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In addition to not winning this season, the Angels were without popular television analyst Rex Hudler. In analyzing the site metrics for my Angels blog the two most popular search terms embody the past and future of the team: day in and day out "Rex Hudler" is neck and neck with "Mike Trout". Someone in corporate America has to eventually take notice of Rex's market share.
One can imagine Rex would be best served with syndicated radio show to maintain his profile until a good analyst gig opens up (perhaps he sends a thank you card to Rob Dibble this season). How do you feel about Rex with a Hud-less season in the books? Is it time to move on or would a return of his enthusiasm and insight complement a Victor Rojas telecast? Would you specifically make time to listen to a Rex Hudler radio show? Could Rex carry a program that stretches beyond Angels baseball and incorporates all sorts of sports talk?
1 recs | 46 comments
Short answer: no
He’s not terrible, but all he brought to the table was enthusiasm.
scareduck - September 16, 2010
don't forget his game ball
pretty sure one lucky fan got a souvenir after each game thanks to him.
2pintsofbooze - September 16, 2010
I got it one time!
Just to throw that in there.
angelskid2210 - September 16, 2010
TMI
Downing Rules - September 16, 2010
Ducky, you are correct, sir.
yeswecan - September 16, 2010
I think he brought more to the table than that
I think he also brought a genuine love for the game, its fans, and people in general.
Don’t get me wrong; I was one of the loudest voices here calling for his removal from the broadcast booth during the game. But I never called for his complete banishment, and it was a blunder for the team to do that.
Hud was always a great tonic when the team hit a rough spot; in such cases, he’d always come on Angel Talk with Terry just to cheer up the faithful. It always worked for me.
rspencer - September 17, 2010
His absence...
is the reason for this horrible season. I blame whoever fired him.
angelsfan7 - September 16, 2010
just get Gubi and his cliches out
Angels_48 - September 16, 2010
yeah Gubi needs to mix it up or get out of the way for an analyst with more skillz
yeswecan - September 16, 2010
I am sure Gubi is a nice person, but he just doesn't do it for me
It all seems so painfully contrived. At least Hudler was entertaining.
stolenbases - September 17, 2010
The brodcast booth without Rex Hudler is like our lineup without Kendry Morales.
44FAN - September 16, 2010
win
feNOMINAL - September 16, 2010
Great Comparison
ryanfea - September 16, 2010
I like Rex a lot, so I'll go along with that.
wumbug - September 16, 2010
^^ THIS ^^
HalosFanInNorCal - September 16, 2010
I say, "give Victor and Rex a shot, cuz Gubi is the reason I mute mlb.tv"
…and Victor is a close 2nd in truth. I’m not a big fan of his.
K3YEROUT - September 16, 2010
honestly
I kinda really like Victor. there were 2 or 3 instances during yesterday’s game that made me either smile or lol at what he said. they weren’t jokes, but rather simple sarcastic remarks, either towards what Gubi had just said, or to a call the ump made. it reminded me of something I would’ve said at that moment, since I too am very sarcastic. he’s very subtle about it, which makes it even better.
for instance, yesterday when Gubi was commenting how the weather would be much different when they go down to TB, Vicotor said something to the extent of “I was under the impression the weather would be exactly the same as it is here in Cleveland.” silence immediately followed, and it made me wonder if Gubi was sitting there all pissed that Victor just called his ass out. either way, I loved it.
2pintsofbooze - September 17, 2010
I do too
Victor has definitely improved and I like his sense of humor that sometimes leaves Gubi speechless followed by Gubi’s “did you really say that?” giggle. Would love to have Rex back partnered with Victor if possible.
NJinHB - September 17, 2010
yup
ANewFoundThrice - September 16, 2010
The broadcast booth without Rex Hudler is like our lineup without Rex Hudler
Better, but not as entertaining.
yeswecan - September 17, 2010
I miss him
and his enthusiasm would’ve been quite handy to carry us through this doldrum of a season. I would have loved to have heard him calling the game Kendry went down in just to see what he had to say.
also I think him and Victor would’ve made for a great combo.
2pintsofbooze - September 16, 2010
I agree. this season went flat and Rex would have made lemonade out of lemons
or something like that.
who knows what he actually would have made…
river-z - September 16, 2010
He belongs at the rock pile before each game
And doing color for either tv or radio – I don’t care which.
Some guy named Occam says that his double dismissal is the reason this season went the way it did. And I believe him.
Zoe Necrosis - September 16, 2010
Rex, like heroin, is ok in small doses.
