World Series Game 2: Yankees 9, Padres 3

Fox's Three-Man Team Has Better Game Than The Padres

Buck, McCarver & Brenly are the best three-man announcing team
in sports and maybe the second-best team in the World Series.

By George Stahl

It’s beginning to look like the only team able to keep up with the Yankees in the 1998 World Series is Fox.

But like most viewers, even Fox seemed to grow bored showing the Yankees beat up the overmatched Padres, 9-3, in Game 2.

Once again, announcers Joe Buck, Tim McCarver and Bob Brenly were at the top their games, especially Buck who is allowing more and more of his humor to come through the telecast.

Buck had the best line of the night when, after Fox showed yet another star from one of its series in the crowd, he said, "I'm starting to realize that it is a good thing that Fox has a couple of animated hits or none of us would get tickets." That kind of self-deprecating humor, almost Keith Olbermann-like, is welcomed in this era of robotic announcers.

Buck had another great line later in the night after a Sounds of the Game feature.

But even more than adding humor, Buck also is quick to give perspective if appropriate. Rigth after a pitch by Padre starter Andy Ashby early in the game, Buck quickly noted that catcher Greg Myers got screwed up by the pitch. Myers then got up and went out to talk to his pitcher. Buck, though, made his statement and then allowed his booth mates and former catchers to fill in the details over replays of the pitch.

McCarver also had another good night, starting in the Yankees first inning, when he discussed how New York manager Joe Torre has the team playing National League baseball ("Get'em on. Get'em over. Get'em in.") The Yankees then went on to prove his point by scoring three runs on three singles.

Later in the game, he talked about how it sometimes hurts the pitcher's confidence in his catcher when the catcher visits the mound on orders from the dugout. The former catcher, who played in four decades, certainly knows about pitcher/catcher relationships.

Brenly was solid, although not as sharp as he was in Game 1, which I labeled his best telecast so far. But that's like saying Yankee first baseman Tino Martinez didn't have as good a game Sunday night as he did Game 1.

Overall, Buck, McCarver and Brenly are proving themselves to be the best three-man broadcast team in sports today.

Despite the blowout, Fox remained sharp late in game. Before the Yankees eighth inning, Brenly and McCarver speculated on whether the Padres would bring in ace reliever Trevor Hoffman in to give him some work. Hoffman, who hasn't pitched since Wednesday, did not pitch.

Later in the inning, when Martinez came up to bat wiith the bases loaded, Fox was ready with a graphic saying no player ever had hit two grand slams in one World Series.

Fox was still paying attention, even if most viewers either had changed the channel or gone to bed.

[Click to read my reviews of Game 2's pregame show, Game 1 or Game 1's pregame show.]

Good Shot: After the game, Fox showed Yankee catcher Jorge Posada playfully keeping the ball away from starting pitcher Orlando Hernandez. He eventually handed the ball to the Cuban exile.

Fox gadgets: Fox is whipping out all of its gadgets for the World Series. Some of them are working, some aren’t. Here’s a thumbnail review of them:

Padre catcher Greg Myers was wearing Catcher Cam, although there appeared to be some technical difficulties with it because Fox didn’t use it much. The network, however, did use it to show a replay of Yankee outfielder Bernie Williams home run. When it is working, which actually is most of the time, I always find Catcher Cam very interesting.

Veteran baseball viewers will notice a slight improvement in quality with Super Shot, Fox’s new camera that shows slow-motion action more closely and more clearly. It is best when showing fielders field a ball, such as when it showed how Yankee third baseman Scott Brosius grips a ball to throw or when a grounder hit the wrist of diving Padre third baseman Ken Caminiti.

Overall, a nice addition to Fox’s arsenal, although calling it “Super Shot” may be a slight exaggeration. The picture is clearer and closer, but it's like the difference between large and "Super Size" fries at fast-food restaurants. There's a difference, but is it "super?"

Fox also used a device called Pitcher Placement, which puts a box showing a batter’s strike zone on the screen. Fox then shows every pitch of an at-bat, leaving a ball on the screen to show where each pitch crosses the plate. The purpose is to show how the opposing team pitches the batter.

It works on one level - showing how a pitcher moves the ball around the strike zone during a single at-bat. But because of the two-dimensional aspect of the shot, it is hard to determine how high or low the pitch is as it crosses the plate.

Of course, Fox can’t improve on the two-dimensional. At least not yet.

Fox showed some sort of Tron-like playbook to demonstrate how the rotation play works on a bunt. The graphics were fine, I just wondered why Fox choose to use something that looked like a sophisticated computerized blueprint to demonstrate the play. Like I said, it depicted the play very well; it just seemed unnecessarily sophisticated.

Finally, Fox broadcasts comments from miked coaches in a Sounds of the Game feature. The idea is great, but the problem is the comments shown are usually lame. Maybe Fox can't use most comments because of language and other reasons, but whatever the reason, many of the scenes shown have been disappointing.

Sunday night, Fox showed the Padre batting coach reading the scouting report on Yankee pitcher Mike Stanton. The scene wasn't insightful for what was in the scouting report but for what wasn't in the scouting report, which was anything useful. Basically, the scouting report said Stanton was a pitcher.

After which, Buck had his second-best line of the night when he said, "Armed with that information, how could you not get a hit?"

Grade: A-. Fox's telecast was better than the game.

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To read George's review of Game 2's pregame show, click here.
To read George's review of Game 1, click here.
To read George's review of Game 1's pregame show, click here.
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