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1:03:00 PM EDT
Covering Fox
I promise that I won’t only cover the coverage of Yankee postseason games. It’s just that, like the poor sports media networks being held hostage by T.O., I am being held hostage by the TV schedule. I work during the day and can’t, therefore, watch more than a tiny bit of the early games.
OK. Enough excuses.
I will confess up front that I generally cannot stand Buck and McCarver. In strict, technical terms, I think Buck is an excellent play-by-play announcer: his voice, his cadence, his sense of the moment (compare that to Mike Patrick, for whom every play is a HUGE play) are all first rate. Similarly, though I don’t always agree with him, I do think McCarver is an insightful analyst, a guy who understands the game and, at his best, actually teaches his audience something that they couldn’t have read in a two-bit popular psychology manual. It’s just that the two of them, especially together, have become so full of themselves, so distracted by their own personalities, that it’s really taken away from their ability to focus our attention where it should be: on the playing field itself.
And, as a network, I pronounce FOX guilty of the same crime.
OK, enough with all the prefacing. I thought Buck and McCarver did a good job last night. They reined in their usual excesses and called the game as straight as I have seen and heard them call a game in a long time, bringing back memories of the 1996 World Series, their first together, when they were outstanding. FOX was up to its usual celebrity-watching during the game (how exciting to know that Donald Trump, Dick Ebersol and Regis Philbin shared the same luxury box!, and thank goodness we were treated to 698 separate shots of America’s most over-rated politician, Rudy Giuliani), but there seemed to be fewer theatrics and fewer distractions and fewer annoying shots of celebs in upcoming FOX shows than usual
A couple of complaints:
One: it’s 2006, and FOX still cannot seem to get it through their heads that on-base percentage matters more than batting average. I know it’s technically possible to include OBP on a batter’s line as he steps in, because other networks do it. It’s a stupid omission and, in some obvious cases in the Yankees-Tigers series, posting batting average without on-base percentage obscures more than it illuminates.
For example, knowing that Bobby Abreu batted .297 overall this year tells you almost nothing about why he’s such a valuable offensive player. His 124 walks and .424 on-base-percentage comprise his key offensive contribution and, as McCarver pointed out during the game last night, the presence of such a patient, effective hitter in the middle of the Yankee lineup has vaulted it from really good to almost unstoppable. Similar things could be said about Jason Giambi, whose .253 average omits his 110 walks and .413 on-base percentage. Ask opposing pitchers and managers whether they think those things are trivialities.
Conversely, batting average tells you that Ivan Rodriguez (.300), is a heckuva hitter, especially for a catcher.
Except that he isn’t. ESPN’s sortable stats lists eight American league catchers who qualify as regular players. According to runs created per 27 outs, the best summary offensive statistic that they have, IRod is seventh among the eight regulars, despite having the fourth highest batting average. According to Baseball Prospectus’ EQA, also a summary statistic taking account of all offensive contributions, and accounting for park and league effects, Irod is sixth out of the eight. He’s always had a very poor walk rate, and though this year’s was up slightly from last year’s historically bad performance, it’s still not good (just 26 walks all season). Combine that with Irod’s declining power, and he’s just not a good offensive player any longer.
To repeat, there’s no excuse for this in 2006.
Two: Buck and McCarver are too close to Joe Torre to scrutinize him effectively. I know it’s easy to second guess, but the decision to remove Wang with two outs in the seventh inning and no one on base with a 7-3 lead was, um, questionable. Given Torre’s proclamation that Mariano Rivera will not pitch before the ninth inning, and given that the Yankee’s “soft underbelly” as Buck and others have put is their middle relief, and given the fact that Wang had only thrown 93 pitches, you’d think Torre would want to get his best starter as close as possible to handing the baton off to his closer. And, among the consequences of running through Myers, Proctor and Farnsworth to get four outs, was that Torre then felt compelled to bring Mariano in to get three ninth inning outs in an 8-4 game, arguably a waste, given the proclaimed need to save Mariano’s arm.
In any event, these are debatable points – except that they weren’t really debated by Buck and McCarver, who show no general aversion to picking apart decisions they don’t like.
A final non media comment aside: I have not always been on the Jeter bandwagon. I should clarify that Jeter is, and has always been a great player and, as a Yankee fan, I love him and am thrilled that he’s “our” guy. It’s just that certain aspects of his game, especially his defense, have sometimes been overrated, at least until a couple of years ago. Jeter has had some famously huge moments in the post-season and has generally performed very well in October (and November), though not better, number-wise, than Alex Rodriguez in the playoffs, their diametrically opposed reputations notwithstanding. When a guy gets a reputation, for better or worse, it’s hard to see the larger picture – the narrative, once set, acts as a powerful filter, focusing our attention on that which reinforces what we are sure we already know about a player, and blocking out that which doesn’t fit the story line. Jeter’s post-season reputation, and his regular season one for that matter, is a good case in point. So is Arod’s. So, for example, the fact that in 2005, Jeter set an all-time record for making the most final outs in a game with the tying run on base or at the plate (think of this as the anti-Ortiz record) - since it doesn’t fit the larger narrative about him - just doesn’t register. Had Arod set such a record, you can be sure every schoolboy in America would know about it.
But, as I have mentioned before, a funny thing happened to Jeter. In the past couple of years, he went from being great, if somewhat overrated, to being great, and somewhat underappreciated. His defense has markedly improved, and he remains, for a shortstop especially, a fantastic offensive player, whose ability to get on base is an enormous asset to his team. By the time Jeter was voted most over-rated player in the game by his peers earlier this season – he had become under-rated. Now, given the season he’s just had and the strong possibility that he will win the AL MVP, it’s going to be impossible for him to continue to be undervalued. And, whatever indefinable quality makes this so, Jeter seems to have a sense of the moment that makes him not merely a great player – but a legendary one. His five-hit game last night was a perfect illustration of what people recognize in Jeter – a player for whom the biggest stage is an opportunity to revel in the fact that he’s playing the game he loves and, as a consequence, for whom it simply seems easier for him to perform when it matters most.
Over at ESPN, Jerry Crasnick sums up the Jeter phenomenon well (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2006/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=2612263):
“Let's face it: Lots of people who aren't Yankees fans get nauseous hearing about Jeter's October brilliance, his flair for the dramatic and his inherent ability to rise to the occasion in the postseason and take his teammates along for the ride.
The guy is a .317 career hitter in the regular season and a .315 hitter in the postseason. Maybe he's just consistent.
But here we are, one night, nine innings and an 8-4 Yankees victory into the American League Division Series, and Jeter worship is very much in vogue. Like Berkshire Mountains vacation traffic and Bill Belichick-as-genius stories, this particular autumn ritual just keeps going and going.”
Jeter could go hitless in his next three games (though, this season, that seems unlikely). But, he’ll still carry the same aura with him every time he goes to the plate, or takes his position in the field – that he’s just relishing the next opportunity to make a big play.
It’s not measurable – it’s not even really definable. But, you have to respect it.
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