Down in front!
Among the oddest things about modern sports TV is that its shot-callers keep forgetting that it’s TV. They want to turn it into something else, like radio or a book.
It’s as if they bought a fabulous new car, and now they’re going to strip it for parts to make a scooter out of it. Or a flower pot.
Hey, here comes an idea, now:
During the third inning of every Yankees telecast, let’s shove the game it into the background, make it secondary.
Instead of allowing viewers to pay full attention to the game, let’s have a reporter,
on-camera somewhere in the stadium, speak endlessly, answer questions about all sorts of things big, small and smaller, things like whether someone sent to Trenton has been working on his change-up.
And if there’s nothing worth discussing for more than a few seconds, just keep going; force it, fill it; find something to talk about.
And if the mostly on-camera session lasts all three outs — or anything worth focusing on in the game occurs — so what? Give it a glance, then keep going! On with the rap session!
Never mind. Bad idea. That would never happen. What sense would it make? YES knows better than that. We all know better than that.
➤ If Michael Kay had a better sense of why baseball fans tune to Yankees telecasts, he would have put the kibosh on the mere idea to have an in-game poll and extended chat as to who would play him in the movies … unless the choices were among silent movie stars.
Time to refund MLB fans for start-time changes
Baseball in the Age of Bud:
As long as MLB continues to pull these Sunday baits-and-switches — Sept. 11’s Cubs-Mets has been moved from
1 p.m. to 8 p.m. for ESPN — why can’t MLB do the half-decent thing and return the ticket money to those who don’t wish to attend or can’t attend on a school/work night?
Queens Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. says such “flex-for-TV-money” scheduling concerns him:
“In Queens, Sunday afternoon is family time. Sunday at midnight isn’t, unless you’re the Addams Family. MLB should not put parents and working adults in this difficult position. It should, at a minimum, provide a credit.
“When my father told my brothers and me that we were going to a game, we’d be excited for weeks. This policy ensures that the one thing that shouldn’t happen — doing wrong by kids — will happen.”
By definition, Sunday night Eastern Time Zone games aren’t scheduled because they’re burdensome. And the Sunday games that are moved for ESPN don’t even begin at 7 p.m., when night games normally begin, but at 8 p.m.
There’s not a team owner or commissioner whose father took him to late Sunday night games. They didn’t schedule them. That’s because to do so would have been ridiculous.
* With the future of the Islanders on L.I. up for referendum tomorrow, Mike Francesa devoted a big chunk of his Tuesday show to what he billed as “an objective,” both-sides-heard approach to the Nassau Coliseum renewal proposal.
Good idea, but fat chance. Francesa’s theme show ran into a problem that couldn’t be overcome: Francesa.
His opening interview with Nassau County Democratic chair Jay Jacobs was destroyed by Francesa, who wouldn’t allow Jacobs to complete a sentence. He interrupted or shouted over every answer Jacobs tried to give.
He even insulted Jacobs by hollering “Are you crazy?” — another question that went unanswered because Francesa didn’t allow him to speak.
Even after Francesa asked Jacobs to present a closing summation of his position, Francesa rudely cut him off. Why Jacobs indulged this, why he didn’t insist that he be allowed to finish a thought — or just hang up — was mystifying.
Then Francesa, though far friendlier to Islanders owner Charles Wang — he referred to him as “Charles” even while speaking to Jacobs — he didn’t allow Wang to fully answer many of his questions without stepping all over his responses.
In the end, both men were treated like Ed Coleman and Sweeney Murti — they were forced to listen to what His Majesety, Mike Francesa, thinks.
Costas injects some ’roid rationale
Bob Costas, among the first and few baseball broadcasters to suggest that MLB’s Bud Selig Era record-destroying home run surge was the result of steroids, called Thursday’s Giants-Phillies with Jim Kaat on MLBN. After Kaat explained why pitching has improved — good arms, undisciplined batters — Costas said, “And the hitters aren’t as juiced.”
* Report of the Week: WINS news anchor Judy DeAngelis, Monday, on Ben Roethlisberger’s marriage: “Sorry, girls, but he’s off the market.” Er, Judy, can we have a little chat?
* Why would ESPN even try to apply new-team statistical analysis to new Patriots receiver Chad Ochocinco? If it understands that the Pats, throughout the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady era, throw to eight, nine different receivers per game, why not just report that?
* ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight,” Sunday at 7, as preface to the network’s Cubs-Cardinals game, will examine one of the all-time trade-deadline mistakes: the Cubs’ 1964 trade of Lou Brock for pitcher Ernie Broglio. Broglio, 75 and living in San Jose, Calif., tells ESPN the Cards knew he was damaged goods — bad elbow — but the Cubs were unaware.
* Howie Rose often has made it clear that he finds heresy in the Mets’ black uniform. Wednesday on WFAN from Cincinnati, he noted that the Mets, in black, “are wearing those things.”
* ESPN will be ramming SEC football down our throats, hoping it comes out our wallets. Not only does ESPN have a big TV rights deal with the SEC — among the nation’s leaders in arrested football players — ESPN now has an “SEC on ESPN” clothing line to peddle. How much for the “SEC on ESPN” orange jump suit?
* ESPN 1050 continues to expand Don LaGreca’s roles. Good. Today he hosts a 1-7 p.m. Jets show.
* Lookalikes: Former Post Deputy Sports Editor Dick Klayman submits Bartolo Colon and the late Andre the Giant. (But if Andre Ethier were traded to San Francisco, he would become Andre the Giant.)
* Nice character-building, socialization job Ohio State did on Santonio Holmes, eh?