I Had To Turn It Off When

Taking a look back at the MLB playoffs and the World Series, we see that the same topic that dominates the sports talk show circuit whenever the Yankees are involved dominated again this time around. No, it wasn't Joe Girardi's endless pitching moves nor was it Ryan Howard's 57 strikeouts. It wasn't even whether Alex Rodriguez would still be considered a choke artist for following up his great postseason with a skimpy World Series. Nope. The topic that every fan wanted to discuss was whether or not Tim McCarver and Joe Buck root against the New York Yankees.

Whenever a fan calls one of the aforementioned talk shows and gripes about the coverage, the calm, cool and collected host of the show acts as if we, the fans, hear what we want to hear; don't know what we are talking about; have potatoes in our ears; are considered crazy; and we are always asked to provide proof/evidence of McCarver and Buck's bias.

From this author's viewpoint, I did notice that the inflection in McCarver's voice was obvious when opposing teams made stupid mistakes against the Yankees. Now, did his voice reach a fever pitch because he was upset at the mistake itself or was it the fact that it was committed against the 'Evil Empire?' That is the $64,000 question. I have written on my blog about a couple of times where I thought McCarver showed his bias. Suffice is to say that I could have written about it a lot more.

Buck, I thought, was either very fair to the Yankees or just hid his disdain very well. For the most part, I thought he reached maximum excitement levels for both teams, not seeming to favor either one during his calls. However, we might have gotten a peek into Buck's soul when he described a play made by Mark Teixeira.

When Teixeira made a diving stop of a ground ball that led to a force out, Buck said,"That's what the Yankees bought over the offseason." He added,"They bought a guy who lead the American League in home runs and RBIs ..." Hmmm. Bought? Was this a Freudian slip or did Buck want it to sound just the way it did?

I submit that a Yankees announcer or an announcer that didn't have some kind of ill feeling towards them would have used the word "signed" or the term "signed as a free agent" in the offseason. Not only did Buck say the word 'bought' to begin with but he repeated it!

Ya see, the evidence is right there for the viewing audience to hear and see. The bias may not blatantly come flushing out of the TV, rather, it may come out more like a drip, slow and subtle. We don't even need Horatio Caine's overacting to help us solve this case. It's a shame we fans can't remain calm, cool and collected like our favorite sports talk show host who apparently neither sees no evil nor hears it.

The next time you're asked by one of these hosts to provide some 'evidence' for your beliefs, mention the above example and see what they say. Ask them how they would have handled the Teixeira/Yankees situation. If they don't hang up on you, I would love to hear their answer.

Read more of Steve Scafa at the original "I Had To Turn It Off When" blog.

During Game 1 of the ALCS on FOX, lead announcer Joe Buck said, "237 homers were hit in the new Yankee Stadium this year." He added, "87 of them were hit in the first 23 games. Most for any stadium in its first 23 games." What the significance of 23 games is, he didn't say. I guess there's a trivia question buried in that stat somewhere. Can't wait for my 5-year old boy to grow up. I will be sure to ask him, "Son, which stadium yielded the most home runs in its first 23 games?" It's the type of question that will probably have me adding an hour or two to his curfew, I'm sure. If he doesn't throw a punch at me first.

Must FOX continue to keep that annoying graphic in the right hand corner all game long? You know, the one with the FOX logo (of course) that tells us where the series stands: Yanks lead 2-1. Now, we all know that FOX loves its graphics more than Letterman loves interns but can't it put the logo on the left side of the screen right next to the scoreboard graphic the way TBS is doing it? Besides, exactly what fan is watching the game that doesn't already know how the series stands?

Speaking of graphics, isn't it about time that FOX stopped showing their "Fox Trax" strike zone on the TV screen. It has proven what we all knew before the technology was even invented and that is every umpire in every game is inconsistent when it comes to calling balls and strikes. I'm surprised the umpires -- who we've heard never liked the overhead camera angle because it showed how bad they were when it came to the corners of the plate -- are allowing this technology to undermine them.

Here's one man's vote to ban all post-game interviews by every network. FOX "analyst" Ken Rosenthal did his best Suzy Kolber imitation when he asked Alex Rodriguez after the second game of the ALCS, "Alex, the Yankees are now up 2-0 in this series. How good is your position?"Oy vey.

Read more of Steve Scafa at the original "I Had To Turn It Off When" blog.