Countless Indians fans insist that Fox play-by-play announcer Joe Buck hates our team and desperately wants the Cubs to win, and that his rooting interest is coming through loud and clear.
Well, Buck and his network probably are hoping the Cubs get to Game 7, because Chicago is the third-largest TV market in the country, and more games means more ad revenue.
And, truth be told, the Cubs have a better story line: 108 years without winning a World Series, compared to a mere 68 for us.
But if Fox is rooting for Chicago, you wouldn’t know it by watching Game 5.
I DVR’d Sunday’s game and replayed it Monday, legal pad in hand, listening intently to everything that was said.
Keep in mind that Your Favorite Columnist has been rooting for the Indians since he was old enough to root for anything. But I’m here to tell you that if you listen to that broadcast objectively, Buck went right down the middle.
He was extremely flattering to plenty of Indians, including manager Terry Francona: “I think he’s staring at the hall of fame.”
At times, Cub fans could have accused Buck of pulling for the Tribe. In the fourth inning with two runners on and no outs, he said, “Bauer needs a strikeout!” He could have said something like, “The Cubs could really use a hit here to boost their lead.”
Fox analyst John Smoltz as much as accused Chicago players of choking: “Some of these young guns for the Chicago Cubs have been a bit overwhelmed,” saying they need to calm down.
Yes, Buck seemed to blow off the Tribe when reliever Brian Shaw came into the game in the sixth inning. He blabbed away about the upcoming hitters for 23 seconds — even though the batting order hadn’t changed — and didn’t even mention the pitching change until after the first pitch had crossed the plate.
That’s just sloppy.
But he was sloppy in the other direction as well. When the Cubs’ Aroldis Chapman came to bat in the eighth — a real rarity for a closer who generally doesn’t pitch much longer than an inning or so — the $5 million-a-year announcer proclaimed, “He didn’t bat for the Cubs this season during the regular year.”
One pitch later, he corrected himself: “O-for-1 earlier in the season.”
The whole world is watching and you can’t figure out how many times Chicago’s star pitcher has batted, even though he was in the on-deck circle for an eternity and you could easily have looked it up?
I’m exaggerating the size of the audience only slightly. The ratings have been supersonic.
TV ratings rock
According to Sports Illustrated, Sunday’s game “drew a 15.3 overnight rating, topping the Cowboys-Eagles overtime game on NBC by 32 percent. [A “rating” is the percentage of everyone who owns a television, not just the percentage of people who are watching TV at that particular time.]
“Given national broadcasts of Cowboys’ games traditionally blow away all in its path, it’s a stunning number. …
“The game drew the highest overnight rating for any Major League Baseball game since Game 7 of the 2011 Rangers-Cardinals Fall Classic.”
The official ratings through the first four games showed the Series is averaging 18.2 million viewers, “making it the most-watched World Series through the first four games since 2009.”
Those watchers heard some doozies on Sunday.
Buck: “Pitchers don’t mind giving up solo home runs.” What? Pitchers detest giving up home runs! He later elaborated, saying they prefer solo home runs to homers with runners on base, but the damage was done.
Smoltz also unleashed a gem with the Tribe’s Rajai Davis on first: “He has to steal. It doesn’t even matter if he gets thrown out.”
What?
We want Hammy
In a perfect world, the TV picture and the radio sound would arrive in our households at the same time, enabling us to shut the Buck up and revel in the play-by-play call of our awesome homer, Tom Hamilton, who is continuing to shine as brightly as ever on the flagship station, WTAM (1100-AM).
But the radio action is significantly ahead of the TV action. So unless you want to feel like you’re watching three hours of instant replays, that just doesn’t work.
Among the other lowlights: Fox didn’t bother to set up a camera at Progressive Field, where 30,000 people were sitting in a drizzle to watch the Fox broadcast on the mammoth scoreboard.
A few highlights:
• Smoltz’s assessment of Chapman’s batting style made me laugh Sunday and again Monday: “He looks hitter-ish.”
• Eddie Vedder leading the crowd in Take Me Out to the Ball Game.
• The super-slo-mo replays. TV technology has improved so much that we’re now able to watch the shape of the bat change when it hits the ball. Amazing stuff.
Hey ... maybe after Game 6 Fox will be showing some super-slo-mo shots of champagne corks flying around the Indians clubhouse.
I’ll drink to that!
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com. He also is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bob.dyer.31