Still Waiting for Godot … and tonight’s Mets game

Scoop commented in Ouch. My Ears Hurt

… Finally, I direct you to this column from the San Diego Union-Tribune: http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20070824-9999-1s24mediacol.html

Jay Posner (who, among other things, mentions that Ralph Kiner will be calling the third inning of today’s Mets-Dodgers game on Fox with Tim McCarver) not only refers to Keith as “TV’s best news commentator” (yeah!), but says: “ESPN Radio hasn’t replaced Dan Patrick, who announced he was leaving just a scant 6½ weeks ago. After hearing several tryouts, I’d probably favor Erik Kuselias or Doug Gottlieb. Failing that, I’ll take anyone not named Stephen A. Smith.”

From your lips to God’s (sore) ears, pal. Talk about a man who thinks volume = value.

I was shocked to find the Dodgers-Mets game on here yesterday. I fully expected to be consigned to Sawx-Sox Hell (the other Fox Saturday day game.) Nothing against either team, but the Sawx are not my team and the Sox are playing bad baseball this season. The gods smiled upon me and gave me LAD@NYM.

But with the game on Fox the gods also gave me Tim McCarver. That must be karmic payback for something bad I’ve done in my life. Like a lot of Mets fans I had the Fox audio off and listened to the WFAN broadcast, except for the third inning when Ralph was in the booth.

The various Mets blogs and message boards lit up with glowing remarks. It’s kind of funny how the mostly male and — shall we say — very profane writers on Mets’ fans sites go absolutely mooshy when it comes to Ralph. Baseball fans tend to be sentimental. (Mets Refugees, which is pretty much a no-holds-barred forum, has a rule: 14. Under no circumstances are you allowed to make fun of, mock, or diss Ralph Kiner. Then again, there is a “no nudity” rule for users’ avatars, and if you ask me some of the women in those pics just might as well be naked.)

McCarver was even pretty decent when paired up with Ralph. Someone even suggested that Fox ditch Joe Buck for Mets playoff games and have the McCarver-Kiner team do them.

I’d go for that.

(My only complaint about yesterday’s game is that Fox had Ralph on for only one inning. When he broadcasts with Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling on SNY he’ll be on for up to three innings.)

Today’s Mets game isn’t. Because the team is in contention for the playoffs, as are the Dodgers, today’s game was turned into a night game by ESPN. This means no Gary, Keith, and Ron. We get stuck with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan.

Miller is tolerable. I liked Morgan as a player, but as a commentator he is ‘pert near horrible. Opinion-wise, he’s entitled to have his own. But he doesn’t even get the facts right. During Tom Glavine’s 300th win game, Morgan went on about how Mets secondbaseman Luis Castillo was having trouble with pop-ups at Wrigley because he was unfamiliar with the park, having played his entire career in the American League. Morgan sounded authoritative and very convincing. But Castillo played for ten years with the Florida Marlins (an NL East team) and also hit the famous foul that became the Steve Bartman Ball — AT WRIGLEY FIELD.

Morgan totally lost credibility with me earlier this summer when he was on the Dan Patrick Show talking about Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. Morgan said (and I paraphrase) “All things being equal, American League team manager Jim Leyland should choose C.C. Sabathia as his starting pitcher. It would send a positive message to African Americans if an African American were chosen to start the game.” I did a double-take and actually stared at the radio. I was so dumbfounded by the statement, I can’t even remember if DP challenged him on this. At the time Sabathia had the most wins of pitchers on the AL roster, but other guys had better ERA’s and K/BB ratios. When Leyland selected Dan Haren (a white guy) to start I kind of expected listeners to call in to the show and call Leyland a racist.

Using that “logic” if Daisuke Matsuzaka or Chien-Ming Wang had been on the AL All-Star team Leyland should have started one of them. It would mean a lot to the Asian American population to see one of their own as an All-Star Game starting pitcher. And while baseball is already huge in Japan, it is just getting established in China. Starting an Asian guy would really generate more interest in the Chinese market. (OK, so Wang is from Taiwan and not the PRC, but if it’s acceptable to use Sabathia as a African American token, then go ahead and throw Wang up against the Wall of Ethnicity and see if he will stick.)

I’ve been wondering if ESPN will allow any of its personalities to appear on Dan’s new show. They might want to circle the wagons and prevent their people from furthering DP’s new venture. Then again, ESPN has benefited from contributors from other media outlets, e.g., Michael Wilbon (from the Washington Post) and Rick Reilly (Sports Illustrated). I can live without Joe Morgan appearing on DP’s new show, but it would be a real shame for Dan to not be able to chat with Peter Gammons, particularly if KO will be on the new show.

It would be cool to hear Dan chat with Ralph Kiner and other past and present broadcasters like Vin Scully and Ernie Harwell. Yeah, they’re not in the ESPN “Who’s Now?” crowd, but I consider that a plus. In Dan’s biographical video on his Web site he calls himself “a storyteller,” and these broadcasters are the same. It would be interesting to hear their insights on how baseball and baseball broadcasting have changed over the years.

As for DP’s replacement, Kuselias or Gottlieb would be OK. I prefer Bob Valvano, but I don’t think ESPN will give him that prime time slot because he is too low-key. I refuse to listen to Stephen A. Smith because he is an idiot and while I’d like to listen to Dan Le Batard for his interesting ideas I can’t because HE EFFING YELLS TOO MUCH. It doesn’t really matter who they put into that slot. Afternoon radio for me has gone from “Hey, gotta listen to Dan!” to “I’m stuck in the car driving from point A to point B, let’s see what’s on the radio ….”