MLB

No ‘smart’ baseball on TV this postseason

COME to think of it, in TV terms, this was a traditional, early 21st century baseball postseason. Not only did TV pay MLB to push the postseason well beyond October, on just about every telecast someone on TBS or FOX tried to re-invent the game.

And, in keeping with modern TV tradition, there often were times when we were asked to ignore what we just saw and instead believe what we were told.

FOX’s Tim McCarver, who, last century, as a Mets then Yankees announcer, did such a good job teaching and preaching fundamental baseball, this postseason seemed eager to re-invent the game, every game.

In last night’s third inning, McCarver told us that Pedro Martinez was holding the ball extra long on the mound, trying to slow down the Yankees’ batting rhythm. OK. But during Game 5, McCarver claimed that the Yankees were stepping out of the box to alter Cliff Lee’s fast rhythm.

So which rhythm, fast or slow, did Yankees batters prefer?

But such analysis is TV’s modern alternative to silence. And although we watch games on TV to watch
games on TV, silence for more than a second or two apparently is frowned upon.

In the first half of last night’s game, McCarver’s concern with Martinez’s lack of pitch speed — only a few faster than 85 mph, he said — seemed overstated and selective. McCarver failed to mention that the two big shots off Martinez — Hideki Matsui’s two-run homer and two-run single — were on pitches registered on FOX as 88 and 89 mph, his fastest of the night.

Perhaps FOX’s best TV/baseball moment, last night, was the natural speed/no talking replay of Nick Swisher’s eighth-inning checked-swing bouncer to third, bare-handed and thrown to first for the out by Pedro Feliz. Wonderful view of a wonderful play, one that spoke for itself, no word additives, analysis or explanations needed or wanted.

YANKEES BLOG

BOX SCORE

But such moments, the last full month, were few. Too many times we were told that up is down, left is right and back is forth.

In the eighth inning of Game 5, when Alex Rodriguez tagged and scored on a fly to center, isolated tape of Rodriguez showed him taking four jog steps, before turning it on, to beat the throw. Joe Buck then noted that Rodriguez ran while watching the play over his shoulder, “to see if it [the throw] carried on to the plate.”

“Very smart base-running by A-Rod,” said McCarver.

Really? To think baseball fans once were under the impression that the best way to score from third was to run hard from the start, to not watch the play over your shoulder and to allow the on-deck batter to signal whether to slide upon reaching the plate. But now, it seems, those who choose to do it that old way don’t know the smart way to play the game.

Yup, game after game, starting with Chip Caray speaking a foreign tongue that TBS hoped would pass for baseball, it was a modern traditional TV postseason.

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Come to think of it, Part 2: How could Yankees fans complain that McCarver was overtly anti-Yankee when he praised Rodriguez for what we know to be bad baserunning?

The national anthem as performed during the World Series continues to be just one more matter of doing TV business. Last night’s anthem, sung by Mary J. Blige, was immediately followed by this from pregame host Chris Rose: “Look for Mary J. Blige’s new album, ‘Stronger,’ coming out later this year.”

Speaking of Rose, give him credit for avoiding the term “home run” throughout the Series. Last night, he went with “left the yard” and “big blasts.”

Why leave the field with the Yankees celebrating on the field, to a blimp shot then graphics introducing the “postgame show”? The game and the Series were over, what could it be confused with, the pregame show? The ESPY Awards?

phil.mushnick@nypost.com