Watching the Yankees and Mets on TV used to be as easy as Scooter Rizzuto pie, but now it’s as complicated and stressful as pie.
As you may know, pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, calculated by dividing the length of the circle by its circumference. As a decimal, pi is approximately 3.14.
In standard modern baseball terms, that’s WAR plus OBPS, minus the corresponding ratio of sweepers and four-seam fastballs to relief pitchers who only pitched eight innings, depending on random fluctuations between home plate umpires.
The first thing local fans need to do is find the games — if they can find them, if they can access them, if they’re willing to pay more to watch the games that MLB and its teams are selling exclusively through streaming premium content.
It’s like searching for “Hey!” in a pile of pins.
Friday night’s Dodgers-Yankees game was a rare MLB attraction between the teams with the biggest television markets, and they chose YES, the Dodgers’ cable network and Apple TV+ rather than risk losing viewership through greed.
Does it matter to Rob Manfred and co. that Apple’s baseball programming is terrible, filled with live split-screens, ill-timed and worthless “we can do this!” in-game footage, live on-field interviews with players, and absurd screen-cluttering “probability” data?
Quantity over quality: For $85 million per year, MLB will allow FanDuel to introduce “Bet By Pitch.”
If you missed it, Dodgers third baseman Kiké Hernández also grounded out during an interview with Apple’s Wayne Randazzo and analyst Dontrelle Willis, who wanted (and needed) to know about Hernández’s flashy shoes.
As the ball was batted toward Hernandez, Willis asked, “You guys are a tight-knit team. Where does that come from?”
And with that orchestrated outside penetration, the ground ball bounced right back to Hernandez.
After the game, Hernandez gave a candid, Manfred-certified, money-line answer about whether he’d been distracted during the Q&A.
“Maybe a little bit,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t turn down another chance to be plugged in with earphones and a live microphone during a game. “No, because we’re getting paid. I like money.”
Either way, Friday night MLB ended up with a wholly undeserved result, as YES drew its highest viewership since Opening Day and its highest Friday night viewership in the past two seasons.
Beyond that, the Mets are playing two games in London (on two different networks, Fox and ESPN) and the Dodgers-Yankees three-game series is being shown on YES, Apple+, Fox and ESPN, but the TV coverage has too often been intentionally messed up.
In the top of the second inning of Sunday’s Dodgers-Yankees game, Anthony Volpe hit a one-hop chop high toward the first base side of the mound. Pitcher Tyler Glasnow caught it in his glove and, already riding the momentum toward first base, easily got there before Volpe. It was that easy.
But when ESPN play-by-play announcer Karl Labeck, perhaps distracted by an interview with L.A. right fielder Teoscar Hernandez, asked him what it was like playing with so many star teammates, Hernandez, to his surprise, said he enjoyed it, then paused to marvel at Glasnow’s inconsequential play.
“Tyler Glasnow is a multi-sport athlete who grew up and just played an amazing game!”Wow!
I read on Monday that Sunday’s Mets-Phillies game in London was close because Phillies manager Rob Thomson did what’s now expected of MLB managers: He rotated five capable pitchers until he found one that would kill the game.
That game was easier to read about than it was to actually watch, as ESPN decided to provide shots of the crowd after every (expletive barely removed) pitch!
Maybe that’s why Michael Kay, who was calling the Mets game for his ESPN employment, was distracted and didn’t realize that Harrison Bader was on base as a pinch hitter until the third pitch.
Meanwhile, YES has so many Yankees announcers that it’s often hard to tell who’s calling the game: “Here’s the scorecard! Without the scorecard, I don’t know who the announcer is!”
On Sunday, the Phillies-Mets game was delayed for three minutes and 20 seconds early (starting at 10 a.m. local time) to allow for a second opinion on a replay appeal. With Brits yelling “Tally stop!”
Late Sunday night, the ESPN broadcast team gave a lengthy eulogy, praising Aaron Judge for his humility, class, dignity and deep respect for the game. “You’ll never see him do a bat flip,” they concluded. Totally agree!
But then why does ESPN and other networks, especially MLB networks, go to great lengths to show and promote bat flips, and perform gleefully backflips in super slow motion for all to enjoy, without anyone missing out on the vulgar, uncouth irreverence that has taken so much from the sport?
Did anyone at ESPN question the lack of integrity of players who perform bat flips? Instead, bat flips are rewarded, if unconvincingly, with flattering approval and inclusion on highlight shows.
So don’t tell us about Judge’s first-class class, tell the people at the helm of the networks and producing the promotions, tell MLB, rather than pretend to enjoy something you can’t stand, voice your opposition and risk being slammed by anti-social online idiots.
Telling the truth can become a habit and it’s easy.
Hurley’s team style doesn’t suit the NBA
given that Danny Hurley’s UConn championship teams thrived by sharing the ball, finding the open man, not relying on 3-point shooting and playing staunch defense. Why would a coach sacrifice that, no matter the cost? Any An NBA team, much less LeBron James’ Lakers?
Hurley is also a highly excitable, unbridled coach who chastises his players on the spot — a type of coach that NBA players don’t easily tolerate.
Reader/skillful fact finder Herb Eiken Recently deceased NBA great Jerry West Bill Walton had a strange legacy.
West was the only player to be named NBA Finals MVP on the losing team, in a seven-game series between the Lakers and Celtics in 1969.
Walton played with Portland in 1978, when he was the only player to win MVP honors, and he also won the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award with Boston in 1986.
The Yankees were not scheduled to play on Memorial Day because that would have meant playing the Angels two hours away in Anaheim the day after their game in San Diego.
But watching the Dodgers game on ESPN late on a Sunday night and then their game in Kansas City the next night was no problem.
Ray Ferraro, ESPN’s chief Stanley Cup analyst, is a valuable, if perhaps overlooked, presence: He’s succinct and informative, and his “oot and aboot” Canadian accent creates an authentic voice.
A strange clash of circumstances, given Ferraro’s position on the ice in Game 2 of the Oilers-Panthers final: He was talking about being in a slump, and now he’s limping. Nurse! — Edmonton defenceman Darnell Nurse He was seen leaning over the boards from his seat at the end of the bench to hear Ferraro talk about him.
