Monday, October 16, 2006
The fine art of baseball commentary
Part 1 of 2: the Homers
I was initially pleased that Fox deployed its "A-team" to broadcast the Mets-Cards series, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver with the commentary. Buck is smart and funny, with a rich voice and an upbeat but modulated energy level -- really a perfect play-by-play guy. And McCarver -- despite an irritating penchant for bad puns and a tendency to get stuck on a point and obsess about it -- is the man who first brought "inside baseball" to the color commentary job and is still, in my book, state-of-the-art.
But Buck and McCarver are having a mediocre series at best. They're screwing up two fundamental parts of their job.
First, I'm disappointed, if not shocked and appalled, to be getting a clear sense that these consummate professionals have been unable to suppress their Cardinals' partisanship.
There are two varieties of broadcasters, "homers" and national. Homers are hired by the ball club itself to do local broadcasts for the team's home-t0wn fan base. They are supposed to be partisan, but in a dignified way, acknowledging the highlights of the other team and revealing mild disappointment when the home team fails.
There are of course homers who do this badly, and the worst offenders I've ever heard, ironically, were the Atlanta Braves broadcasters -- ironic, because the TBS superstation put them on national airwaves. If a Braves opponent hit a triple, you could count on these guys to say something like "Andruw Jones did an excellent job throwing back to the infield to prevent an inside the park home run."
McCarver and, particularly, Buck are sounding like talented homers rather than national broadcasters. Their chagrin came across clearly last night in the Mets 12-5 blowout win. Buck got far more excited about each of the Cardinals' three meaningless solo homers than about any of the big blows that put the game away for the Mets. McCarver's bias is much more subtle, but he tends to criticize and snipe more at Willie Randolph's moves than Tony LaRussa's.
I have mixed feelings here. It's understandable that someone who loves sports enough to make his living in the sports industry would still have the team of their heart; I want them to be human in this way.
Buck grew up in St. Louis, where his dad Jack was the longtime Cardinals homer, a job which Joe himself eventually took over before going national. McCarver was a longtime star catcher for the Cardinals and, though he got his big break in baseball broadcasting with the Mets, may have some lingering bitterness after being let go from that position.
So the partisanship may be understandable -- but when my Mets are involved, I want them to put a damn lid on it.
I was initially pleased that Fox deployed its "A-team" to broadcast the Mets-Cards series, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver with the commentary. Buck is smart and funny, with a rich voice and an upbeat but modulated energy level -- really a perfect play-by-play guy. And McCarver -- despite an irritating penchant for bad puns and a tendency to get stuck on a point and obsess about it -- is the man who first brought "inside baseball" to the color commentary job and is still, in my book, state-of-the-art.
But Buck and McCarver are having a mediocre series at best. They're screwing up two fundamental parts of their job.
First, I'm disappointed, if not shocked and appalled, to be getting a clear sense that these consummate professionals have been unable to suppress their Cardinals' partisanship.
There are two varieties of broadcasters, "homers" and national. Homers are hired by the ball club itself to do local broadcasts for the team's home-t0wn fan base. They are supposed to be partisan, but in a dignified way, acknowledging the highlights of the other team and revealing mild disappointment when the home team fails.
There are of course homers who do this badly, and the worst offenders I've ever heard, ironically, were the Atlanta Braves broadcasters -- ironic, because the TBS superstation put them on national airwaves. If a Braves opponent hit a triple, you could count on these guys to say something like "Andruw Jones did an excellent job throwing back to the infield to prevent an inside the park home run."
McCarver and, particularly, Buck are sounding like talented homers rather than national broadcasters. Their chagrin came across clearly last night in the Mets 12-5 blowout win. Buck got far more excited about each of the Cardinals' three meaningless solo homers than about any of the big blows that put the game away for the Mets. McCarver's bias is much more subtle, but he tends to criticize and snipe more at Willie Randolph's moves than Tony LaRussa's.
I have mixed feelings here. It's understandable that someone who loves sports enough to make his living in the sports industry would still have the team of their heart; I want them to be human in this way.
Buck grew up in St. Louis, where his dad Jack was the longtime Cardinals homer, a job which Joe himself eventually took over before going national. McCarver was a longtime star catcher for the Cardinals and, though he got his big break in baseball broadcasting with the Mets, may have some lingering bitterness after being let go from that position.
So the partisanship may be understandable -- but when my Mets are involved, I want them to put a damn lid on it.
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