Baseballhead:
Every Mouse Has Its Day

Michael Cox

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your 2002 World Champions, the Anaheim Angels. (If you recorded Game 7 and didn't want to hear how it turned out, sorry. Just what did you think you were going to find here anyway, the lost ending to Push, Nevada?)

I'd like to say it was a great World Series, but it wasn't. It was a very good World Series, with shifts in momentum, heroes (Troy Glaus, David "Plucky" Bell, Jeff Kent, Francisco Rodriguez) villains (every member of the FOX fall season promo department) and heart-tugging stories (who can forget the image of Shawon Dunston being stretched by his son, then returning the favor by explaining the word "journeyman"?).

This World Series featured four close games, two lopsided ones, and an amazingly undramatic Game 7, considering the score (when Dusty Baker inserts Tom Goodwin in the middle innings, you know things aren't looking good for the San Fran nine). On a scale from Yankees-Padres 1998 (that'd be a 1) to Mets-Red Sox 1986 (10, natch), I'd hold this one in about the same regard as Twins-Cardinals 1987: I was never 100 percent certain who would win the series, but early in any given game, I had a sneaking suspicion who held the hot hand. A solid 7, which is unfortunate for a series which didn't feature any team with a top hat in its logo.

Am I being too critical? Perhaps, but somewhere in the midst of the rally primates, rubber chickens, Thunder Stix, whooshing and clanking TV graphics, shouting commentators, PepsiCo-owned restaurant publicity stunts and endlessly repetitive FOX fall season promos, the game seemed to get a little lost. I'm vowing right now to do everything in my power to obtain media credentials to see next year's Series in person, if only to avoid having to deal with the TV coverage.

More on that later, but first let me back up and count the ways I loved this World Series:

Barry Bonds shakes his rep. Of course, this happened during the Division Series and NLCS, but Barry still left an indelible stamp on the Fall Classic. Others have opined that Bonds should have been awarded the series MVP whether the Giants won or lost, and although I knew that wouldn't happen, he was nevertheless the 800-pound gorilla in a sea of Rally Monkeys.

In fact, I couldn't help wondering whether Mike Scioscia might not have made a deal with the devil (played by Al Pacino): you get to win the World Series, but first you have to pitch to Barry Bonds just enough times that it makes you look foolish.

It was also a good time to forget the media midgets who have demonized Bonds as a sullen, antisocial clubhouse cancer -- the guy's such a good interview that I've got to think the problem is with the writers (I mean, have you ever met one of those guys?). And where watching his own home runs is concerned, do you really think Bonds doesn't go "holy crap" himself when he hits some of those? Hey, if I thought I had a chance at winning free tacos for the whole country, I'd watch my shot too.

Francisco Rodriguez. Yes, it took a loophole in the rules to get this September call-up onto the postseason roster, but tell me honestly -- who knew?

Shorter game times. After Game 2, Jayson Stark ranted on and on about the 3:55 length of the game, joking that East Coasters were tucked in their beds by its conclusion. Ironically, the average game time of the previous two Series was 3:52. This year we were treated to a relatively brisk and clippy 3:37 pace, the shortest average since 1999.

ESPN Radio's Jon Miller. One possible reason for FOX's low World Series ratings may have been legions of fans just saying no to McCarver and tuning in the games on the wireless instead. Miller was at the top of his game, doing his usual exemplary job of calling the pitches, getting excited only when excitement was called for, and even calling Joe Morgan on some of the Hall of Famer's sillier "insights" while being so deferential that Morgan probably didn't even notice.

Miller was also remarkably impartial, considering he's the everyday broadcast voice of the Giants. If only the rest of ESPN Radio's crew could stand up to Miller's high standard: in the Game 7 pregame, Dave Campbell noted that both the Giants and Angels had won 10 postseason games this year but didn't say why he was noting that (any two teams playing in Game 7 of a World Series will have won 10 postseason games), and mispronounced "wunderkind" (the "i" is short, Dave).

Rowdy fans drown out Peter Gammons. This is one of those instances where Harold Reynolds shows the value of his high-pitched speaking voice -- at times I think they let him talk because he's the only one who could be heard above the din of 300 tipsy Orange County residents chanting "Sal-mon! Sal-mon!"

