Sports

Yet Another ‘Burtation’? TX Broadcaster Devolves into Nonsensical Talk During Game

Here at The Blaze, we’ve made a habit out of covering burtations. What is a burtation? It’s a term Glenn Beck and his radio team has coined to describe when a broadcaster descends into seemingly unexplainable gibberish or nonsensical talk. The first one we covered was when a severe migraine caused an LA reporter to actually utter the word “burtation” on air. Then there were Canadian and Minnesota reporters. Then there was Al Sharpton. And now there is Texas Rangers baseball broadcaster Dave Barnett.

While calling Monday night’s game between the Rangers and the Padres, Barnett had an odd moment where he seemed to forget what he was doing and inserted commentary on “fifth” base and a “botched robbery”:

“A 2-1 game, the tying run on second — a lead-off single by Chase Headley. Go-ahead run is at [pause] fifth on what Adams is insisting on calling it a botched robbery. What actually happened was his henchman [pause] took piece literally out of my, his–.”

His mic seemed to go silent mid-sentence. Listen to it below, but you’ll have to turn up your volume (or you can find a better quality version here):

“While announcers spewing nonsense is pretty common place these days, Barnett’s spiel had many thinking it was the effect of some type of medical condition,” the blog Awful Announcing writes. “Reviewing the footage, it seems hard to come up with another explanation as ‘fifth base’, ‘botched robbery’, and ‘henchmen’ usually don’t enter into the baseball lexicon that often.”

Deadspin raises the idea that it could be a failed “stretched analogy” but also says it could be that “he suffered a brief medical condition.”

We looked at as many reports from the game we could find, and we didn’t see any reference to a stolen base at that time in the game or even a botched amazing play, which might have been described as a “botched robbery.” In fact, a written play-by-play from that inning on the Rangers website doesn’t seem to show anything out of the ordinary:

Rangers Broadcaster Dave Barnett Talks Nonsesne During Game | Medical Condition?

Barnett reportedly finished the game without incident. But there’s been no explanation.

What do you think?


UPDATE: The Dallas CBS station reports Barnett later told a local radio station that he suffered a migraine. The team has since announced he will miss the last two games of the current series to undergo medical observation.

Comments (28)

  • nocomment
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 6:25pm

    Obviously he had foresight to get it done but you shouldn’t call for it that way if its not needed or was,and if you can use one if you wish, but don’t stop there. Just remember, if it for me don’t answer it,

    Report Post »  
  • Pilgrimsarbour
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 4:43pm

    I know what it is. These broadcasters are listening to their iPods–podcasts of news and such during their announcing times and…get when a steeple could be projected out of…by the nerve of his time, he couldn’t get…couldn’t…the velociraptor had a turban…

    Report Post » Pilgrimsarbour  
    • ozchambers
      Posted on June 20, 2012 at 1:07pm

      That was a brilliant. Time for our postal carrier to arrived on Monday with Raisin Cain but I went for a box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes instead.

      Report Post » ozchambers  
  • kevinthewriter
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 2:34pm

    @JROOK…. I‘ll take GB’s tv and radio gibberish any day over the propaganda broadcasted on the socialist networks. It’s sad to see how brainwashed you are. Snap out of it! (and go wipe that liberal kool-aid stain off your mouth..you look ridiculous)

    Report Post »  
  • blackyb
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 1:47pm

    Most of those announcers run their mouth so much, it takes away from the game, anyway. No one tuned in to hear their gibberish. Most people want to see the game.

    Report Post » blackyb  
  • Seadawg
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 12:35pm

    In the days of Harry Caray we called that happy hour !

    Report Post » Seadawg  
  • thegreatcarnac
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 11:33am

    Talking heads in the news and on sports are ususally libs are they would not have the job. Libs are defective in everyway. Thus….their defects spill out in their speech now and then.

    Report Post »  
    • JRook
      Posted on June 19, 2012 at 1:21pm

      burtation It’s a term to describe when a broadcaster descends into seemingly unexplainable gibberish or nonsensical talk. So pretty much the GB radio and TV line up. Without question Fox News, the talking head comedy network, sets new lows in terms of presenting gibberish stories with gibberish caliber hosts, speaking…. well gibberish.

      Report Post »  
  • DoomsdayProphet
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 11:23am

    Maybe he was revealing Holder and Obama plan to plea the 5th…He’s robbed us, along with his henchmen and pleading the 5th is a logical option.

    Report Post »  
    • lornaduwn
      Posted on June 19, 2012 at 1:55pm

      Exactly what I thought! It doesn’t have the earmarks of the usual burtation, ie: slurred speech or over the top craziness. It’s as if he was trying to tell us something under the guise of a burtation before they cut him off.

      Report Post »  
  • patbarker
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 11:21am

    it is very plain to see that George W. Bush is behind this….

    Report Post »  
  • justasurvivor
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 11:16am

    I’m so very disappointed. All this time I thought it was “V”urtation. Dangit!

    Report Post »  
  • piper60
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 11:12am

    oh, well.

    Report Post » piper60  
  • ChiefGeorge
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 11:12am

    Who really knows?

    With the advent of celluar tech and towers everywhere, how do we even know how all the RF energy passing through our bodies affects each of us? On a certain day, with a certain temp, hydration, clothing, location, diet…who knows the perfect combination to make one susceptible to being influenced or in this case jammed mentally by prevalent RF signals floating throughout the ether. Our Brains are operating under electro impulses are they not? Just saying!

    Report Post » ChiefGeorge  
  • Ultra_C_
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 11:03am

    Sounds an awful lot like a teleprompter mishap. Not saying he was using a teleprompter, but perhaps he was bored and started reading something, like a news story on his iphone.

    Report Post »  
    • grudgywoof
      Posted on June 19, 2012 at 11:19am

      fiddle faddle rat trap. googleplex my asperin bottle. CARDBOARD!!!!!!!

      Report Post » grudgywoof  
  • Buddynoel
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 10:51am

    Phoenix was 115 yesterday. Brain cells smell like chicken when slow cooked. Resist we much!!

    Report Post » Buddynoel  
  • MrButcher
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 10:13am

    He had a ondition, very bad, slow-moving snail bite Cadillac….

    Report Post » MrButcher  
  • Cabo King
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 10:12am

    maybe his teleprompter failed!! Obummer blabbers when his is working

    Report Post » Cabo King  
  • RedDirtTexas
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 10:04am

    Californian coming out of him. They mostly speak nonsensical drivel anyway. Go Rangers!

    Report Post » RedDirtTexas  
  • SREGN
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 9:50am

    It’s a malfunction of the chip that is required to be implanted in all National Socialist Media journalists and commentators that only allows them to report Obama-friendly-speak. Sometimes the absurdity of the Obama administrations policies overloads the chip and it has to be rebooted.

    Report Post »  
  • muddpuddle
    Posted on June 19, 2012 at 9:41am

    This is nothing new… The obama team does this daily, inserting words and phrases that mean nothing.

    Report Post »  

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