It’s one of those modern media mysteries. If Michael Kay hates to be called a shameless Yankees shill, why does he go to such extraordinary lengths to be one?
Friday’s Red Sox-Yankees game on YES, start to finish, included the self-evident truth that there were plenty of empty seats. The Stadium was far more crowded than most Yankees home games since the new park, attached to colossally greedy pricing for tickets, eats, drink, souvenirs and parking, opened.
Still, unlike Red Sox-Yankees games played across the street — 57,000 seats, all of them occupied — empty seats could be seen here, there and nearly everywhere. Couldn’t miss ’em.
Kay didn’t have to go near the issue, didn’t have to touch it. Or he could’ve said that there’s “Another big crowd for another Red Sox-Yankees game,” or something like that.
But in the bottom of the eighth, the Yankees down by two, Alex Rodriguez on first and Robinson Cano batting, Kay chose to tell a TV audience that knew better what the kids in the playground used to call “a big, fat lie.”
“The crowd is ready to explode,” Kay said. “I don’t know how many more people you could have squeezed into this place, tonight; it’s bursting at the seams!”
Seconds later, Cano was hit by the pitch. A shot from a third-base camera as he walked to first included a background of six rows, approximately 100 seats in view, behind the Yankees dugout and up the first-base line. Half of those seats were empty.
Nick Swisher batted next, producing another couldn’t-miss-’em shot of empty seats.
The Yankees announced the attendance as 48,254, which is 2,037 short of “bursting at the seams.” But there were more empties than that.
It’s one thing for John Sterling, on radio, to holler about “another packed house” when the Stadium isn’t close to full, and now very rarely is. Most fans by now know not to believe a word he says.
But why would Kay, unless he’s a shameless Yankees shill, insult a TV audience with testimony that Yankee Stadium is overflowing when he and viewers could see that such a claim was not even close to true?
Silverman Fox visit a bad joke
FOX, Saturday night, did a good job reporting on the Jorge Posada drama. Then, in the bottom of the fourth of a scoreless game, wrecked its Red Sox-Yankees telecast by bringing in comedian Sarah Silverman for an endless, needless, awkward and excruciatingly painful episode. And I’ve had kidney stones.
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Was there ever a man with a more appropriate name than Harmon Killebrew? A fellow named Harmon Killebrew could not have been a spray hitter or middle reliever. He could only have been a big, bald, friendly guy from Payette, Idaho, who hit 573 home runs. And Killebrew didn’t use steroids or HGH, just a bat.
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Dear Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Cuomo: Seeing how OTB has been closed since December, shouldn’t someone at least dim all those OTB sign lights that burn in front of the vacant OTB at 38th and Seventh?
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Cleanup in Aisle Six: As readers have noted, Yankees radio pregames are now so loaded with sponsorships — the lineups, injury reports, stats, and such — that the national anthem is interrupted or lost to regular commercial breaks.
But when the pregame resumes, Suzyn Waldman has to say that the national anthem is sponsored by Pathmark, anyway.
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Purely as a matter of local nightly highlights, the Islanders’ re-signing of Michael Grabner, the fastest man on hockey skates, is good news.
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Friday on ESPN2, Brian Kenny’s and Teddy Atlas’ interview with Manny Pacquiao provided more reasons to root for Pacquiao. His answers, in broken English, were respectful, thoughtful and modest. In a business loaded with creeps, he just seems to get it.
Speaking of ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights,” this week’s comes from the Prudential Center in Newark. Atlas will tape his prefights segment, Friday, 1 p.m., at Carlo’s TV-famous bakery in Hoboken.
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Houston’s Bill Hall, yesterday, hit one high toward the opposite, right-field corner. He watched as he jogged to first. The ball bounced off the warning track, then against the wall. Hall jogged into second. Shoulda been on third. Big league baseball, folks.
Tough-talking Keith just a ‘paper’ tiger
Keith Hernandez’s obnoxious side is often enjoyable because it’s more comical than he likely realizes. His on-air complaint that pricey Morton’s restaurant in Cincinnati was closed on Labor Day was priceless. How dare Morton’s give its laborers off on Labor Day when Keith wants a steak!
But there was nothing funny about his gratuitous crack Friday on SNY. After the Astros’ second significant base-running mistake, Hernandez placed the blame where it seemed to belong — on third-base coach Dave Clark. What the heck was Clark thinking?
“Some savvy writer has got to ask the question,” he said. Then he sarcastically added, “Are there any left?”
But why would Hernandez wait for a savvy writer to emerge when, as a member of the media, he can walk into the Astros’ clubhouse and ask the question himself? He has media credentials, why not demand an explanation?
Funny, as a ballplayer, Hernandez was known as a difficult guy for even savvy writers to deal with, doubly so after a bad game.
Incidentally, would Hernandez dare work a game without reading the local newspapers? Not a chance. By the third inning, yesterday, he twice noted something of baseball interest he’d read in that morning’s newspapers.
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HBO’s “Real Sports,” Tuesday at 10 p.m., includes Jon Frankel’s piece on chewing tobacco. An estimated one-third of MLB players chew or dip. Bud Selig has advocated banning both. Bobby Valentine, former “closet dipper,” is heard: “It’s hard to legislate intelligence, and it’s hard to legislate personal hygiene.”
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