.
By the way, I didn’t say I was writing to provoke a reaction, I said I was curious whether there would be a reaction. If people aren’t curious about potential reactions, then the whole idea of forums pretty much falls apart.
Expressing your opinion in a post where the man introduces himself to this community is extremely dickish, yes.
If you were introduced to someone for the first time you wouldn’t shake their hand and say “by the way, I think your shirt makes you look like a fucking idiot” would you? I’m guessing no.
by Aaron Campeau on Feb 20, 2011 9:12 PM PST up reply actions
Well, more to the point...
….he expressed it in a dickish way.
I think there were ways of expressing it more diplomatically it. (And the first time he comes to the site, I think you should be diplomatic).
My problem, as a lot of people's seem to be
is not how he expressed it, though. it’s WHERE. Ken Levine wrote this post. Ken Levine took the time to introduce himself to us, and common courtesy should dictate that, even if you hold the same opinion as mikethomas22, you keep it to your damn self in a post authored by Ken Levine, and express that opinion elsewhere if you feel the need to.
I don’t think anybody begrudges mikethomas his opinion, but good heavens was this an inappropriate place to do so.
by pdb on Feb 20, 2011 9:43 PM PST up reply actions 4 recs
You have expressed your original opinion and been roundly criticized for where you expressed said opinion
and then you do it again? Really? Are you that tone-deaf?
OK
Mr. Levine (or anybody else) walks up to you on the street, says “Hi Mike Thomas! I’m Ken Levine. Nice to meet you!”
If your mother taught you anything (anything!) about manners, your response wouldn’t be “You suck at your job.”
If it were, you’d be liable to get your ass kicked.
Just because this is the internet and not the “real world” doesn’t give you license to behave differently.
Determined, Jonesing Commentor
Ken
I am truly excited to have you back in the booth. Humor is very important when watching sports, or as the Mariners like to call it, “sports”. Can’t wait to hear you again, and thanks for stopping by Lookout Landing!
Oh, by the way....
….Welcome to LL. A congenial place, kinda like Cheers. And composed of folks who share your sensibility more than they think they do….
Hi Ken,
I’ve never heard you broadcast before, but I’m impressed that you took the time to introduce yourself here, and I look forward to hearing from you in the coming months.
Welcome to LL!
I was too young to hear you the first time.
But by all means you sound terrific and I will try to listen to the radio to hear you broadcast. Welcome back and welcome to LL!
Yeah but we could make anyone a moderator just for the reaction it would provoke from Robert.
Jeff should make AK1984 mod for a day.
Welcome Ken!
Look forward to hearing you again!
"I've seen prison breaks with more organization and cooperation than this"
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