Friday, June 09, 2006

Bob Raissman: Sterling's Call Drops Ball

I don't know how John Sterling has managed to keep his job all these years...it's an embarrassment to have this boob calling games for the friggin' New York Yankees.

The New York Daily News
June 8, 2006

The odds are fairly good that if you are listening to a baseball game on the radio, you cannot actually see what is taking place on the field.

This is why radio stations, or individual major league teams, hire play-by-play voices. Their primary job is, to the best of their ability, accurately describe plays and guide listeners through a game.

This simplistic notion came to mind Tuesday night while listening to Red Sox-Yankees on WCBS-AM, the Bombers' flagship station.

And in the eighth inning, when Melky Cabrera made a spectacular catch off the bat of Manny Ramirez, it also became clear that the world is a safer place because John Sterling is a radio play-by-play man.

For if Sterling descended upon God's green Earth as a Seeing Eye dog, well, the poor owner of this mutt would be - at best - constantly walking into walls or - at worst - crossing the street directly into the path of oncoming traffic.

At least when Sterling blows a call, nobody gets hurt. Not even him. If Sterling was a Yankee player, he would have been dumped long ago. But in his 17th season in the Bombers' radio booth, Sterling is rewarded (with a major league salary) by Yankees brass for constantly blowing calls and recapitulating plays.

Nice work if you can get it.

Still, even if you appreciate the fact that Sterling is the shill's shill, or love his ever-expanding list of signature calls and his self-absorbed style, there is no debating the fact that he is severely challenged when it comes to painting the word picture. More often than not, Sterling is behind the play.

In Sterling, the Yankees have the American League's Most Valuable Seven-Second Delay.

Sterling's "call" of Cabrera's catch is just another example, albeit a very embarrassing one. His "description," from the time Ramirez hit the ball until it was caught by Cabrera, left listeners with no idea of how the catch was made.

Sterling: "...Hit in the air to deep left center. Cabrera and Damon back. That ball is going to be...caught by Cabrera. Did he make the catch? He made the catch. The play of the game. Maybe the play of the year."

So, you knew Cabrera caught the ball, but did not know how he caught it. You also had no idea why this was "maybe the play of the year."

Now, here is - in the same time sequence - the way Michael Kay described the catch on YES.

Kay: "Deep fly ball, left center. Giving chase is Cabrera. On the track...at the wall...LEAPS....And he makes the play. He made the play. He took away a game-tying home run from Manny Ramirez."

Kay's call accurately captured the moment. It was a basic just-the-facts job. Kay's play-by-play included geography and the critical fact that Cabrera jumped at the wall to make the catch. The call on YES would've worked on radio too.

Even when Sterling offered his predictable recapitulation, he left listeners confused. Sterling said Cabrera "went over the fence" to rob Ramirez. What exactly does "over the fence" mean? What went over the fence? Cabrera? His glove? Did he get caught on the wall and tumble over? Sterling failed to offer specifics.

Still, much to his own delight, Sterling came up with a catchphrase for the moment. He called it "The Melky Way."

Even as Cabrera jogged toward the Yankees' dugout, Sterling continued to leave listeners in the dark.

"You should have seen (Johnny) Damon celebrating," Sterling said. This is radio. We can't see.
Sterling is supposed to do the seeing for us. But Sterling doesn't see things that way. If he did, he might have informed us exactly how Damon spontaneously celebrated Cabrera's catch.

"When you see the replay wait until you see how far Melky's glove went over the wall," Sterling said.

What Sterling meant to say was: "When listening to my radio call, you also must have a TV replay at your disposal. That's the only way to figure out what the hell I'm talking about."
See, providing essential facts would get in the way of Sterling making each and every broadcast all about him.

To Sterling, that's all that matters.

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