I wouldn’t mind if he took the place of Mota… have him do some pregame bullshit.. or fill in on the radio so I can get my fix.
clover_black - September 16, 2010
Someone actually prefers Lodge to Hudler?!?!
I didn’t realize he had such a large immediate family.
RedFog - September 16, 2010
My sig says it all.
Teixeira Who? - September 16, 2010
Lodge sucks...plain and simple!
K3YEROUT - September 16, 2010
^^THIS^^
angelsfan7 - September 16, 2010
But... but.... 714-TICKETS!!!!!!
red floyd - September 16, 2010
The funny thing is I might have used them to buy tickets...
…but he has made it so I’ll NEVER use them.
Wonder if they think it’s been good for business or bad.
RedFog - September 16, 2010
As someone who works for a search engine that rhymes with Foogle...
…I can tell you that the frequency of your referring search terms in your web analytics reporting doesn’t really tell you much about the “market share” or fan popularity.
All it likely tells you is this:
This site is a baseball site with high Pagerank that has had some prominent frontpage articles that mention Rex Hudler — moreso than other Angels websites, so when someone searches for “Rex Hudler” this site tends to always pop up in the first pages of search results. Other sites don’t rank as high and have not gossiped about Hudler as often.
It’s self-reinforcing. If one does a search for Juan Rivera or Torii Hunter, Halos Heaven is not among the top ten results typically. But because, Rev, you chatter a lot about Rex in print, and folks have historically linked to some of that chatter, Rex Hudler continues to drive some traffic here, because historical HH articles about Rex appear in the top results.
If you want a more objective view, I suggest the Google Insights for Search tool. There haven’t been enough searches on “Rex Hudler” in the past 30 days to even trigger the charts.
Turks Teeth - September 16, 2010
You bring up some good poitns, but I'm in the top results for Phyz
and nobody is searching for him.
Rev Halofan - September 16, 2010
And nobody's writing about him either, outside of HH.
All I’m saying is that you may get a lot of referrals through Hudler searches, but in general, folks aren’t searching much in aggregate for Hudler. It just happens that most of the Hudler lifeline runs through Halos Heaven.
To say that more folks are searching for Scott Bakula than Scott Baio doesn’t imply much aggregate demand for either.
Maybe Hudler will get some commercial bits or something. I sympathize, but also ain’t eager to hear his hopped-up cornball action on broadcast any time soon.
Turks Teeth - September 16, 2010
so I can put you down as being on record
as happy that Gubi changed the broadcast eye level?
Rev Halofan - September 16, 2010
I just noticed
Victor follows HH on Twitter. Has to be wierd reading about himself,guess they get used to it.
NJinHB - September 17, 2010
My Phyz is also on the front page for Google images.
And Google’s new search prompts are driving me crazy. Thank you.
44FAN - September 16, 2010
*Phyz Donkey
44FAN - September 16, 2010
Never been a huge fan of Rex
But I’d take him over Gubi in a heartbeat. I hope they shuffle the deck again this offseason. Victor holds his own and I appreciate his candor while calling the game. He just needs someone more insightful and less monotone than the Gubster by his side.
dmhead - September 16, 2010
YES... dearly.
Downing Rules - September 16, 2010
Rex and Rojas
Sounds like a good tandem. I’ m sure this combo would have been much more exciting than the dullness of the Gubi- Rojas pair. I think Rojas keeps it interesting and Rex would compliment Rojas very well.
angelsownredsux - September 16, 2010
I hate to say it but here it is...Even Rex woulda been bummed out this season!
This team has so much FAIL in it…I don’t even know where to begin. (Ok, I really do, but you get the point!)
K3YEROUT - September 16, 2010
As the author of "Dear Mr. Moreno: Bring back Hud!"
on this blog way back in like April, I not only want him the fuck back but I blame the deadly disaster that is this season on the bad karma we developed for firing the sacred “Wonderdog.” (Ok, that and Kowbell’s injury . . .)
Raaddad - September 16, 2010
Without a doubt, this season's broadcasts (radio) were far more boring and less interesting.
Not only because we lost Rex and Rory (rest in peace), but last year they mixed it up and had a lot of different combinations. It kept it fresh and I didn’t tire of any combination.
So YES to REX!
Wally's World - September 17, 2010
What I don't get is how the brought him back for one guest appearance at Throwbacks...
and then he was gone again. What the hell happened there?
Downing Rules - September 17, 2010
it was at DT Disney
I think there was a question about paying for sponsorships, nuts and bolts stuff.
Rev Halofan - September 18, 2010
The Hudler Hex has ruined our season...
It seems pretty obvious at this point. No Rex, no post-season.
thetooth - September 17, 2010
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