Everyone, please pay attention!
Thanks. …Reader G. Wilbur asks a good but outdated question: “When did MLB telecasts become ‘The David Suskind Show’?”
“The David Suskind Show” was an interview show that aired on Channel 11 and then Channel 5 in the 1960s and 1970s. It was characterised by long, thoughtful questions followed by answers that seemed to forget the question.
Last Saturday’s Yankees-Red Sox game on FOX might have featured the wildest second inning we’ve ever seen, had we been able to watch the game instead of the interview show.
Both teams scored: Yankees, one, Boston, two. A leaping catch of a ball dropped by the right fielder as he fell into the stands led to a home run. A runner was tagged out at third base after not paying attention while talking to his coach. There was a double steal, a double play, four hits, and a leaping catch over the left field fence.
But on Fox, an entire inning — 17 minutes — was devoted to an in-booth interview with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck promoting their upcoming Apple TV+ movie. Yes, baseball was lost to streaming.
While Adam Amin and John Smoltz were asking forced, disjointed questions, Boston’s Sedan Raffaella, inexplicably standing a foot away from the base chatting with the third-base coach, was tagged out, completing an incredible double play from center field to second and third.
But Fox not only missed the whole thing, they had no idea what had happened. The interview went on until Raffaelle headed to the dugout, where Amin thought he had caught up on the game.
“In fact, we have received word that our runner, Rafaela, is out at third base.” wordsHas he been contacted? Yennevir, where are you?
“Yeah,” Smoltz said, “maybe they played the old ‘hidden ball’ on him.”
Amin: “Oh man, I got distracted here. I was having a great time. All of a sudden, I started going through some good ol’ Little League action.”
It’s a bad idea to guess what happened from a few yards away. If Fox had aired the game instead of the actors in the booth, we all could have seen Trent Grisham catch the ball at shoe height in center field, then run it toward the infield and pass it to Gleyber Torres, who passed it to Oswaldo Cabrera, who got an unaware Rafaela out.
We will never see a play like this again, but Fox, for no apparent reason, chose to miss the first play entirely for all of us.
Damon and Affleck got it. They knew they were going to be the ones in the way. And then one of them said, “Oh, you just ruined the show.”
Amin: “No you’re not! It’s more fun that way!”
Smoltz: “You don’t see that very often.” But we didn’t see any!
And Amin went on to call it “Little League play.”
No, if you’re a 12 year old upon While he looked away to talk to his coach, the ball was thrown to third base — another major league play made by fundamentally negligent LaFella and third-base coach Kyle Hudson, but obscured by fundamentally negligent direction by Fox.
The following night, ESPN was broadcasting a Yankees-Red Sox game. Boston first baseman Romy Gonzalez, who normally plays third and second base, was playing first base and was therefore in danger, wearing a live microphone. It was his turn to ask the question, “What is your favorite color?”, as ESPN’s “Look what we can do!” played.
Baseball fans can tell the difference between smart and stupid, so they don’t understand why ESPN, the nation’s self-proclaimed all-sports network, keeps selling us a stupid sport.
Gonzalez was asked if he would shave his mustache if he were traded to the Yankees, who have banned beard hair since the days of manager George Steinbrenner.
But as several readers pointed out, Nestor Cortes and Austin have mustaches. They’re there, right? So are Thurman Munson and Don Mattingly. And it was Gonzalez who told the ESPN booth that the Yankees allow mustaches.
When the batter was down to two strikes, Gonzalez reached into his back pocket and pulled out a card. He read it, walked a few feet, and put the card back. Reader Chris DeLesesse:
“Do you think anyone in the ESPN booth thought to ask, ‘What did you just read?’ to gain some insight for us to consider? Of course not.”
Reader Tony Savoia: “I don’t even talk to my wife, who’s sitting next to me, until the commercial break is over.”
Girardi seems to think Philadelphia has a special affection for the Jazz.
Other than the usual terrible coaching and lack of guidance from YES managers, I don’t understand why Joe Girardi wants to sound like Fox’s John Smoltz scrutinizing every pitch and swing until we can no longer hear him.
Jazz Chisolm Jr., who hit two home runs for Philadelphia on Tuesday, came to bat in the ninth inning with the Yankees leading by one run. When applause was heard, Girardi said he was grateful “he’s getting a little cheer from the Phillies fans.”
He said it in a serious tone. But no way. In Philadelphia, where he managed the Phillies? No way. They were clearly seen and heard as Yankees fans.
Apparently, the curveball has been banned from MLB. Before the Yankees-Red Sox game last Saturday, Fox listed the pitches Boston starting pitcher Cutter Crawford throws, including a “20% sweeper.” The curveball was not on the list, only the “sweeper,” which was invented last season, as if Crawford didn’t throw a curveball.
Reader Bob Dahat predicts Pete Alonso will soon switch to “OMFG!”, and SNY’s photos of fans dressed as Grimace at Citi Field quickly became tiresome and unfunny.
“Close,” but not yet
After Luke Weaver threw a total of seven pitches to beat the Phillies 1-2-3 on Tuesday, manager Aaron Boone replaced him with closer Clay Holmes, who lost the lead. This is the bane of Boone and other scripted MLB managers, who believe that Mariano Rivera is the closer they’re assigned to every game, even if it’s just for a couple of games before they decide on a new closer.
On Wednesday, after the game was postponed to see if DJ LeMahieu’s grand slam had cleared the wall, Michael Kay took a good look at himself as LeMahieu crossed home plate and said, “I can finally say, ‘See you!'”
In terms of chaos, it should only take three or four seasons for players, coaches and fans to learn the NFL’s new kickoff rules.
I don’t know why SNY showed the same unconscious Citi Field fan twice last week, with an empty liquor can in front of him, but there it was: a fascinating Sunday afternoon game scene.
Then again, if Rich Migliore, the engaging and passionate thoroughbred analyst for NYRA TV and Fox/FS1, was an NFL quarterback instead of a skilled jockey, he’d be known as the best analyst in the country.
Reader Joe Napoloeone suggests that Olympic boxing, biologically male vs. female (a highly brutal and glaring mismatch), should be renamed “domestic violence.”
I have to go. The virus has spread.
