The Vasgersian Incident screams "emo."

We love baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and El Caminos.

Wait...uh...what's a rally monkey?

And St. Louis blows.

As someone who was watching the broadcast in San Diego I know that earlier in the game Matt V. was insulting The Gateway Arch in a way that didn't sound like he was kidding. I remember watching that top of the ninth rally, but I might have had the sound turned down. I learned to do that a couple of years ago listening to this arrogant little punk of an announcer going on as if he is the reason for the broadcast, not the game.

I'm sorry you're letting him off the hook with his "If I offended anybody ..." non-apology. The guy is a weasel, the sort of sociopath who does well because he knows how to clean up his act for those who punch his meal ticket. He has copied his approach as a cross between Jim Rome and Hawk Harrelson, half egotistical punk and half superhomer. I wish there wern't so many fans for that kind of crap, but there are. I suppose if someone has been blessed with a beautiful voice and knows something about the game, he's liable to stay on the air. Then that some people apparently like that bashing of umpires and others that he does as well as all the home town huckersterism, that guarantees more of the same.

Hey, I've adapted. Between turning the sound down and following games on the computer, Vasgersian can be the Padres announcer for the next 50 years and I'll be able to avoid him enough for me. I keep hoping his job on Fox broadcasts will expand so I can avoid him entirely. So maybe it's good that so many think this is OK. You take him.

Davidd -

Your character assasination of someone you don't know is a little disturbing. I happen to know/work with Matt and to accuse him of being a sociopath is really not cool. (Immature maybe - ok, likely - but not a bad person)

The "better-than-thou" tone of your post really doesn't match the mud-slinging content. I'm glad you are able to survive an on-air personality that you have such an apparent distaste for - there is someone like that out there for all of us. Do yourself a favor and listen to the radio. Many people disagree with you.

I'm a long time Padre fan for over 10 years and when Matt came to town there was soemthing there that annoyed the heck out of me too. I think it's when he tries to be clever and use large or alternative words; it just comes off fake.

There are times where he's all business and that's perhaps the times when he doesn't bug me as much. Other times he just seems to ramble.

That all said, I do have to respect the fact that he was invited to the 2004 Summer Olympics as one of the USA Baseball broadcasters; that's a pretty big honor if you ask me.

Love or hate him, I'm stuck with him until he leaves. I watch the Padres because they're my home team, not because Matt V is calling the game that night.

Hey anonymous creep, to distinguish you from all the other anonymous commentators,

So you don't think it's cool for me to call Vasgersian a sociopath? Do you even know what a sociopath is, idiot? I'm not writing any of this to be cool. I'm not like Vasgersian, whose biggest fault is that he does indeed act like he's the reason for the broadcast, not the game. Anyone can judge that for themselves. It doesn't require working with him. I don't dress up my meanness like Vasgersian does to try to make me look cool.

I commented here to point out that throwing out gratuitous insults is not out of character for Matt V. You don't think that's cool? Who are you? I know who I am. I know my credentials to understand someone like Matt V. Yours is that you know and work with him? So what? So he's nice to his mother?

I'd bet that it's not that so many people disagree with me. I'd bet that lots of people don't care what insults a sports personality dumps on people, like Jim Rome, like Hawk Harrelson, like how negative the San Diego Union-Tribune can be with anyone who's not winning. They just want to be entertained, and they don't care who gets hurt. There's a lot of sociopaths among them. Maybe you're one, too. Have you thought of that?

"Apparent" distaste? Did I pull my punches somewhere? I didn't mean to. I meant to be quite clear why I thing Matt V. is a first-class shmuck. Maybe you are, too. I didn't write this out of thin air, you know. Matt V. has said things that are completely unacceptable to me. They were not meant just for fun, despite Matt V.'s non-apology. That's why this post is here for me to respond to. Who are you to tell me to be nice about it? For you guys who say, "Big deal", you're missing something. Maybe you always will. Maybe you'll go your entire life not knowing how bad it is to be like Matt V. Then you can die in your sleep and another generation can figure out that there's a better way to live than with all the oneupsmanship nonsense that guys like Matt V. live by. That's the way life works. I don't need the radio to make my way through it, and I don't need advice from some bootlicker like you.

By the way, I don't know of any mental health professional who limits the use of "sociopath" to serial killers or even more common criminals. A moderate approach that sees sociopaths as those without conscience or empathy, even though they can simulate both, puts the number of sociopaths in the US at about 4% of the population. This is discussed in a couple of popular books, Without Conscience by Robert D. Hare, PhD and The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout, PhD.

To some "sociopath" doesn't require that someone have no conscience, but only a defective conscience, such as that required to insult people from the Ozarks. The number of those sorts of sociopaths in the population is many more than 4%. You can get an idea from something on my blog about that: http://openandwilling.blogspot.com/2007/04/sociopaths-are-everywhere.html

My game plan for people who insult me is tit-for-tat, even escalation when I feel like it. Call me "hypocrite". Call me any insult you want. Such insults are most likely coming from yet another sociopath who uses insults to intimidate others and stroke their own ego, at the same time avoiding the original issue, such as whether it's really OK to insult people from the Ozarks. From study of game theory, sociopathy, and my personal experience, that's the only way I see to play this game. Anyone who tires of it can stop.

Sociopaths aren't likely to care who started this sort of exchange. They'll just do whatever is expedient for them, a non-apology that they were "just kidding", a different round of insults, whatever. Anyone can see it differently if they want, but this is how I see it, and it stinks.

I thought it was hilarious.
Those that took offense should realize that he also swiped at his own team. Get your panties out of a bunch.