I’m not sure about doing a baseball bog all season. Even though I’ve watched baseball all my life, I’m not any sort of expert. For this opening weekend, I’ll give it a shot. To start this off on the wrong foot, I’ll mention that I tuned into the coverage a half-hour early because I didn’t have the right time written down. It was a happy accident, as I watched an animal care show hosted by a woman that looked just like Charisma Carpenter. Still not sure if it was an actual show or an infomercial for their sponsor. (I wonder if this phenomena will become more common in the future.)
Speaking of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” (Charisma was on both shows), I am unfortunately reminded of Fox baseball coverage in years past. They always started the game too late in the afternoon to finish before Buffy came on in the evening (a couple of times, even running over into “Angel” which came on afterward). I missed half the series finale of Buffy that way.
I have a few more complaints. Fox has stridently insisted on showing only the same six teams in regional action all season long. This culminated for me one afternoon as I watched the same two teams, starting the same pitchers, that I had seen two weeks before. Only in the change in venue prevented complete déjà vu. They also used to start coverage about midway through the season. By the end of the season when most of the division races were finished, Fox would stop showing games altogether until the post season. That was still better than CBS’ ill-fated baseball coverage. By the end of their contract, they had stopped showing weekly games altogether, replacing them with college track and field meets and such.
The last year I got the changes I wanted. They started the games earlier, covered the full season, and showed plenty of out-of-region games. That last point backfired on me. I didn’t count on them spending every Saturday showing a Yankee/Red Sox game if they were playing each other, which seemed like about every other weekend.
Well, Fox is back to the later start time. So much for watching full episodes of “Legend of the Seeker” in the evening. We’ll see if they completely revert to type as the season goes on.
Let’s get down to the actual coverage. I’m going to throw “This Week in Baseball,” in as part of the pre-game (mostly because there wasn’t really a pre-game). TWIB was a lot more low-key than in previous years. Even the show’s sponsor, Pepsi, produced a fairly sedate commercial. That’s good, given that it will be played ad infinitum over the season. There seemed like some attempt to make the show look classier. I’m not sure Buzz Brainer (if I’m spelling that right), the voice of the Disney Channel, is the right guy for the announcing job, if that’s the case. Whatever, as long as the “How About That,” segment with the great plays of the week is still in.
Like I said, there was no in-studio pre-game show. This was an expected budget cut. Instead, one of the game announcers (didn’t recognize him offhand, sorry) and Ken Rosenthal spent five minutes recapping the week in baseball, before passing out from not taking a breath for that period of time. This segment will probably need some work, especially as the season wears on and controversies and scandals appear.
I was glad to get the regional game I wanted, Astros and Cardinals. I was less thrilled to get Joe Buck and Tim McCarver calling the game. Oh, my head. Where to start?
In spite of his fine baseball broadcasting lineage, Joe is bored by the game. I can tell because of his incessant desire to “punch up” the game with false drama or, worse, trying to add to the drama. Nothing like watching the same “controversial” play ten times on replay with Joe’s questioning commentary each time. I know it’s him and not the director, because this doesn’t happen with the other broadcasting duos, at least not as annoyingly. Thanks a lot for helping to institute instant replay. The game really needed to be slowed down some more. I can’t wait for the MLB to expand this “feature” at your insistent behest.
Oh, when there’s game-on-the-line situations on the field, I’m sure I don’t need someone to go into detail about it. I can see it and hear it in the crowd for myself. Sometimes, less is more.
Tim, I apologize for blaming you solely for the bad coverage all these years. It was mostly your partner. On the other hand, I’m sorry you’re not a baseball manager. Really sorry. Because I’m sick of you trying to manage the teams from the pressbox. Tim, the outfielders can’t hear you up there trying to position them for the next batter, and if they could, they wouldn’t listen. Your fixation on the smallest of minutia of the game, little individual player actions, is insanity inducing for those of us who aren’t players or coaches.
You’ve gotten a bit better over the years. At least you’re not a stream of endless criticism anymore. I can’t tell you how tired I got your “special” praise. Somebody makes a clutch hit; it was because the infielder didn’t listen to you and play slightly over to his left. Somebody makes a great play in the outfield; well the batter just got under it because he wasn’t listening to you tell him to choke up on the bat and go the other way with it. I’d hate to be your kid and have you be my Little League coach. I’d be hanging myself by the end of the season.
Why do I put up with these two? Because I love the game, and I’m willing to suffer for it. Vin Sculley and Joe Garigola (boy, did I just date myself) could make blowouts interesting with their knowledge and banter, and they knew when to be quiet and let the drama unfold on the field. The Fox director really needs to tell Joe and Tim to “Just call the game as it is. Stop nagging and stop trying to manufacture controversy.”
Whew! I’ve been holding that in for the last few years. If I do another baseball blog, I’ll try to be more fair and call the broadcast as it currently is.
Okay, the game itself. What can I say?
There amongst the sea of red in old St. Louis
In the shadow of the grand Arch
There the hitting monster
In the guise of a man
Crushed horsehide
And the spirits of his foes
Beneath his mighty bat
Yeah, Albert Pujols beat the hell out of the Astros, pretty much by himself. The final score was 11-2, or if you’re scoring at home Pujols 7, Cardinals 4, Astros 2.
It was kind of a sad sight. Albert comes to bat with the bases loaded. Roy Oswalt stretches out, runs to the dugout, grabs a batting tee, puts it and the ball up at home plate, and tells Al to swing away. For his next at bat, I have never heard such a deathly quiet in a stadium, as the crowd collectively held its breath before he hit his next home run. St. Louis is an amazing baseball town. I did love that little story about the Cardinals having a designated rookie that has to carry Albert Pujols’ checkerboard with them on the road.
A few quick hits:
It was great to see Pudge (Ivan Rodriguez) with the Astros. It was a bit of a surprise. My $8 season preview didn’t see that coming. I proclaim it already completely out of date.
I liked the new, smaller game update graphic. The full screen ticker style never worked for me with baseball. Did this mean Fox couldn’t find a sponsor for it?
Ever so happy to see that two things never change in a baseball broadcast. One, shots of players picking their noses in the dugout. Knowing baseball players, if they knew the camera was on them, they’d stick their fingers in other places too. Two, the d*ck with cell phone behind homeplate waving to the camera. I swear, it’s the same guy at every stadium.
Fox didn’t have a player or celebrity read the lineup card. Did this have something to do with sponsorship?
It seemed like there were shorter commercial breaks than usual for a ball game. That can’t be right. There didn’t even seem to be the overwhelming over-promotion of any other Fox TV shows. I’m sure they’ll make up for this during the playoffs.
Twitter. The broadcast team is using Twitter for updates. Twitter. Seems like an appropriately named service for all the people that use it.
I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist that.
I wish Fox would consider switching to another game in case of a blow out. There were better games going on. They did this last year in their last regular season game, switching amongst several games to keep up with the division/wild card races. Just a thought.
There wasn’t a post game show, not even a little chat with the man of the hour, Pujols. Then again, considering what I think of the broadcast crew, less may have been more.
Next week, an MLB/NASCAR old-fashioned Saturday double-header. Can Jeff Gordon keep his hitting streak alive in New Yankee stadium? Will Derek Jeter’s risky tire/fuel strategy payoff in Phoenix? I can hardly wait to find out.
J.
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