October 27 , 2002

Fox No Hound

It was a Disney and Fox World Series. All-Disney and All-Fox, all the time.

Though the company had absolutely nothing to do with the teams' success, the Angels are Disney's baby. An unwanted stepchild until recently, but Disney's nonetheless.

ESPN, on the other hand is genuine Disney, and as always, the network did a great job covering the Series.

SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight were excellent throughout the season and continued to be right up till the last out on October 27. Harold Reynolds is always great, and Peter Gammons was pretty damn OK too. No complaints.

John Miller and Joe Morgan on radio? Not as good. They tried to be objective, but when it came right down to it, it was a San Francisco and Barry Bonds gush-fest. Morgan stumbled with his words constantly, and in the future might want to be less familiar with Bonds, and actually refer to him as someone other than "Barry..."

But Fox, Fox knows baseball. Has the sport nailed, with no peer. They've surpassed anything NBC ever did and left CBS and ABC completely in the dust. Baseball has never seen production, direction, and photography this good. Fox deserves all the credit.

Joe Buck is simply the best young television baseball man going. He's totally grown into the leading announcer's role. And Tim McCarver's fine too. I don't know why he gets the flack he does. I like him. He's sharp, he's articulate, has a sense of humor, and is right on almost all the time.

Kevin Kennedy is the best at his job too, and while there's been talk of him doing analysis instead of McCarver, it's not a good idea. Kennedy is too close to the players to be as objective as is necessary. McCarver is the guy. It's time to lay off him already...

Locally, Rory Markus has become a star, a joy to listen to. Terry Smith's a bit monotone, but he's good too. A job well done...

Jim Lampley said before game seven that even if the Angels win, Bonds is the MVP. Wrong. No way. Bonds is not the MVP when he loses. Sorry Lamps, not this time. Not even if you compare Bonds to Babe Ruth and trot out the word "rubric." It's good that you know the word though. I mean, not an appropriate usage really, but a nice try. I had to look it up...

John Ireland still needs to lose that hideous speech impediment. Sounding like Doug Kirkorian can't be this broadcaster's lifelong dream. But if it is, he's accomplished it...

Props to Journalist Bill and the Los Angeles Times for its World Series work. Special congrats to Bill Plaschke for his great writing, and extra-special praise for Bill Shaikin, the best game-story writer the Times has had in years...

In case you missed it, from the "ding, dong, the witch is dead" file, the Dodgers and KXTA have officially split. Get ready for a station you can actually hear, KFWB. 980 on your AM dial, early March, Vero Beach or perhaps West Palm. Be there. Aloha....

Howard Cole