Sports

OREL ANALYSIS WAY OFF BASE

IN the 27 years I’ve written this column, I’ve never once sat down to watch a game as a TV/radio critic. I’ve watched and listened as a sports fan, one happy who’s to tune to any game.

But these days, almost invariably, I can’t watch or listen for more than a few minutes before something is seen or said that absolutely defies sense, leaves me floored. There has never been a time when more fantastic, preposterous TV and radio has been presented, as if it were the time of day.

Saturday, on ABC/ESPN, a team from a town in Japan was playing a team from a town in Mexico in a Little League World Series semifinal. In the fifth inning, when I got there, the Mexican team was up, 5-2.

And that’s when ESPN baseball analyst Orel Hershiser, a former big-league pitcher, revealed the story behind the story: This isn’t just a game between 12-year-olds; it’s a crusade, with the self-esteem of an entire nation’s children at stake.

“Mexico,” said Hershiser, growing pumped, “is getting ever-so-close to avenging the loss in 2006. That loss has been printed on all the Little Leaguers in Mexico, and if they ever got here to Williamsport and got to play Japan, that’s what they talked about; that’s what they wanted.”

Hershiser didn’t explain how he knew this, how, he knew that two years ago 10-year-olds throughout Mexico swore vengeance on Japan for a loss in a LL game, and that now a team of 12-year-olds was close to fulfilling this mission of retribution. But it sounded like complete nonsense, crazy talk. Why bother with such an ugly, exaggerated sell, especially to those already watching?

If what Hershiser said was even fractionally true, why didn’t he condemn it as twisted, as having nothing good to do with kids playing baseball? Are kids supposed to play ball for vengeance or for fun?

After the game, as the kids lined up and shook hands, they looked like kids shaking hands. It was hard to tell that it was either the conclusion – or the latest chapter – of something much, much bigger.

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The Emperor’s Same Old New Clothes: Mike Francesa is so transparent he’s comical. Friday, in his first Dog-less annual trip to broadcast from Bar A on the Jersey Shore, Francesa kept repeating, “This is our biggest crowd ever!” Whatever you say, Mikey.

Is America supposed to be proud that a team of NBA all-stars seems to have behaved at the Olympics? Well then, OK! . . . To answer a question I wasn’t asked, Olympic water polo has two OT periods, followed, if still tied, by a best-of-five shootout. Thus, it is possible to win in a walk-off, er, swim-off, paddle-off.

HBO’s next “Real Sports,” tomorrow at 10 p.m., includes a strong piece on how personal seat licenses and new ballparks have longtime New York sports patrons tapping out or getting out. (Again, whatever corporation buys naming rights to the new Giants/Jets stadium, fans owe it to themselves to call it “PSL Stadium.” Pass it on.)

In the gold-medal Olympic baseball game Saturday, South Korean catcher Kang Min-ho was ejected by Puerto Rican ump Carlos Rey Cotto for arguing balls and strikes. Left unanswered is how either knew what the other was saying.

Keith Hernandez yesterday explained his only career steal of home – on a wild throw to third by Expos catcher Gary Carter. “The scorers in Montreal were French and didn’t understand the game.”

Perhaps the weekend’s most impressive achievement belonged to the Golf Channel. Danny Lee, 18-year-old Korean-born New Zealander and the world’s No. 1 amateur, yesterday won the U.S. Amateur with 13 birdies and just two bogeys in 32 holes. Unreal.

phil.mushnick@nypost.com