Fenway Park is baseball in a time capsule.
The Astrodome is baseball on a space station.
ABC captured the best of both worlds, the nostalgic and the futuristic, during its telecasts of the league championship playoffs.
No sport is more defined by its surroundings than baseball, and ABC plunked the viewer down in a cozy corner in the fresh air at Fenway Park Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon, then whisked him, faster than a rocket, to the glitter under the Dome Wednesday night.
But the charm of baseball is that the sport is compelling, when the circumstances are right, in an atmosphere aesthetic as well as antiseptic.
ABC has long been considered the second-string baseball network behind NBC, but ABC can hit the major league fastball.
Al Michaels and Jim Palmer, covering the ALCS, are the equals of Bob Costas and Tony Kubek, in enthusiasm and knowledge, and they are more comfortable on the ears than the chatterbox twins, Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola.
Michaels, the best play-by-play announcer on television, covers baseball like Keith Hernandez covers first base. Palmer contributes contemporary insight even if he pluralizes Spike Owen and George Hendrick.
Keith Jackson and Tim McCarver, covering the NLCS, are a solid combination. Jackson is smooth and McCarver is sharp. The former Cardinal and Phillie, now a regular-season announcer for the Mets, added gems of information while keeping his sentiments out of the booth.
ABC wisely did not invite any players to crowd the telecast teams for the playoffs. But then Reggie Jackson was not available this year.
Technically, ABC is a match for NBC. ABC provided good camerawork and strong graphics. The only big error ABC made was following a ball hit by Wally Joiner instead of Red Sox right fielder Dwight Evans, who caught the deep fly in Game 2.
ABC enhanced its coverage at Fenway Park with a camera on the left field roof that provided distinctive angles for replays, on balls hit to the wall as well as the left side of the infield.
As expected, ABC poked its head in the dugouts but got a little too up-close- and-personal with its microphones. During Game 2 of the ALCS, a naughty Angel uttered a popular profanity after a confusing strikeout. Many viewers were thinking the same thing at home. Michaels apologized for the slip.
ABC should not get microphone-shy. The chatter on the field is an important component of the telecast.
ABC had to turn the volume up Tuesday night after the Red Sox fell behind 4-0 in the second inning. Fenway Park was as eerily quiet as a graveyard in a horror story by Stephen King, a Sox fan, who was sitting in the VIP seats, wondering if he didn’t dream up this nightmare, too.
This was not what ABC and a national television audience, who had been drooling over the playoffs for weeks, wanted. ABC was scared Wittless that half the country was changing the channel.
Roger Clemens dropped the ball while warming up in the bullpen the first time the ABC camera focused on him, and the Sox played like the Patriots in the Super Bowl.
Clemens was wild, and Game 1 of the ALCS escaped early. Palmer said that if Clemens was suffering any repercussions from the line drive that hit him last week, it would show in his control. Palmer did not pick up on this line when Clemens got into trouble with walks, but, instead, theorized that Clemens was caught up in the excitement of his first big playoff game and was overthrowing.
Game 1 of the ALCS proved to be just a momentary letdown. Game 2, Wednesday afternoon, was throughly entertaining and suspenseful for six innings. The Astros and the Mets supplied a thriller in their opening act Wednesday night.
The Red Sox and Angels complained about the late-afternoon shadows Wednesday, but the day playoff game was a treat. With the World Series now a prime-time showcase, a generation of little fans had the chance Wednesday to know the thrill of racing home from school to catch the final innings.
