Today we salute the 25th letter in the alphabet with the musical question, “Why?”
Did you watch Game 7 of Lightning-Rangers on Friday? If so, what did you see? If you saw the Rangers being outplayed the entire game, so did I. We needed no statistics to know that.
But a game without statistics — a telecast that would allow us to believe only what we see — has become an impossibility. Who cares what we see, what’s the QB’s passer rating?
Thus, according to what was presented by NBCSN, team and NHL websites and box scores as significant factual data, it was the Rangers who dominated. Power plays, 2-0, Rangers. Hits, 29-25, Rangers. Faceoffs won, 40-24, Rangers.
So why are such stats presented as essential to our knowing what’s going on? Why do they qualify as surrogates for our good senses? Why? Because! That’s why!
Last week, Fox had what was pitched as great news for us: It has re-hired Matt Millen as a football analyst.
No offense to Millen, a nice guy when we’ve chatted, but why? He wasn’t good his first time with Fox, then not so good with the NFL Network, then more not so good with ESPN, specializing in full-blown contradictions, vacant-speech making and pandering to bad acts and actors.
So why did Fox bring him back? What was his appeal? Is he due to succeed? Or is it that the shot-callers who hired him at Fox share ESPN’s cluelessness?
Fox is in the habit of hiring front-and-center folks after they’ve been exposed as, well, not particularly good or credible.
ESPN was done with see-through, self-promoter/dress-for-success “broadcast journalist” Erin Andrews, so Fox hired her. U.S. World Cupper Alexi Lalas, likely hired by ESPN because he was recognized for his long red hair and beard, was a windy bore of a soccer analyst, so Fox hired him.
Gus Johnson was a preparation-resistant guesswork artist and gimmick-driven screamer — screamers today would be hired ahead of Vin Scully — at several stops, including MSG and CBS. Johnson doesn’t seem to know the nuts or bolts of college football and basketball, yet Fox handed him the keys to both kingdoms.
Matt Millen? Sure, why not? He has “name recognition,” even if it’s followed by groans.
So what’s my point?
Keep an eye on Seattle closer Fernando Rodney. Why? He’s not only among the AL’s save leaders, he could lead the league in saves, then be rewarded with his outright release. Friday, brought in with a 2-0 lead, he allowed a walk, then a triple. Mariners won, 2-1. Rodney earned his 14th save. His ERA became 7.08.
The Yankees’ Andrew Miller, who has 15 saves, has an ERA of 0.81. But a save’s a save!
A save’s a save, a stat’s a stat. Numbers don’t lie! No matter what you saw Friday night, the Rangers dominated Tampa Bay. Just check the stats.
With Doc, it seems ice & easy
Game 7: Doc Emrick was Doc Emrick, even finding a moment to mention that the Rangers “lost their first Game 7, in triple overtime in Boston. The next two years, the NHL would lose 100 players to World War II.”
Late second, after Ranger Tanner Glass mostly missed a full-speed check into the boards, Emrick: “Ooo! And Glass was going to put one of the Lightning into the third row! But there was glass there.”
And with the handshake line about to form, Emrick noted that Lightning star Steven Stamkos “is leading the way. And along the way, he’ll undoubtedly run into his old linemate in Tampa, Marty St. Louis.”
If NBC wasn’t prepared to show that, it paid attention to Emrick’s prompt, showing St. Louis and Stamkos swapping hugs.
But NBC was prepared. It next showed ex-Ranger Brian Boyle along the line. And then NBC even gave us a glimpse of ex-Ranger favorite Ryan Callahan as he worked the line.
Is it part of the in-game interview deal with the NHL that NBC is disallowed to ask coaches pertinent questions?
Ryan McDonagh, the Rangers’ most utilized player, hadn’t yet played in the first period — it was later revealed he had a broken foot — yet Pierre McGuire, who earlier reported McDonagh’s absence as big news, didn’t even mention his name during a first-period chat with Alain Vigneault.
Finally, this visceral notion that the Rangers somehow “blew it” vs. Tampa Bay, thus their season was “a failure,” discounts the fact that Tampa Bay’s a very good team.
For YES, what a ‘catch’
Catchers, perhaps because they’re the only players who spend their careers looking at all of the eight other positions, plus the other teams’ base runners, naturally make baseball’s best TV/radio analysts.
Friday from Oakland, two out in the second, A’s on first and second, Josh Phegley singled to short right. While the runners were held at second and third, Phegley made a long turn toward second. However, first baseman Garrett Jones, having cut off the throw near the mound, didn’t throw to first, where second baseman Stephen Drew was covering.
With ex-catcher John Flaherty narrating, YES aired tape of catcher Brian McCann pointing and shouting for Jones to throw to first. Terrific show and tell; TV at its best.
Good stuff, continued: Saturday, after Met Wilmer Flores took his time throwing to first, then threw wildly — the runner was the Marlins’ Christian Yelich — Ron Darling, on Ch. 11, seemed flabbergasted.
“Sometimes when I watch Flores play shortstop, I ask myself if he knows the scouting report. Yelich is as fast as they get.”
As our local colleges spend and fight to recruit junior college transfers, would it be inappropriate to remind the schools’ fans that there are reasons kids good enough to play Division I basketball first go to junior colleges or post-high school academies? And very few of those reasons are good ones.
Craig Carton must share garage space with Floyd Mayweather. Seems every time we tune to WFAN, Carton’s heard giving his highly personal endorsement of a different auto dealer.
Why did NBC on Saturday employ three — Ted Robinson, Mary Carillo, John McEnroe — to call the French Open match between only two players, Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka? Guess NBC’s trying to cut back.
Reader Al Pollack, Maplewood, N.J., who watched the Irish Open on the Golf Channel, wonders why he didn’t hear even one “Get in the hole!” or “You da man!”
Then there’s Albany’s Bill Chase, who was watching Cards-Dodgers on MLB Network on Friday, when the three primary sponsors were identified: 5-Hour Energy, Cialis and Motel 6.
Source@NewYorkPost
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