Yes. After last night, we will no longer be subjected to Tim
McCarver trying to call an All-Star game. About 20 years too late, but I’ll
take it.
I’m going to give McCarver the benefit of the doubt a little
bit. I’m going to assume that SOME of the stupid things he says are based on
commands from FOX. Like the Manny Machado play last night. I’m sure that once
Machado entered the game, the truck told McCarver that they had his play from a
few weeks ago all cued up. He just needed a way to get it on the air. So, when
Machado backhanded a ball and threw out a slow runner, he made a big deal about
it. Then he could easily segue from that “great” play to another great play by
Machado. I get that.
What still baffles me is the baseball stuff. He’s been
watching baseball for a long time. His seemingly spontaneous amazement over
mundane things is incredible. Take the Brandon Phillips double play. I’d
understand if he had direction from FOX once again to find a reason to replay
the double play he turned from earlier in the year. I even get it if he was
trying to make a bigger deal out of it than it really was as a way to promote
the game, or Phillips himself. It was the giggling. He actually chuckled to
himself before he could get out an amazed, “bare handed double play.” Was this
the first time McCarver had seen a bare handed double play turned? He didn’t
realize that not only are they fairly common…but they’re the way you’re
supposed to do it? I think it was Barry Larkin that I once saw give a tutorial
on how when he absolutely needed to use his glove to slow down a hard toss, he
didn’t catch the ball. He just used the back of his glove to deflect the ball
to his bare hand. But, last night using a bare hand makes McCarver giggle with
glee? Huh?
Unfortunately, I’m guessing that having McCarver gone won’t
solve all the problems with the broadcast. The in-game interviews are beyond
annoying. Last night they interviewed Tom Seaver during the game. Seaver was
going on and on about how exciting the game was. While he’s doing this, FOX is
showing him on screen. Not the game! Sometimes they would go split screen with
it. But, they made the Seaver portion bigger than the actual game. They didn’t
take the hint and actually show the game that was apparently so good to watch.
And they kept doing it. Here’s a hint FOX. If you constantly imply that the
actual game is the least interesting part of the broadcast, people are going to
start to believe it. If you want to use the audio to have an interview, I’ll allow
it. But, keep the camera on the game! The whole reason that MLB manages to get
away with the ridiculous fan voting is that they think it lets the fans select
players they want to see play. Then FOX ignores those players to show us
off-field antics.
Why would they do that?
That gas-bag has always been all about hearing himself talk. How many thousand times has McCarver told the same Bob Gibson or Steve Carlton story?
ReplyDeleteHe has had a lengthy career, based largely on gloming onto 2 hall of fame pitchers!
That is great news! My favorite TM quote took place in the 2004 ALCS, I believe. After a Sox pitcher gave up a walk, he said that a walk is as bad as a home run in that situation. That is when I learned the vast depth of his ineptitude.
ReplyDeleteThe one that sticks out to me was the final batter of Pedro's 17-K game against the Yanks. It was Strawberry, I believe, and I remember Jerry Remy pointing out that if Pedro threw a fastball above the belt, Straw wasn't catching up to it. Which is exactly what Pedro did. Mccarver was calling the Yankees broadcast, which I saw at some point. During the last batter, McCarver mentioned that the PA Address said some stat. He then went on for the rest of the game discussing how you can't really have a PA Address since the A in PA stood for Address. Here we are on the last batter of the best pitched game most of us will ever see, and he's rambling on about a grammar mistake he made.
ReplyDelete