WE’RE not often moved to compliment a George Steinbrenner decision, but he made a peach julep of one, over the weekend, deciding to let Bellamy Road and Nick Zito do his talking for him.
Thus, NBC had little choice. What might have been a 90-minute telecast subtitled, “Steinbrenner’s Day at the Races,” had to become NBC’s 20-horse Kentucky Derby coverage.
NBC, perhaps with Steinbrenner’s uncooperative cooperation, had a pretty good day, but, like Bellamy Road, lost ground down the stretch. Several minutes after the race, while the order of finish had been posted, NBC threw it to commercial with host Tom Hammond saying, “The prices haven’t been posted yet.”
But the prices – the staggering prices – had already been posted on OTB TV’s Ch. 71.
Furthermore, unless there had been an inquiry that could create an open-ended delay, NBC should have stuck it out until it gave the prices, which already were guaranteed to be a huge kicker to the story. It’s the Kentucky Derby. It’s live television. Among those who cared, NBC’s audience should not have been the last to know.
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Reader Mark Morley knows why Pedro Martinez would rather pitch to Ramon Castro: “He wants to tell his grandchildren that, all by himself, he was able to overthrow Castro.”
Saturday, with Martinez pitching, Dave O’Brien on Ch. 11 noted that the kid in the stands who Cliff Floyd had gifted a bat, was wearing a “Vote for Pedro” T-shirt. O’Brien figured that the kid might have been lobbying All-Star votes for Martinez. That O’Brien didn’t know that “Vote for Pedro” is also from the neo-cult movie “Napoleon Dynamite” is probably a good thing.
Over the weekend, we observed Floyd in an interesting ritual. As Mets entered the dugout after hitting home runs and began to swap congratulatory knuckles, Floyd palmed their batting helmets, removed them from their heads and placed them back in the rack.
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Wouldn’t ya love to peruse a copy of ESPN’s game plan? On ESPN2 an entire Game 7 of the NLCS can be adorned by a “Bottom Line” crawl that, 20 times an hour, gives day-old tennis results from the East Kaput Open. But Friday, during its coverage of the Kentucky Oaks, ESPN could not see its way clear to at all times post what many-to-most viewers wanted to know: the current odds.
Wide World of Dolan: One minute, Cablevision is in the throes of a YES Network Equals Evil ad campaign, refusing to carry YES and its Yankees and Nets telecasts on its systems. Now YES presents “The IO Digital Scoreboard.” IO is owned by Cablevision.
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On NBC, Johnny Miller has earned so much reverence that the other golf commentators consistently address their observations to “Johnny” instead of the audience. On Yankee telecasts, such as Friday’s and yesterday’s, Jim Kaat has earned so much reverence that Paul O’Neill addresses his comments to “Kitty,” instead of us and/or Michael Kay.
All three Yankeecasters, Friday, made a vocal/video issue as to whether Tino Martinez touched first before his wild throw home in the 10th. But none made the point that with the bases loaded and none out, had Martinez touched first he’d have removed the force at home on the go-ahead runner.
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Once an honor, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch soon will become another exercise in anything-for-a-buck shamelessness. The Diamondbacks are now “bestowing” first pitch honors on those who come up with $4,000. GM Bob Melvin told the Arizona Republic that it’s a way “to get the fans closer to the action.”
Braves were up, 16-0, two out in the ninth, yesterday, when the Astros’ Orlando Palmeiro reached first. On TBS, Skip Caray noted, “A long one here and suddenly it’s just a 14-run lead.” . . . Steve Somers, on FAN, Saturday, took a call from a fella who mentioned Mark McGwire. Somers stopped him cold: “I refuse to talk about Mark McGwire’s past.”
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Either a clairvoyant was in CBS’s production truck, Saturday, or some of the golf shots CBS presented as live were on tape. We hadn’t seen Scott Verplank or Jim Furyk for a while, but then over to Verplank, who – bingo! – drains a long birdie putt, and then over to Furyk, who – bingo! -leaves his approach shot stiff. Amazing!
