What's His Handicap? Public Speaking

I'm sure having former athletes make a live appearance in the broadcast booth seems like a good idea in production meetings, but in reality it's always ends up being a bit of a wild card whether they'll finish the segment without making a complete ass of themselves (see: Sutcliffe, Rick).

The Phillies recently had Mike Schmidt on the air, and while Schmidt did manage to avoid cursing or go on the air completely hammered, he still finished the appearances with his foot firmly placed in his mouth. Phillies announcer Harry Kalas innocently leads with a question about his golf game and, well, just read the transcript yourself. From Philadelphia Will Do, via the always entertaining Awful Announcing:

Harry: "It's a full count here to Willie Harris. Getting down to another sport, Michael Jack, how's your golf game?"

Mike Schmidt: "Pretty good, Harry. I've been beating the hell out of my wife pretty regularly."

Awkward pause; muted laughter

Harry: "At golf, I hope? At golf, I hope. Line drive and that's a fair ball..."

I beg you, listen to the mp3 yourself -- it's even more entertaining when you hear it live. And hey, since we're talking about the omnipotent presence that is Awful Announcing, this seems like a good place to point out that Brian Powell, the man behind the AA curtain, just did a pretty interesting interview with Larry Brown, my FanHouse colleague and world-renowned ladies man.