PRINCE WILLIAM
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Yankees radio announcer John Sterling called this Russell Martin double on Friday night a home run off the bat — another example of Sterling’s shameless mangling of facts, writes Phil Mushnick. Anthony J. Causi
One of the simple seasonal pleasures of American life is listening to a ballgame on the radio. The companionship of a baseball game while in the car, on the deck, the porch, stoop, fire escape, the beach, at the lake or on a stroll nourishes the good senses.
The Yankees, in my listening lifetime, have provided, in order: Mel Allen, Red Barber, Phil Rizzuto, Jerry Coleman, Joe Garagiola, Frank Messer, Bob Gamere, Bill White, Dom Valentino, Fran Healy, John Gordon, Bobby Murcer, Spencer Ross, Hank Greenwald, Tommy Hutton, Jay Johnstone and Joe Angel.
Some were good, some were great, and some weren’t very good at all. But none placed himself above the game; all, with the exception of later-in-life Rizzuto, did their best to serve as our eyes. And none did any intentional disservice to the steady companionship between radio and baseball fans.
George Steinbrenner ended all that 21 years ago when he assigned the Yankees booth to John Sterling. As an Islanders and Nets radio play-by-player, Sterling already was established as gimmicky and self-serving and as a shameless on- and off-air boot-licker of team ownership — the kind of broadcaster and person Steinbrenner favored.
From that day on, that seven-month baseball companionship, along with thousands of game broadcasts, has been betrayed. It has been lost to a narcissistic, condescending blowhard who neither knows nor cares what’s happening on the field as he awaits his next chance — real or imagined — to holler his scripted, asinine “signature” calls to an audience that he long ago trained to suspect that what he describes is not even close to true.
Friday’s was one of those made-for-radio evenings. But it also came with the pre-emptive, conditioned dread that the Yankees game would be in Sterling’s hands. A mere “low and inside, ball two,” carries three pieces of doubt.
In the second inning, Russell Martin hit one deep to left, stirring Sterling into his never-in-doubt/seldom-correct home run call, that pathetic, they’re-all-the-same, “It is high! It is far!” garbage.
Naturally, it wasn’t. According to Sterling’s amended call, it hit off the wall, and Martin’s home run left him at second base.
Then came the standard, “I thought it was gone the moment it left the bat,” stuff, the “It just missed by inches” baloney.
Sterling, by jumping to conclusions steeped in self-promotion, always is left to describe games in terms of try-again explanation — what he first thought had happened.
And in again excusing himself, and in his subsequent tries to get it right, he still gets it wrong. Martin’s drive hit the warning track then the wall. It wasn’t close to being a home run.
For years, Sterling has made only one thing clear: He doesn’t care how many times he makes a fool of himself and, worse, of listeners.
Friday, after again noting that Martin was safe at second, he had to read that we’d be safe, too, if we bought life insurance from …
Another Yankees game, roughly the 3,500th, lost to John Sterling’s haughty, self-smitten and senseless style, guaranteed on arrival 21 years ago.
We’re left with these questions: Is there no one at WCBS Radio and/or the Yankees to demand that Sterling cut it out? Or is this the Yankees’ idea of good broadcasting? Is this what the Yankees expect and respect from “The Voice of the New York Yankees”?
Don’t listeners — Yankees fans, baseball fans, especially those at the beach, in the car and on the porch — deserve better from the New York Yankees?
Harbaugh tackles tricky question
One of the lesser known issues on the negotiating table is that the NFLPA wants the NFL’s television networks to start referring to players by their street names. Made ya look!
But that brings us to ESPN’s Suzy Kolber, who Saturday asked Ravens coach John Harbaugh if he’s concerned that first-round pick Colorado cornerback Jimmy Smith, with multiple suspensions and arrests for drugs, booze and assault, is too big a gamble.
Instead of making with the usual, “We checked, and he’s a fine young man” stuff, Harbaugh simply and honestly answered, “You know, it’s up to him.”
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Mike Francesa should do himself a favor and cease giving his expert take on the NFL vs. NFLPA. He has had no idea what he has been hollering about. Even plain facts have escaped him. Last week he was the last to know that the federal judge in the matter (Susan Nelson) is a she. He kept referring to the judge as “he.”
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Progress: Two Saturdays ago, NBC followed 20 minutes of Rangers-Capitals pregame analysis with a look-what-we-can-do cut to rink-sider Pierre McGuire for more analysis — 55 seconds into the game! This Saturday, after 20 minutes of Bruins-Flyers pregame analysis, NBC didn’t cut to McGuire until 1:29 into the game!
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ESPN 1050 Radio expert bad-guess guy Stephen A. Smith said Friday what many before him said: He figured the Jets would take UCLA linebacker Akeem Ayers with their first pick, 30th overall. But, Smith added, Ayers was gone. He was? Ayers was picked 39th.
YES crew delivers Mo insight
Neat chat between Paul O’Neill and former Yankees catcher John Flaherty on YES on Saturday with Mariano Rivera pitching:
O’Neill: “Is there an easier guy to catch than Mariano?”
Flaherty: “No. He puts the ball right where you want him to.”
O: “Does he shake off much?”
F: “No, basically he just goes along.”
Rivera’s remark-ability is remarkable. One would think that the best reliever of all time would intimidate with some wildness, or demand subservience from catchers.
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O’Neill, yesterday on YES, told of the time the Yankees’ bus was stuck on a cement median: “Jeff Nelson asked the driver, ‘You think this is a monorail?’ “
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Sweet job by YES, over the weekend, camera-tracking the mother, sister and girlfriend of Blue Jays rookie call-up David Cooper as they watched from the stands and applauded his first big-league hit.
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Dept. of For Crying Out Loud: Several print, broadcast and online media reported that the Rays won Saturday on a “walk-off wild pitch.” (Thanks to Joe Becce of Tampa for the heads-up.)
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Lookalikes: After 100-plus suggestions, you win! Mark Teixeira and Prince William.