Stupid like a Fox

Gave my Saturday tickets over to Heath today. Good things seem to happen when I do that... A-Rod hit #500 a couple of years ago, and then today. Maybe I'll give him the rest of my package.

After watching Fox's pathetic coverage of today's game, I've instead decided to see as many games in person as possible. My expectations are veeeerrrrry low for the channel 5 guys, so I can't say I'm that surprised. But y'know-- I expect a certain level of professionalism from guys that do nationally televised games every week. A low level, but at least a level.

Joe and Tim stumbled their way through the first few innings... well, I assume they did because I had the sound off. Even without any sound at all, you know these idiots are talking trash as soon as you see their faces.

My stomach churned after the neophyte John Mayberry Jr. hit his first major league homer off Pettitte and put the Phils up 4-1. A few minutes later I was scrambling turn the volume on after they misidentified some guy in the stands as "John Mayberry Sr., John Mayberry Jr.'s father." I guess the Fox ground team's memo from up-top only read he's a big black guy wearing a Phillies hat, 'cause they came up with the wrong guy. About 15 minutes later they found the real elder John Mayberry, who was a great sport about the gaffe. Hell, his son just jacked one at Yankee Stadium!

I kept my finger on the remote for a while after that, just in case more hijinks were up ahead. Sure enough, they posted an incredibly stupid "poll" about what Ken Rosenthal was doing tonight after the game (besides sending out his resume). The crew revealed that Ken was indeed going to see Springsteen tonight, and quickly cut to Ken himself out in the stands for a reaction. His microphone wasn't on (not because I muted him-- it really wasn't plugged in!), so he stood there blabbing away about "The Boss", no doubt (I guess... who knows what he was saying!). All this during the most exciting part of the game, too.

After this I just had to keep the sound on. Joe Buck supplied his usual stream of deadpan truisms, with ol' Tim sounding pretty tired as the game winded down. Buck tried to come up with something profound after A-Rod's game-tying tater in the ninth, but instead stammered something inane about the supposed wind tunnel to right at the new Stadium and how A-Rod's shot would have been a homerun anywhere. The shot only cleared the wall by about five feet!

Fox then compiled a montage of all the "face-pies" from the last few Yanks' stolen victories. It was a drawn-out exercise, to say the least (show the score deficit, play the clip of the game winning hit, show A.J. Burnett sneak up with the pie, repeat ad nauseum...), even for us Yankee fans. Anyway, Fox screws up by completely missing the Los Chicos double pie-slam by Burnett while they talk to a blank-faced A-Rod. Yeah, you could see it in the background, but come on. Let's just say that Suzyn Waldman and Kimberly Jones have spent a good deal of the month of May cleaning cream out of their hair.

A real team effort today by the Yanks (even the cryogenic Nick Swisher). Pettitte put in his seven innings, which is about all I'll ever ask of the guy. However, we need to see a bit more from Mr. Burnett if we're gonna make a real push for the division this year. More than pies, anyway.