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ESPN's Berman Is Not
Up To Playoff Caliber

By George Stahl

Having watched about 80% of the baseball playoffs so far, I was all set to sink my teeth into Chris Berman as a play-by-play guy. Look, I love Berman in the studio, especially on NFL Primetime, but he consistently annoys me doing baseball play-by-play.

And I get even more upset when I think about all the other great play-by-play guys that ESPN has, such as Gary Thorne and Bob Carpenter. Thorne is a great announcer with a great voice and great enthusiasm, while I consider Carpenter one of the most under-rated announcers in baseball. Thanks to Mark McGwire, though, Carpenter has received a little notoriety because of his “See...You... Later” home run call on some of McGwire’s home runs.

But you know what? Berman had his strongest telecast of the playoffs, although that’s like saying Simon Birch grew an inch. It doesn’t matter because the dude is still short.

Berman is no longer, as he might say, “stumbling and bumbling” like he was earlier this week, and it seems that he has become more comfortable as he does more games. At Fenway on Friday, he was adequate but still not up to playoff level and remains the worst play-by-play man working the playoffs.

Berman’s problem is that he talks too much and tells too many stories, often ignoring the action for a long time. Now, some of the stories are interesting, such as how the Red Sox rearranged their retired numbers because the old way they had it (9, 4, 1, 8) was the date of the day before the last World Series that Boston won. Another good story was Conig’s Corner, which is the part of Fenway Park’s centerfield stands that is sectioned off so batters can see the pitches more easily.

NBC’s Bob Costas also tells a lot of stories; however, he has a gift of brevity that Berman does not.

Like Costas, though, Berman loves baseball and baseball history, but he focused on the Red Sox’s sad history too much during the game. As soon as Indians centerfielder Kenny Lofton hit the go-ahead home run, Berman whipped out that Friday was the anniversary of Bucky Dent’s historic home run against the Red Sox in the 1978 playoff game. (Kudos to ESPN for having the video ready)

Berman also immediately starting talking about whether Red Sox manager Jimy Williams may pitch Boston’s top pitcher, Pedro Martinez, in Game 4. But it was only the bottom of the sixth in a 2-1 game! The talk got so bad that Berman’s partner, Ray Knight, had to jump in and remind Berman that the Red Sox had plenty of time to come back.

I’m not a Red Sox fan (or an Indian fan, for that matter) but I would have been very upset that Berman was counting out my team from the time the Indians went up 2-1 in the sixth.

Because he hasn’t done as many games as the other announcers, Berman tends to exaggerate more easily. For example, in the fourth, Red Sox outfielder Darren Lewis had to return to first after passing second on a Mo Vaughn flyout. Lewis retouched second and slid safely back into first. Berman called that play “most unusual,” when, in fact, it occurs with some regularity.

Again, Berman was better this game, but still not playoff caliber.

His partner, Knight, had a solid game, after missing game two of the series with an illness. Knight had trouble early in the game reading the catcher’s signals, often predicting the wrong pitch, and eventually stopped trying. He had done a good job of that in game one; I wonder if the Indians found out about that and changed signals to screw him up?

Overall, Knight is a solid, perceptive announcer, who nicely uses his experiences as both a player and a coach to analyze the action. My only minor complaint is that he can brag about his career too much. For example, in this game, he said he only missed one pop-up in his whole major-league career. I wonder...

(I know that is only one example; however, I have heard him talk about his playing and coaching abilities on other telecasts)

Other highlights and lowlights:

Good shots: 1. Indians outfielder David Justice practicing bounces off Fenway Park’s Green Monster before the game. Justice, usually a designated hitter, started in left field. 2. A third-base line camera angle showing Indians third baseman Travis Fryman fielding a nasty groundball from Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaperra. Fryman’s fourth-inning stab possibly saved a run and a big inning by Boston. 3. ESPN’s camera and camerawoman getting hit by Jim Thome’s home run to straight-away center in the fifth.

Bad shot: ESPN showed Red Sox first baseman Mo Vaughn’s grounder to second to end the sixth from the press box level behind home plate. At a dramatic moment in the game, whenever Mo is up it’s a dramatic moment, but especially in this case when there was a man on first base, ESPN choose one of the worst shots to show. This is the shot you see from most spring training games. A terrible choice at a key moment.

Good stat: Bret Saberhagen was 11-3 after a Red Sox loss this year.

Bad job: ESPN and Berman did not let viewers know until there were two outs in the ninth that Indians replaced Jim Thome at first base with Richie Saxson for defensive purposes. And Berman never said if Saxson replaced Thome or the designated hitter in the lineup. This is a bad job in baseball because, unlike any other sport, many fans keep score at home.

Camera doesn’t blink: Lofton’s homer hit ESPN’s camera and may have hit the network’s camerawoman. The problem was that Berman referred to her as a cameraman for a while, at least until ESPN went back a little later to show her with the ball. In Berman’s defense, he may not have realized that it was a woman until then; however, later in the game, he talked about the home run and again referred to her as a cameraman.

Grade: C-, I had problems with Berman and ESPN's production.

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