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Broadcasting
Blues
ABC
Made the Right Move; Mets Dropped the Ball
By Randy Williams
It was a rough week to be a broadcaster as ABC bid Dan Dierdorf
goodbye while the New York Mets sent Tim McCarver packing. It
is my opinion that ABC made the correct move while the Mets did
not.
Dierdorf's 12-year run on "Monday Night Football"
came to an end when ABC decided the Hall of Famer's $1.75-million
annual salary was more than it wanted to spend. The move has received
some criticism, but it was a good decision.
For all his intelligence and accomplishments as a player, Dierdorf
doesn't talk like someone who truly understands the game of football.
I sat confounded on many a Monday night this past season as
Dierdorf, who obviously knows a lot about playing offensive line,
rarely commented about the play in the trenches.
Meanwhile, counterpart Boomer Esiason talked ad infinitum about
quarterback play each and every week. Yes, Boomer has a ways to
go but fans who tuned in to MNF heard the ex-NFL signalcaller dissect
what he knows best - playing QB at the game's highest level. In
12 years, Dierdorf wasn't able to accomplish this task with his
area of expertise.
ESPN studio analyst Sterling Sharpe and game analyst Paul Maguire
have been suggested as possible replacements for Dierdorf. However,
recent rumors have Esiason and play-by-play man Al Michaels going
it alone in 1999.
I'm not sure how Esiason would fare in a two-man booth, but I've
never been a fan of the three-man alignment and a Michaels-Esiason
tandem would eliminate the occasional goofiness that resulted from
pairing Boomer and Dierdorf. This move would also allow Esiason
to expand his analysis beyond quarterback play. The initial move
by ABC was a bold one - it might not be a bad idea to give
the two-man booth a shot.
On another matter, Messrs. Doubleday and Wilpon weren't thinking
of their fans when they dumped McCarver, a 16-year veteran of Mets
broadcasts.
Word is the Mets thought McCarver was far too critical of the
team. Manager Bobby Valentine has been prominently mentioned
as someone who had problems with McCarver's honesty and criticism,
and no one in New York has come to Bobby V's defense.
Adding to the ugliness of the situation is the Mets decision to
hire team pitching legend Tom Seaver as McCarver's replacement.
Seaver may turn out to be a decent analyst, but the Mets created
another dilemma by hiring him as a Spring training instructor and
organizational pitching guru. Will Seaver be honest and honorable
enough to criticize the players he is tutoring? In the wonderful
world of journalism, we call this a conflict of interest.
McCarver is the best analyst in baseball, as voted by AQB
and others, and won't be looking for work for long. He is Fox's
top analyst for Saturday afternoon games, and the network might
allow him to also broadcast Yankees games for New York's Fox 5,
if he has that opportunity.
Fox 5 recently wrested Yankees broadcasts from WPIX/Channel 11,
which then paid $10 million to televise 50 Mets games in '99 and
40 contests in 2000. It's hard to blame WPIX for McCarver's removal
as the Mets pick their own broadcasters. McCarver's annual salary
for Mets telecasts was $500,000.
Can George Steinbrenner handle McCarver's brutal honesty? Well,
according to recent reports in the New York media, the Boss is more
than a little interested in McCarver. The chance to hire the
game's best analyst while also tweaking the Mets could be difficult
for Steinbrenner to pass up.
McCarver's next move is anyone's guess but one thing is certain:
Something is rotten in Queens, and the Mets should be ashamed
of themselves.
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Randy.
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