Yankees’ announcing teams clearly inferior to Mets’ voices
Thursday from Baltimore on YES, the Orioles’ Tyler Nevin was batting in the third when Michael Kay said, “Nevin singled and scored on [Robinson] Chirinos’s home run in the second.”
There was nothing worthwhile to add to that before the next pitch, still, Carlos Beltran gave it a shot: “You know, Tyler Nevin, one hit already in the books, looking for his second one.”
Nurse! Hearse! Good grief! And help, help me, Rhonda!
As a matter of quality and foresight, Mets’ TV and radio broadcasts continue to be vastly superior to those presented by the Yankees.
Tonight’s White Sox-Yanks will be another Friday nighter lost to many within an exclusive, late surprise Amazon Prime streaming scheme, the viewing equivalent of making the best seats in “new” Yankee Stadium unaffordable, thus annually empty.
The greatest-good Ch. 11 days have been sold at auction, the Yanks self-relegated to “Consult local listings” vagabonds.
The Yanks’ radio option of John Sterling remains what it has been since 1989: a chore to suffer his clownish, obnoxious, self-smitten, condescending act and wildly inaccurate descriptions.
The Yanks’ YES booth, in an attempt at diversity that has sacrificed quality, now includes two more ex-big leaguers without a broadcasting portfolio — Cameron Maybin and Beltran. They have added nothing and take too long to say it, leaving the telecasts in wincing disrepair.
As a noble-minded act it hurts them and us.
It defies logic, but it seems YES’s shot-callers applied no practice-game examination nor helpful in-season counseling. After two months there has been no evidence that there has been an attempt to improve them — speak a lot less, fellas, and pick your spots judiciously! — is evidence that YES doesn’t know bad from awful. Or doesn’t care.
So the insufferable continues, a neglect that insults YES’s paying audience, one that knows and deserves better — even in a small media market such as New York.
The Mets, this week, showed the opposite. With Gary Cohen out, SNY moved competent, steady Wayne Randazzo from the radio side for Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Cards.
Meanwhile, 27-year-old backup Jake Eisenberg, a dues-payer as both a bus-riding minor league broadcaster and hustling production assistant (gopher) at SNY, became the late call-up to replace Randazzo. He was flown in from the Midwest, where he calls the games of the Omaha Storm Chasers, a Royals’ affiliate.
Eisenberg, a Maryland grad from Long Island, and Howie Rose worked well together and apart. Eisenberg was alert, played it straight and, as our eyes and ears, got it right.
Randazzo came to the Mets as an itinerant dues-payer, too. He learned the craft, earned the promotions. Good, hard, sweat-rent work rewarded. Radical concept.
Albert’s Rangers silence was the correct call
If we’re to concede that less is often more, what is nothing worth?
Sunday night it was worth plenty.
What doesn’t appear in box scores or bios are overlooked because they don’t make noise, thus Kenny Albert’s “call” of Artemi Panarin’s Game 7 OT goal from the Garden has been entered in the Annals of the Forgotten.
That’s due to Albert’s application of modesty, situation awareness and common sense to have said nothing, allowing live TV to fulfill its promise and purpose as a visual medium.
Thus the last thing heard from Albert on the TBS telecast was, “Panarin, right circle. He shoots … he scores!!!”
Then he allowed the cameras and crowd microphones to take over. Over the next one minute and 58 seconds he said nothing. He allowed the delirious and the disappointed to speak for themselves.
No attempt by Albert to put his signature to the scene. No attempt to scream over the natural sights and sounds. No attempt to intrude.
And no consideration of TV’s 21st Century bent to hire and promote screamers and gimmick artists for their pre-fabricated, artificially flavored cheese spreads.
He didn’t say a word. Great call.
Several NFL seasons ago, someone on TV, recognizing that confusion caused a team to call a timeout in the third quarter, accurately said the team was forced to “burn” a timeout, as in waste one.
That’s all it took. Now all timeouts are “burned.”
Last weekend on TBS, the Panthers led the Capitals, 3-2, 1:09 left in regulation when normally astute play-by-player John Forslund declared that “Washington will burn their timeout.” Burn? When would they otherwise wisely use it?
SNY studio analyst Todd Zeile was asked about Mariner Jesse Winker’s posing, preening home run against the Mets followed by a check-me-out jog around the bases, which enraged reliever Chasen Shreve.
Zeile invoked that rationalized, half-sentence, incomplete-thought canard, “The game has changed.”
We know that, but that’s not an answer. Would Zeile have done what Winker did? Judging from how Zeile played, no. So why not? Judging from how Zeile played, because it lacks class and dignity.
So rather than pander to the those self-afflicted by immodesty, say it! Even if Rob Manfred and the MLB Network sell conspicuous conceit and social desensitization as the way to kids’ hearts. Why are the media so unwilling to offend the offensive?
A fist-bump to Ryan Ruocco. Calling Saturday’s WNBA Phoenix-Seattle game on ABC, Phoenix led by three when Seattle inbounded with 12 seconds left. Ruocco immediately asked aloud what too many TV and radio basketball callers — and coaches — ignore:
“Does Phoenix want to foul intentionally to not allow a 3-point shot by Seattle?”
Phoenix did, and won.
Can’t bet on Brees to do the right thing
Not sure why Drew Brees has chosen to swap his good-guy status to be a tough guy to root for, but he has succeeded.
First came his capitulation to knee-takers after declaring that he’d never show his disregard for the national anthem. So much for his courage of admirable conviction.
Now there’s his shameless attachment to a sports gambling operation and his latest TV ad come-on to “Get more bets in as the games happen!”
That’s right, fools, bet every game, all game. How can you lose money to a business predicated on customers losing their money?
Tough to argue with Sidney Crosby’s plaint that the rule about immediately leaving the ice to replace a dislodged helmet lacks the kind of foresight that helped lead to a Rangers’ goal. If it’s so dangerous to be on the ice without a helmet, blow the whistle.
Sunday’s Game 7 of Celts-Bucks had all the feel and appeal of kids messing around in a CYO gym.
The teams totaled 88 3-point attempts, the Bucks 4-for-33, thus 55 of the Celts’ 88 field-goal tries — 63 percent — were 3s.
To think how Game 7’s used to be played and enjoyed.
But if Adam Silver is good with this …
MSG’s John Giannone during Sunday’s Pens-Rangers postgame: “Consider: The Rangers are only the 31st team in NHL history to come back from trailing, 3-1, to win a series.” Why, that’s just 30 times short of unprecedented!
Chris Chelios from ESPN’s Stanley Cup studio: “Paul McCartney told me to never drop names … I never met Paul McCartney.”
Name of the Week submitted by reader Don Reed: Running Sunday at Louisiana Downs, where French dressing is added, was Beau Tox, pronounced Botox. In a race for fillies and mares — a coming legal case to eradicate gender inequity — Beau Tox ran second, and not a wrinkle on her.
