By James Riswick
News Editor
This year’s Major League Baseball playoffs started off with great promise, with things building to epic thoughts of a “Hell Freezes Over Series” featuring those loveable losers the Chicago Cubs and the “Bambinoed” Boston Red Sox. But alas, twas not meant to be.
If the Yankees win, it’s yet another notch on their belt, no different than past rings earned against the Padres, Braves and Mets. If Florida wins, good for their young players, but with no national audience and an average season attendance of 16,000 per game, who really cares?
Nevertheless, here are some of my thoughts from this post-season of tremendous potential that unfortunately ended with a vanilla World Series match-up.
•The most impressive managerial play was by Oakland manager Ken Macha in Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Red Sox. With the game tied in the 11th inning, the A’s managed to move the go-ahead runner to third with two outs. Pulling a page out of the “Major League” textbook, Macha called for a suicide squeeze bunt that successfully scored the winning run. Calling a squeeze with two outs and the game on the line is almost unheard of, but more impressively, the A’s don’t believe in bunting because of the philosophy instilled by General Manager Billy Beane. The move was just brilliant.
•The managerial play that will be second-guessed for decades will be: Should Boston Manager Grady Little have pulled Pedro Martinez with the game on the line in Game 7 of the Championship Series? I would have stuck with him because if you’re best can’t beat the Yankees, who can? At the same time though, their best was obviously on empty and perhaps Little should have known that sometimes willpower succumbs to Yankee bats.
•The guy saved from ridicule is Cubs shortstop Alex Gonzalez (not to be confused with Marlins shortstop Alex Gonzalez). While the Wrigley wrath descended upon that unlucky left field fan, they seemed to forget the defensive miscue by Gonzalez that also continued the inning. Had the usually solid Gonzalez made the play, chances are the Cubs would’ve gotten out of the inning and into the World Series.
•As usual, ESPN’s divisional coverage was superior to FOX’s broadcasts in general. Because ESPN broadcasts MLB games all year, they have much better commentators (excluding David Justice). FOX offers Joe Buck who’s only saving grace is the occasional witty comment. His partner Tim McCarver perpetually displays a penchant for saying mind numbing, blatantly obvious or wrong things. After getting caught up in ALCS Game 3’s bean ball brawl, in Game 1 of the Series, McCarver ridiculously said, “It must be wondered” whether a slow curve from David Wells that hit a Marlin was intentional.
In the other FOX booth, color commentator Steve Lyons’ most famous career moment as below average infielder was when he removed his pants at first base to get rid of some dirt after sliding headfirst.
But the worst is Lyons’ partner Thom Brennaman. Normally the FOX commentator for Arizona, the only reason Brennaman is moved into the national booth is because of his deep announcer voice. It’s really sad that having such a voice seems to be the lone qualification when selecting color commentators. Instead of continuing to discuss the ongoing happenings of Game 7 between the Cubs and Marlins, Brennaman ventured on a two-inning monologue throughout the 8th and 9th innings about the Florida Marlins. I understand they were winning, but the bigger story was that the Cubs weren’t. He just wouldn’t shut up. It’s the job of the play-by-play announcer to describe what’s going on and leave the commentary to the color guy. But thanks to Bob Costas, broadcasters like Ernie Harwell and Vin Scully are a thing of the past. It’s unprofessional and very annoying.
•As alluded to before, Joe Buck did have at least one saving grace. When cameras picked up hot pop star Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck sitting next to the Red Sox dugout in Boston watching a TV, Bennifer tried to wave the FOX cameras off them. Buck quickly noted, “Things could be worse. They could be watching a screening of ‘Gigli.” Brilliant.
October 23, 2003