NLCS Game 3 TV stuff: Duck, here's the horsehide
Since I was at the game in the press section and didn't get to hear the TV broadcast as it was happening -- a monitor near me only had a picture, but not the sound -- I couldn't dissect any of the Joe Buck-Tim McCarver banter until coming home and watching the replay.
Yes, that's what some media critics do. They see the game in person; they watch it again at home. Probably some fans do the same.
The thing that struck me was how early on in the Fox telecat that they were in tune with a possible Dodger retaliation against the Phillies. Some of the groundwork was laid by Dodgers manager Joe Torre in conversations with the Fox broadcasters before game. But the spot-on analyst came from dugout reporter Ken Rosenthal, who, two outs into the top of the first, he was allowed to come into the broadcast and say that from his perspective and reporting, "many Dodgers were upset (Chad) Billingsley failed to retaliate in Game 2" against the Phillies' Randy Myers, who had thrown tight to Russell Martin and behind the head of Manny Ramirez in the first inning. Rosenthal also said it was the second time Rameriz had been thrown out without retribution -- the other, when the Giants' Matt Cain hit him in the helmet in San Francisco, a game Billingsley was also pitching.
Buck added a quote he saw from Rameriz that also said he'd be glad to have Myers on his team -- implying that he took no offense to the pitch, but only wish his pitchers had the same kind of fortitude to do the same.
After Martin was hit by a pitch in the first, Buck and McCarver kept the storyline alive, practically anticipating the Dodgers' next move -- and if it wasn't coming, then they had a story there as well.
When Martin was knocked down in the bottom of the second, then grounded into a double play, Buck said "I'd be shocked" if the Dodgers didn't retaliate. Coming out of a commercial to start the third, Buck said of Dodger pitcher Hiroki Kuroda: "Wonder if a translator was needed to tell Kuroda to buzz or hit one of these Phillies hitting and get a little payback."
McCarver then discussed how a retaliation works -- with a 6-1 lead in the third inning, in a game you need to win, "you can buzz a hitter, but you don't want to hit him."
And then, the pitch sailed over Shane Victorino's head, and he provided all the visuals a TV producer loves.
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Fox likes to have someone -- players, celebrities, Stewie from "Family Guy" -- read the lineups before each game. It's cute, gives a little flavor to it, exposes someone's personality. When Dodger reliever Joe Beimel did his team's lineup before Game 2, they had to delay the start of the game about 15 seconds because he took so long, and Fox had come out of a commercial without enough time to allow his full intros to go out.
I was on the field before Game 3 and saw Fox officials escort a very scary Mary Hart before the camera to do the Dodgers lineup?
Why, her, of all the folks in L.A.?
I didn't realize just how frightful it was until I came home and watched it on the tube.
Halloween came early this year, boys.
Tommy Lasorda wouldn't do it? Vin Scully?
I must say, even Pat Freakin' Sajack, who the cameras kept capturing in the background every time it shot a Dodger in the on-deck circle, would have been much more clever than a Mary Hart whose eyes seem to come unglued as she did some facial expressions.
Henry Winkler and Ryan Seacrest were even shown in their luxury suite boxes. And Tiger Woods , with a Dodger cap and NLCS sweatshirt, was right there near Lasorda and team owners Frank and Jamie McCourt.
If Tiger can't do it, would Stevie Williams?
Hart, the "Entertainment Tonight" fossil, was apparently sitting behind home plate in the expensive seats because she also seemed to get some camera time. There must be some over-60 Fox exec whose crush on ol' Mary hasn't died.
Having Danny DeVito and some other kid from the FX show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" seemed to backfire as well, as DeVito admitted while reading the Phillies' lineup that he was a Dodger fan and implied the Dodgers were going to take down starting pitcher Jamie Moyer.
Show a little more creativity. You're in L.A. There are millions of possibilities to have this thing done right.
We'd like to leave it to the experts, but ... Mary Hart? Who's got the heart to tell her that her Phyllis Diller days are coming up faster than she'd anticipated. You can't just show her legs any more...
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