Now, turning to the things I didn't like:

FOX' coverage. The official broadcast partner of MLB tried everything in their arsenal except letting the game be the game. From the noisy yet uninformative commentary of Buck and McCarver to possibly the biggest onslaught of new fall show promos in history, I can't imagine how a network could make a baseball game harder to watch. Hey! Look there, in the crowd -- it's what's-his-name, who just happens to be starring in John Doe, this fall on FOX!

Take Bonds' home run in Game 1 -- as he rounded second, McCarver said something about "baseball royalty," and then a trumpet fanfare played. I had originally tuned out McCarver's comment, so I was wondering why they would be playing a fanfare for Barry Bonds at Edison Field. It was only after re-watching that moment on tape that I realized FOX had pre-scripted that wonderful spontaneous moment.

Fortunately, the World Series had nothing like the uneasy twenty minutes or so during the NLCS when McCarver adamantly demanded that Benito Santiago be awarded home plate on an interference call. In McCarver's view, the fact that a throw to the plate could have theoretically been off-line was reason enough to allow Santiago to score. Even a visit from umpiring supervisor Steve Palermo, who assured McCarver that the call was absolutely correct, didn't keep the hapless commentator from insisting the call was wrong.

Addressing the low ratings of this year's Series, FOX head David Hill blamed it all on this year's near-strike, calling his company's production "outstanding." I suspect Hill was behind the trumpet fanfare.

Small children on the field of play. To me, there should be only one rule for prospective batboys: that they are old enough to know when to run and fetch the bat and when they might be in danger of being pancaked in a home plate collision.

In the back of my mind, I have a tingly feeling that FOX is partially behind this too: in an effort to attract more families, it behooves Rupert Murdoch's network to get lots of heartwarming shots of the players' tykes. Of course you know this is the exact same kind of thinking that gave us Scrappy Doo.

No free tacos. 'Nuff said.

Commissioner Selig's "gag order." Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I would tend to think that the more people hear about baseball, the more they think about baseball. Selig must know something I don't, because he issued a ruling that there will be no talking about baseball during the World Series. In fact, he's going to fine the Mets because the press found out that they're getting Art Howe as their new manager. No matter that it wasn't the Mets who leaked the news (Howe's agent Alan Nero is the talkative type, often going by the pseudonym "source familiar with the negotiations").

My guess is that the order doesn't extend to the Lord High Commissioner himself, especially if he should want to talk about how, say, his sport is dying, or how certain specific teams aren't going to win anything next year and so you should maybe hold off on that season ticket purchase. That's fine, but a team talking up their great new manager -- that would be damaging to the game.

ESPN's failure to capitalize. Ten bucks says that Michael Eisner's first phone call today was to the heads of Disney's sports network, to demand answers to why they couldn't even lead Sunday night's SportsCenter with the story of their company's own team winning the World Series. Some of said heads may roll.

Yes, your company is having serious synergy problems when your flagship daily baseball program signs off for the season three days before your team's season ends. Of course, any attempt to run Baseball Tonight on a Sunday evening is likely to be met by NFL commish Paul Tagliabue, holding his contract and flanked by several lawyers, but you should have thought about that when you got into the baseball business.

John Travolta's belly bouncing as he celebrated the Angels' victory. Apparently the former Vinnie Barbarino has been preparing for the part of Homer in a live-action version of The Simpsons. I'm filing this under Things I Did Not Need To See, along with any shots of Giants owner Peter McGowan wearing a black turtleneck.

Wrapping up this week, I do want to remind you that we don't hibernate here at Strikethree.com -- we'll be here all winter, watching the awards, observing the free-agent and manager signings, and previewing the 2003 season. It'll be fun, honest. This is also your last chance to vote for the Strikethree.com Baseball Awards, which we'll be handing out November 8, so get busy!

about the author

Michael Cox would have no problem with Tim McCarver if he would change his voice to sound like the gecko from those car insurance commercials. Suggest Austin Powers as a boothmate at mc@strikethree.com. Huh, huh, huh.