ESPN Sunday Night Baseball Crew Needs Help

ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball was covering the decisive third game of the series in what some call the greatest rivalry in professional sports, the Yankees and the Red Sox.

During a late inning pitching change, ESPN announcer Joe Morgan got on a soapbox about steroids as the change was being made. He was trying to make a point that we should recognize and salute the players who through the performance-enhancing drug years did not use steroids. It's a sad commentary when we need to reward people for not cheating. Regardless, Joe kept belaboring the point and would not give up the microphone, oblivious to the fact that the game had started back up. We missed the call on several pitches, a hit and a pinch runner. This was another example of horrible Joe Morgan announcing. I respect his opinion, but he should know when to shut up and let Miller call the plays. His co-host has a little more box-savvy, knowing not to start a story late in an inning and quickly cutting away from his anecdotes to cover the action. Take a lessen from your co-host Joe.

If you watched any Yankee games during spring training you probably hear the announcers speaking with Joe Girardi at length. Joe had a stint covering games after his year with the Marlins and knows a little bit about announcing. Whenever he was talking with Michael Kay or the other Yankee announcers, he would quickly stop talking anytime something happened on the field, allowing the announcers to report the action. If a manager can figure this out, why not Joe Morgan?

Jon Miller isn't horrible, but he's having trouble seeing the ball a bit. Lately, in two-strike situations, he emphatically starts saying "Struck him out!" on many pitches up the middle even when they end up being fouled or foul tipped. It's pretty obvious to the viewers at home what the result of the play is, but Miller is clearly jumping the gun. He needs to settle down, pause a full second, and then make the call. Repeatedly apologizing or cutting off an emphatic statement doesn't come across well.

Joe Buck, Joe Morgan, the Nascar debacle - it's been a rough weekend for nationally televised baseball coverage.

Fox Coverage Drops the Ball

I'm not a fan of Fox's baseball coverage and last night was no exception.

First of all, I will give them credit for stumbling through the two hour rain delay. There were some moments of decent sports discussion and overall it could have been worse.

The biggest fiasco was the Heidi-esque handling of the coverage. With the rain delay causing the game to go significantly over the allotted time, Fox decided to switch the game to FX and put Nascar on the main Fox channel where it was scheduled to appear.

The announcers informed those watching the game that there would be a change about twenty minutes before it happened, but said nothing immediately before the switch. In the top of the ninth, in a critical situation, Fox suddenly cut away from the game without warning, leaving fans to frantically try to locate the game on FX. The game lasted about 10 total minutes longer. It certainly wouldn't have killed them to finish out the coverage where they'd started it. The cut away was poorly handled and reflects poorly on Fox.

One thing that constantly annoys me watching baseball on Fox is Joe Buck. He doesn't seem to know the game. When a pitch is delivered, he only tells you the location and result - whether it was high or low, in or out and a strike or a ball. He rarely if ever points out what type of a pitch it was, only if someone else mentions it first. A professional baseball play by play caller should have a reasonable ability to recognize pitches and call them out to the fans. ESPN does it, the guys on YES do it, but apparently it's too much for Joe Buck .