"Baseball is the only game you can see on the radio." I saw this quotation, by Phil Hersh of the Chicago Tribune, posted at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. I love listening to baseball on the radio and still follow more games that way than on television. One reason nowadays is that Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen, the Phillies radio guys, are very good. With Harry Kalas now gone, there's no one better at a call than Scott Franzke.
I watched most of Monday's game with the Rockies on TBS, often with the sound muted. Brian Anderson did the play-by-play and Joe Simpson the color. Both have low-key, monotonous voices. Neither brings a lot of flavor. That would be OK but coupled with the very pedestrian TBS camerawork, it's hard to like. The use of their computer-generated strikes and balls tracker struck me as arbitrary, used when the broadcasters wanted to make a point. But what about when it did not support their point? And how precise is this device anyway?
Brian Anderson also did play-by-play of the Milwaukee-Philadelphia NLDS last year. I was at both games in Philadelphia and only saw replays weeks later. I was stunned when I heard how Anderson described Brett Myers' memorable at-bat vs. C.C. Sabathia. "These fans appreciate effort," was his description. Uh, Brian, it was all about the pitch count. Most of the fans in the park were well aware that Myers was running up Sabathia's pitch count. If Anderson was, he never mentioned it. Duh.
So when the Phillies lost the lead in the bottom of the 8th on Monday night, I turned to the radio to hear what Franzke and Anderson had to say in the 9th. It turned out to be both thrilling and amusing. And when the game was over, I went back to TV, not to TBS for its postgame coverage but to Comcast and MLBN. On TBS it was a dull combination of Eckersley, Wells, and Ripken, with Ernie Johnson as moderator.
Chip Caray, master of the obvious, and chatty Ron Darling are doing the NLCS on TBS. In season, Caray works for the Braves and Darling for the Mets. I'll be listening to much of the series on the radio.
