It's a pretty consistent theme in baseball. Great players hardly ever become great managers. It's those guys who just hung around or who had serviceable careers who end up being the best managers in the game. You don't see George Brett, Mike Schmidt, Strawberry, Ripken, Griffey, Ricky Henderson, Gwynn or those guys in major managerial roles. The theory is that the really good players were blessed with such raw natural talent that it's difficult for them to understand the struggle and relate to players who don't possess those attributes.
I was reminded of this today when I ran across Jeopardy for the first time since Alex Trebek died. I just haven't watched it.
This Jennings guy is horrible. He had a creepy demeanor when he was a contestant. That weird quirkiness is amplified here as host. He's snarky without meaning to be. Condescending with no real sense of how to do it with humor (something Trebek mastered). His voice is nasal and high pitched. It makes him hard to understand. His cadence is off. He rushes his words. His mannerisms and facial expressions are odd.
He was a great contestant, a really good player. He just isn't a good host. Jeopardy would have done better to look outside past champions to find someone to carry Alex's torch. There's no game-show host stable like there was in the 80s (Bob Barker, Bob Eubanks, Wink Martindale, Gene Rayburn, Bill Cullen, etc.) to draw from. But there must have been better choices than this. The people who used to do the video categories were good. People like Lester Holt would be solid. I would have backed Levar Burton, even.
This guy? He's a weird nerd. He's kind of a jerk. I don't see how he has the personality to sustain the show long term.
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