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Mushnick is not impressed with Sterling but is witk Kaat anf Hernandez.
]July 8, 2005 -- IF PROS such as John Ster ling and YES Yankees studio host Bob Lorenz truly grasped and respected the "Pinstripe Pride" they always are pushing, they'd cease committing crimes against its nature and its history.
Both broadcasters, for example, address Jason Giambi as "The Giam-bino," as if Giambi's a current-day Babe Ruth, "The Bambino." Clever stuff.
But exactly who is supposed to be entertained by such strained silliness? Fourth graders at P.S. 45? The baseball fans among them would be insulted.
Such forced wordplay makes for the cheapest kind of sell and attachment. Forget stats; Ruth, for all his failings, never was ordered in front of a grand jury to testify about his alleged procurement and use of illegal, performance-enhancing drugs. Ruth did not bring baseball into disrepute — quite the contrary.
To make such a Ruth-Giambi connection is an insult to all, like suggesting Jenny Craig is a latter-day Mahatma Gandhi.
On the other end, when Jim Kaat talks baseball, you listen. When Keith Hernandez talks baseball, you listen. It's that simple. No gimmicks, no signature calls, no starved-for-attention artificial additives and "A-Bomb from A-Rod!" word aerobics (imagine staying up all night to come up with that one).
What Kaat and Hernandez provide beats the heck out of all the other let-me-entertain-you stuff practiced in the mirror and rehearsed back at the hotel. After all, it's still a baseball game.
Speaking of the gimmick-minded, Chris Berman, Monday, is host of ESPN's coverage of the All-Star Game Home Run Derby. Perfect.
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Among the most underplayed stories in sports is the aluminum bat vs. wooden bat controversy. Many who have studied the issue consider aluminum bats to be a cost-effective (they don't break) but clear and present danger.
The added velocity at which a ball leaves an aluminum bat — a Little League mound is 46 feet from the plate — is believed to have contributed to the serious head injuries and even deaths of amateur players, Little League through college. Wood-bat-only leagues are on the grow.
This Monday, 7-9 p.m. from the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center in Little Falls, N.J., this bat issue will be the focus of a special WFAN edition of Rick Wolff's "Sports Edge," usually heard Sunday mornings.
Among those scheduled to appear are ex-Yankee Steve Balboni, whose son was seriously injured by a batted ball from an aluminum bat; Joe Gilligan, CEO of a New Jersey-based company that manufactures aluminum bats; and Steve Kallas, an attorney and youth-league coach who has studied the issue extensively.
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Sports fans regularly suffer the loss of significant sights to crowd shots, but it ain't just sports. Ch. 4's coverage of the July 4 fireworks was loaded with shots of people gawking at what viewers tuned in to see.
Yep, rather than show the fireworks, Ch. 4 repeatedly presented live pictures of people watching them. And those people seen watching the fireworks on Ch. 4 seemed very impressed by what Ch. 4 viewers couldn't see. Brilliant!
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Hank Stram, who died this week at 82 and for 16 years teamed with Jack Buck to call CBS Radio/Westwood One's "Monday Night Football," was a character, an oblivious scatterbrain. He was, after all, the only one not to notice that he wore a horrible toupee.
Then he'd accurately predict the next play — "They're gonna run right!" — then the next.
And his greatest broadcasting weaknesses became endearing and enduring.
Stram wasn't much for names; he was more of a numbers guy. The linebacker who "just did a nice job getting up there to seal that hole," he would identify as "No. 53." Then he'd praise No. 53 again, only this time with a more personal, coach-to-player approach: "Good work out there, No. 53."
In time, if Stram put a name to a number, he'd have ruined everything.
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Joy To The World, I've Got Pocket Kings: With CBS Sports' Wednesday announcement that it will televise a poker tournament, CBS, by our count, will become the 13th network to air poker.
CBS's poker special will air, we kid you not, Christmas Day.
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