OLD dog, old tricks. Tim McCarver, throughout this postseason, reminded us of good ol’ Tim McCarver, the one who had gone missing the last few Octobers. Not only was he on top of things, he lost that all-knowing take on matters, the one that had turned him from viewers’ companion to lecturer, the one that had made him insufferable.
Saturday, throughout Fox’s Game 3, McCarver was genuinely helpful. In the top of the second, he noted that the Red Sox had Brad Hawpe’s number, throwing him only fastballs. Hawpe then struck out on three straight fastballs.
Jacoby Ellsbury opened the top of the third with a line double past third baseman Garrett Atkins. Ellsbury’s speed, said McCarver, had forced Atkins to play in, or that ball might’ve been caught. Good point.
Best of all, McCarver stressed might’ve been caught. In recent seasons, he’d become far more inclined to tell us, in no uncertain and Joe Morgan-like terms, what would have happened, not that he knew, but only because he said so.
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Finally, ESPN has a good reason to wreck another Monday Night Football telecast. Tonight’s third-quarter guest intruder will be actor Vince Vaughn, who, yes, has a new movie, but, as ESPN notes, “is an avid sports fan.”
While we’re at it, Tony Kornheiser, once a thoughtful and amusing observer of sports, has become, perhaps at ESPN’s urging, a provocateur of silly issues that would only excite or incite goofballs.
Did Kornheiser really believe, last Monday, what he said in the first quarter, that Peyton Manning, in this game against the Jags, was out to prove he’s at least as good as Tom Brady? Did he really think this was on Manning’s mind? And then there was that “debate” he led as to who is No. 1, Manning or Brady? They can’t both be great; we can’t leave it at that? Everything and everyone on ESPN must be ranked? And when did Ding Dong School start night classes?
Later, apparently stuck for a question that had anything to do with the game being played below, Kornheiser asked Russell Crowe if he’d someday like to be in a football movie. Good grief.
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With jockey-turned-TV-commentator Gary Stevens on WFAN to discuss the Breeders Cup, Friday, Mike Francesa was at his transparent, self-serving best, starting with, Monmouth “is such a speed-favoring track, as we all know.” Yep, who wouldn’t know that?
Then he made a speech about European horses, the kind of “question” designed to impress Stevens. The desired result was achieved; Stevens told him that he really knows his stuff. “I know a little,” Francesa smugly replied. Ugh.
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The most difficult thing for the English to grasp about the NFL surely must be why every two minutes the game stops for three minutes. . . . Fox’s laugh-it-up-with-Tony Siragusa telecasts prove, yet again, that nothing forced is funny. . . . One day Manny Ramirez is going to push that helmet off while running the bases and the throw is going to hit him right in the head.
It’s always the next thing. At 13-10, Michigan, Saturday, live on ESPN Classic, Minnesota ran a pass play that disappeared behind an exploding ESPN graphic. Why was ESPN exploding a graphic over live play? Because it was returning from a cut to the studio to tell us we shouldn’t miss the halftime studio show.
Chris Carlin continues to become hysterical during his radio play-by-play of Rutgers football. Such screaming makes it difficult to know what he’s screaming about, unless he’d never before seen a fumble or an interception. . . . By the way, those were the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Saturday on ABC, the team in the black jerseys and the black pants.
That Knicks’ infomercial that has been making the rounds – Saturday, it played on Ch. 5 – at every turn begs viewers to buy tickets.
Yet, when addressing its eager-to- serve ticket sales force, a dozen sales reps are seen, all busy talking on the phone. So if there’s that kind of demand, why the infomercial? And if they’re all on the phone, why bother calling?
In Boston College-Virginia Tech, Thursday, reader “Wally From The Bronx” Kellermann identified the perfect notions-defeat-reality game: BC, ranked No. 2, was a three-point underdog on the road. But because the No. 2 team won, it wasn’t reported as an upset, even though it was.
But had Va. Tech won, it would have been widely reported as an upset, even though it wasn’t.