As Al Michaels was signing off Sunday night`s National League Championship Series game, all he could say was, ”When you write the story of this game, where do you begin?”
The same could be said of ABC Sports` outstanding coverage of yet another thrilling NLCS. The network that didn`t cover the Summer Olympics for the first time in 24 years seemed to make up for it with the kind of baseball coverage usually reserved for NBC.
Michaels, Tim McCarver and Jim Palmer have provided commentary that has kept viewers informed and entertained. Whether McCarver is calling on his experience as the analyst for New York Mets telecasts to discuss some inside strategy or Palmer is outraged over the treatment of Los Angeles relief pitcher Jay Howell or Michaels is just stirring the mix as a good play-by-play man, it works.
Add to that the pictures. For instance, from Saturday`s third game: A stumbling, diving Kirk Gibson making a catch in left field; a fallen, crawling Keith Hernandez unsuccessfully trying to reach third base; and an emphatic umpire Harry Wendelstedt ejecting Howell from the contest for having pine tar on his glove.
And we haven`t even begun to discuss Sunday night`s classic, which started with a thorough discussion of the Howell suspension (both McCarver and Palmer said it was too severe) and ended with great reaction shots of Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser, Gibson and manager Tommy Lasorda.
Credit for the great camera work has to go to producer Curt Gowdy Jr., who has been responsible for calling all the shots. No longer do viewers get long-range angles of baseballs floating into the air. Instead, there are closeups everywhere, from the dugout to the field to the stands. But fewer of those silly shots of players` wives.
In the first game last Tuesday, McCarver made one of his many great calls when he pointed out that Dodgers center-fielder John Shelby was playing too deep just before Gary Carter`s blooper fell off Shelby`s glove to drive in the Mets` go-ahead runs.
On Sunday night, after Shelby walked to lead off the Dodger ninth, McCarver said, ”That could be a very big walk.” Boom. Mike Scioscia followed with a home run that tied the score and sent the game into extra innings.
On Monday afternoon, McCarver and Palmer had a long discourse throughout the game on the ”tack-on” run, the extra score that may not seem like much at the time but can loom large in the late innings.
That kind of work makes McCarver worth every cent of the reported $850,000 ABC is paying him for five years, mainly just to do playoff and World Series games.
Other McCarverisms?
On the weather for Saturday`s game: ”Sometimes a game takes on the aspects of the conditions under which it is played. These are miserable conditions and not a well-played game.” (How miserable were the cold, damp conditions? At least two ABC cameras fogged up by the seventh inning.)
On the Mets` rally Saturday: ”This is one of the zaniest, craziest innings I`ve seen in my life.”
After a shot of Mets pitcher Bobby Ojeda, who nearly severed a finger last month and has his left hand in a cast: ”Bobby`s biggest problem now is where he`s gonna put his wedding ring. He`s getting married Oct. 29.”
But perhaps McCarver`s most valuable moment came when Howell was thrown out of Saturday`s game after Mets manager Davey Johnson asked the umpires to search the glove of the Dodgers` reliever.
”A Mets` official came into the booth in the bottom of the eighth inning to say they had detected something Wednesday night and were going to wait until Howell pitched again,” McCarver said. The Mets later denied having any premeditation in asking for the search. Uh huh.
– Now for the bad news. The same network that has made the NL series such a joy turned the American League Championship Series into a dull affair. While the threesome in the NL booth sounded like friends sitting around a bar, the AL announcing crew of Gary Bender, Joe Morgan and Reggie Jackson seemed like three strangers. Jackson was especially intrusive, including his postgame locker-room show on Sunday, when he seemed more worried about his clothes than interviewing, say, Tony LaRussa, the winning manager.
– On radio, the reverse was true. White Sox broadcaster John Rooney, who picked up the AL games in Oakland, and Johnny Bench were enthusiastic and insightful for CBS, while Brent Musburger and Jerry Coleman, doing the NL series, have been overwrought. Musburger, for instance, said during the first contest when Darryl Strawberry came up with two men on and two out, ”This is one of those times that baseball builds to during a game.” Too bad it was four innings before the Mets really did rally.
– It sure was good to hear Keith Jackson again doing college football. With ABC holding contracts for the Big 10 and the Pac-10, Jackson usually winds up doing the Pac-10 (read better) games. But for some reason, he was in Bloomington, Ind., Saturday for Indiana`s 41-7 rout of Ohio State. As the slaughter continued, Jackson said of the Buckeyes, ”So far, the Indiana people have just slapped their ears back.”
