NLCS Game 4 notes: We're down in the mud
The best of Fox's performances came from the camera crew during Monday's Game 4. The first showing Dodgers pitcher Derek Lowe in the dugout slamming down a box of something and then tearing open his jersey before heading to the clubhouse after giving up two runs in the first was not just good drama, but an indication of where the oft-emotional player's head was at that point.
Joe Buck added the line: "There's a good chance that shirt is hanging down somewhere on the lower level for the Dodgers being sold as we speak."
There were several instances where it seemed Lowe was tending to a problem with a finger, and another camera shot in the dugout of him looking at his right hand, as if there was an issue. Did he tear a nail or cut himself on that jersey tear-open tantrum?
Reporter Chris Myers came in with a hit during the fourth inning to explain that Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt had the ballboys rub up some more balls with mud "or dirt" so Lowe could get a better grip on them.
A "Sounds of the Game" segement also had home-plate umpire Ted Barnett say he didn't blame Lowe for complaining about the slippery feel to the balls.
Tim McCarver finally chimed in with the pertinent information: Blackburn's Delaware Mud is what they've rubbed on balls for years. Dirt? Yeah, that was it.
==A dugout shot as well between innings of Dodgers manager Joe Torre trading barbs with Barnett was also pertinent to the tension building. From the Dodgers' radio broadcast, Vin Scully indicated there were some words exchanged, probably the Dodgers' displeasure of the strike zone, particularily a pitch low and away to Blake DeWitt that was called a strike. On the next pitch, he lined out to end the inning with runners on second and third.
==Another eventual camera shot that worked, albeit from high above, showed (sort of) how Dodgers third base coach Larry Bowa nearly stopped Furcal with his arms, trying to get him to hold up rounding third in the bottom of the fifth on Manny Ramirez's single. Buck seemed to be the only one who noticed it, and the replay kind of showed it. A better replay, again from the dugout, were the Dodgers shoving Casey Blake around after his home run. Martin, miked up, even exclaimed: "What are you scared about?" as Blake didn't want to take a curtain call for the fans.
==The other exceptional camera shot came with a replay in the top of the seventh, showing how the bottom of the sixth ended with the Phillies' Chase Utley catching a line drive and tagging second base to double off Dodgers runner Rafael Furcal. A close-up shot of the bag left no doubt that Utley's glove was there a split second before Furcal's hand.
==Best use of the Fox Trax, aside from showing balls outside and low getting called strikes by the umpire, was on Orel Hershiser's ceremonial first pitch Monday. It tracked it at 53 miles per hour, and tailing far right of the strike zone. It then replayed it in super slo-mo for an even slower effect.
Hershiser, doing the broadcast on ESPN Radio, was in the booth where the Dodgers KABC radio team usually sits, next to Buck and McCarver, who were in Scully's normal FSN home. Hershier, seeing the video on the mointor of him throwing that pitch, stuck his head out around the booth to give Buck and McCarver grief, then explained he put a spin on the pitch to make it tail away. "Was he trying to tell us he was throwing a screwball?" asked Buck. The Fox cameras -- again -- caught all that for the TV audience.
==The Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw and Phillies broadcaster Gary Matthews Sr. did a remarkably blase performance in reading the starting lineups for their respective teams before Game 4. Kershaw only made it worth listening to because he referred to catcher Russell "My Favorite" Martin and pitcher Derek "Chatterbox" Lowe, whatever that meant.
Celebrites in the house (captured in one way or another by Fox's cameras) who could have done a better job: James "Don't Call me Josh" Brolin and Barbara Streisand, sitting next to Frank and Jamie McCourt; Penny Marshall, sitting next to brother Gary Marshall, in the front row (where Pat Sajak was the night before; next to the Dodgers' on-deck hitter), or ...
That was it? No other real celeb shots in the crowd were that memorable.
Other notes:
==Fox did a 6.7 rating/11 share overnight for the Dodgers-Phillies NLCS Game 3 on Sunday night -- 25.4/31 in Philadelphia and 13.5/23 in Los Angeles. For the Southern California market, that's a huge jump over the Friday afternoon Game 2, which did a meager 6.4/16 rating here (from 1:30 to about 5 p.m.) and 22.8/43 in Philly.
==The New York Post's Phil Mushnick noticed a Fox graphic during Game 2 that pointed out, when the Phillies' Ryan Howard was at bat: "Career with bases loaded, .263, five grand slams." Wrote Mushnick: "All his bases loaded homers were grand slams? What a coincidence." He actually missed the worst point: The bases weren't even loaded with Howard was at the plate at the time. Runners were at first and third.
==The Toronto Star's Chris Zelkovich noted during the TBS Boston-Tampa Bay Game 2 ALCS coverage on Saturday a graphic on the "Keys to the Game" included Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett had to"to eliminate health issues." Wrote Zelkovich: "Were they proposing between-innings surgery?"
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