THE ORIOLES-CUBA baseball game from Havana yesterday on ESPN was filled with wonder. For one thing, it allowed all Americans the opportunity to root for Albert Belle.
It also provided an opportunity for Jon Miller, ESPN’s lead baseball play-by-player, to show why he’s worthy of the position. After a translator gave a very brief interpretation of the Cuban manager’s long pre-game explanation of his approach to the game, Miller said, “It seems he said a lot more than that. But anyway …”
Later, Miller noted that the 55,000 or so in the ballpark were not representative of a typically enthusiastic Cuban baseball crowd because the relatively subdued live audience was “hand-picked” by the Fidel Castro regime. He added that such an exclusionary tactic angered Havana’s most devoted, daily patrons of baseball. Heck, just like the World Series.
Joe Morgan was strong, too. The game’s ceremonial first pitch, to Brady Anderson, was thrown by 84-year-old Connie Marrero, legendary Cuban pitcher and former Washington Senator. But then Marrero continued to pitch. Finally, Anderson stuck out his bat and bunted toward third. “Bunting on an 84-year-old pitcher!” Morgan hollered.
Early in the game Morgan appeared on tape, chatting with locals through an interpreter. And he spoke a sad truth. As a kid, he told them, he and his friends lived and breathed baseball. But, “No mas,” said Morgan, that’s no longer the case with U.S. kids.
The telecast’s most curious recurring sight came when Castro was seen seated beside Bud Selig. Yep, the dictator and the dictationist.
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A GUY Who Gets It: The person who determines our most basic appreciation of all game telecasts is the director, who decides what we see, how we see it and when we see it. He or she becomes the difference between TV and radio.
To that end, Saturday’s Final Four again proved that CBS’ Bob Fishman is one of the few directors who fully understands the vagaries of basketball.
With Fishman at the wheel during consecutive games, no significant action was missed. After baskets, he waited a moment to see if there was defensive pressure in the backcourt before ordering a close-up or “hero shot” of the scorer. Every time he left the floor to show the crowd, the coaches or the benches, he first made a value judgement.
Far too many directors are stuck in mindless routines that take us from the game regardless of circumstances. That’s why we miss steals, fouls, fast- breaks, turnovers and, this season, the double OT, game-winning buzzer-beater in Georgetown-Villanova.
Fishman made only two bad cuts Saturday, both on CBS’ orders. They were cross-promotional shots of actors who appear in CBS shows. And both men, seated in the crowd, looked as if they had no other reason for being there. Both cutaways likely told many viewers that the actors’ tickets would’ve better served people who actually wanted to see the games.
Then again, maybe that’s what Fishman was trying to capture.
Theater of the Absurd: Saturday, playing the long par-4 18th in the Tournament of Champions, Tiger Woods teed off with an iron, which he hit a ton, drawing it into the fairway. “That is a gorilla iron,” NBC’s Johnny Miller said in admiration.
According to the standards applied three years ago when CBS’ Billy Packer admired Georgetown’s Allen Iverson as “a tough monkey” and all hell broke loose, Miller’s laudatory comment should and must be condemned as racially insensitive. A precedent, no matter how ridiculous or wrong-headed, has been established, thus Miller and NBC owe Woods and all African-Americans an apology.
Garment District: Saturday, for the first time we can recall, Utah basketball coach Rick Majerus appeared on TV in clothing that didn’t display the name or logo of the sneaker company that owns him. As part of CBS’ on-site NCAA Tournament studio show, Majerus wore an open-collar shirt beneath a message-less blazer.
It’s also worth noting that Majerus is in the employ of Reebok while one of the Final Four telecast sponsors was Nike.
Mixed Messages: CBS’ Final Four pregame show Saturday, began with Armen Keteyian moderating a somber panel discussion on what ails Division I NCAA basketball, including gambling and academic scandals.
However, moments earlier, the telecast’s mirthful opening included a tournament-tailored cameo performance from Hulk Hogan, a man whose career was built on years of steroid abuse.
Checkout Counter: Apparently, ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” folks did a pretty good job investigating the vast netherworld of pro wrestling for tomorrow’s presentation (7:30 p.m.). After all, the show hasn’t aired but it has already been condemned by the WWF.
ESPN’s “OTL” producers found some interesting facts. For example, Portland, Ore., once a hot stop on the pro wrestling circuit and the nation’s No. 23 TV market, is the only town among the top 34 TV markets that has in recent years been avoided by both Vince McMahon’s WWF and Ted Turner’s WCW as the site of live shows. Just a coincidence?
Probably not. Oregon, the show notes, is by law allowed to drug-test pro wrestlers despite pro wrestling’s designation as an “exhibition.”
And Furthermore: Fox Sports News’ Keith Olbermann on Dennis Rodman’s departure from the Lakers for personal reasons: “Yeah, like whether to stick or hit on 17.” … The final 18.9 seconds of yesterday’s Heat-Magic game on NBC took 10 minutes and two commercial breaks to play.
Thursday morning on “Imus in the Morning,” Mike Breen’s steady fill-in, Ch. 2’s Warner Wolf, noted the Knicks’ collapse the night before in Sacramento. Wolf said that with the Knicks up nine with six minutes left, they thought the game was only “54 minutes.” Either Wolf confused basketball with football, or he didn’t know that the NBA plays 48-minute games. It’s pick ’em.
With Joe Micheletti on assignment for Fox, that familiar voice on Saturday night’s Senators-Isles telecast belonged to Ed Westfall. … Not until late in the third set of yesterday’s Venus Williams-Serena Williams Lipton Championship final, when Fox had to trim a few games because of time restrictions, was it made clear to all that the match wasn’t appearing live. During the telecast, the match’s result was posted on ESPN.
Not that regulation of the cable TV industry did much to curtail the financial abuse of cable subscribers, but this Wednesday federal pricing regulations expire and will not be renewed. One can shortly expect a hike in the cost of “expanded basic” programming. Just for starters.
