This time, we’ll let someone else tell the story, allow someone else to testify to how TV money, on Bud Selig’s “watch,” has claimed the soul of the National Pastime, how the Selig Era remains predicated on blind, remorseless greed.
We’ll let John Potts’ email tell the story. Potts is a veteran newspaperman who works in his hometown of Quincy, Ill., as a copy editor and layout man at the Quincy Herald-Whig. Quincy is a Mississippi River town, 98 miles from St. Louis.
Guaranteed, this story wasn’t told — or even hinted at — during last night’s Brewers-Cardinals telecast on ESPN:
“The Cardinals are hosting the Brewers, and all season have promoted this as the World Series ’82 Championship Weekend, with a ton of pregame activities involving the players and the fans — a Bruce Sutter bobblehead night, a souvenir ticket giveaway and a Build-a-Bear [a St. Louis-based business that allows children to customize stuffed animals] giveaway for kids under 12, which were to be distributed before [yesterday’s scheduled] afternoon game.
“Many Cardinals fans come from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa and several hours away in Illinois and Missouri. People plan their summer vacations based on these Cardinals weekends.
“So what do MLB and ESPN do? Move the game to Sunday night. And what a riveting game it will be — the Cards are eight games out in the NL Central and the Brewers [17 back] are unloading anyone they can.
“Of all the MLB games played on a Sunday, this is the best game for a national audience?
“So now, any family that planned to attend [the] game then make [in many cases] the long drive home, will have to a) Miss the game, b) Drive home much later [hours into this morning], or, C) Pay for another night of hotels.”
And B and C are contingent on whether Dad and or Mom can afford to miss work Monday.
Baseball in the Age of Bud.
* Funny, how big league teams that offer fans a fair deal think they’re cutting them a big break.
The Pirates last week proudly announced that the purchase of single game tickets, the rest of this season, will no longer include tack-on “convenience” and other dubious tack-on fees. Imagine, tickets sold at face value!
Media buried Braun, won’t praise him
The sports media, for the most part, often rely on a remarkably convenient ability to forget or ignore.
Imagine, for example, if last year’s NL MVP, Ryan Braun — accused, but officially cleared (and unofficially convicted) of being a drug cheat following a single, very poorly handled test — this season were hitting .240 with nine home runs and 38 RBIs.
Those who this past offseason lined up to declare him a cheat and unworthy MVP recipient would be screaming, “See? I told you so!”
But Braun’s numbers, for a sixth straight year and this season no longer with Prince Fielder batting next, remain impressive. He’s hitting .314, leads the NL with 29 homers, has 74 RBIs, a .604 slugging percentage and has been walked 44 times.
From those who just months earlier leaped to condemn and defame him as a drug cheat? Not a word. Of course, not.
* The Jets again seem well-stocked with players for whom it is impossible to root.
One day, a pro team will hire an assistant travelling secretary just to ensure that its players are driving with valid licenses.
Paul O’Neill, Saturday on YES, after the Mariners’ Jesus Montero hit a broken-bat single: “That bat will never see another major league game. It died a hero, though.”
Tennis fans can be very particular, thus it’s noteworthy how so few complaints — and many compliments — arrive about Ted Robinson, who yesterday called the Roger Federer–Andy Murray gold-medal match for NBC. Robinson, a former Mets TV announcer, keeps it smooth, unobtrusive and non-intrusive.
* During this week’s PGA Championship, TNT plans to provide some live focus on Matt Dobyns, the 34-year-old Long Island club pro from Fresh Meadows, who in June qualified by winning the PGA club pro championship — by eight shots.
While ESPN can’t wait to post — and keep posting — Olympic results on its Bottom Line crawl, imagine if the Olympics were shown “plausibly live” on ABC/ESPN instead of NBC.
Talking over … & over
Not sure why, but TV folks mostly prefer to say something — anything — to nothing.
Saturday, during a two-man Olympic beach volleyball match between Russia and the United States, NBC analyst Kevin Wong told us the U.S. coach “wanted one thing from [American] Jake Gibb: He wanted him to put 10 pounds on; he wanted more swagger, more strength.”
The guess here is that strength is a tad more essential to winning an Olympic medal than is swagger. Gibb, after all, is 6-foot-8. How much swagger does a pumped-up 6-foot-8 guy need?
Moments later, during Mariners-Yankees on YES, more odd stuff: A cut to studio man Bob Lorenz for a clip of the White Sox’s Alex Rios hitting a game-ending homer the night before against the Angels.
“No doubt about it!” Lorenz hollered.
But the video showed center fielder Mike Trout leaping at the wall, just missing the ball, which barely cleared the fence. Oh, well, believe what you’re told, not what you see.
* It used to be that morning updates from all-sports radio stations took care to give interesting night-before happenings, not just a sprint of scores heard like the disclaimer at the end of a no-money-down car commercial.
In other words, this past Saturday at 7:15 a.m., WFAN’s Jerry Recco quickly told us that the Rays shut out the Orioles, 2-0, then moved along. Well, who pitched? Every night-before shutout should, the next morning, include a pitcher identification, no?
In this case, five Rays pitched an eight-hitter. Is such info unworthy of making the cut at an all-sports station?
* Reader Frank Vignuli on the U.S./NBA Olympic team’s early wins (110-63 over Tunisia, 156-73 over Nigeria): “Brings to mind Kramer’s success in karate in that ‘Seinfeld’ episode.”