Election night is undoubtedly the most difficult night of the year for news anchors. There are a million candidates and races to keep track of, numerous data points being thrown around, and every word uttered has high stakes.
Of course, this type of information overload can lead anchors to misspeak, or at least say something in a less-than-elegant way. Unfortunately for MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, that meant completely underselling MLB legend Steve Garvey’s baseball career.
Garvey is running as the Republican Senate candidate in California against Democratic candidate Adam Schiff. As one would expect in the heavily blue state of California, Schiff is projected to win the election. But when Maddow went to update viewers on the race, her delivery was a tad clumsy.
“In California where Democratic congressman Adam Schiff is facing off against ‘baseball guy’ Republican Steve Garvey, that Senate race in California is too early to call,” Maddow said.
That labeling of Garvey’s storied Major League career apparently didn’t fly with whoever was in the control room. Maddow quickly cut back in, “I’m being informed by the control room that ‘baseball guy’ is not the right way- right thing to call him. I apologize, I’ll revise that in a moment.”
As far as election night blunders go, this is about as minor as it can get. Who could reasonably expect Maddow to possess both extensive political and baseball expertise during election night coverage?
Still, the slip-up made for a lighthearted moment during an otherwise serious night in American politics.
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About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.