It is High! It is Far! It is....FOUL?

EcKo151 · May 18, 2009

We know we've heard plenty of these in our lifetime...Here's Mushnick saying Howard Moskowitz is finished.

SOUND OFF: John Sterling, the radio voice of the Yankees for the last 20 years, must get better with his play-by-play, have his time reduced by a fresh voice or get out of the booth, says Post columnist Phil Mushnick.
SOUND OFF: John Sterling, the radio voice of the Yankees for the last 20 years, must get better with his play-by-play, have his time reduced by a fresh voice or get out of the booth, says Post columnist Phil Mushnick.

DON'T misinterpret this; it isn't a rip, it's a plea, a plea for change. Enough is enough. For those who care about baseball, a preventable, 20-year problem has become a crisis.

John Sterling, the radio Voice of the Yankees and a man who has always cherished the sound of his own voice while placing strained self-promotion over good-faith play-by-play, has created and cemented a dilemma: Every game played by the Yankees is a doubleheader -- the game that's played and the game Sterling calls.

This weekend, the games Sterling described did not exist. Some examples:

In the eighth inning Saturday, Sterling called a game-tying home run by Hideki Matsui -- Sterling gave it his, "It is high ... !" routine, culminating with, "It is gone!" But the ball, as Sterling several seconds later acknowledged, didn't even reach the wall on the fly; it bounced over it.

And radio-reliant Yankees fans again were led to believe that a Yankees batter had performed the ultimate -- had hit a home run -- when he hadn't.

In the fourth inning of Saturday's game, Sterling and Suzyn Waldman fabricated a story. Johnny Damon lost sight of a pop fly as he approached the stands along the left-field line. Damon missed the ball, plain and simple as that.

But on the Yankees' radio network, Sterling claimed the ball fell from Damon's glove. Nonsense. Then Waldman added, "He had to fight a fan with a glove." But there was no fan with a glove, no fan hindrance at all.

Later, Sterling would repeat that "fan with the glove interference story" as fact, as the eyewitness testimony of the Voice of the Yankees. But it never happened, nothing even close.

Friday's broadcast wasn't two innings old when Sterling had done his best/worst to wreck it.

Derek Jeter led off the bottom of the first with a line drive that was caught waist-high by Twins left fielder Denard Span in front of the warning track. Sterling, however, gave it his "Waaaay back!" treatment. Next he said the ball smacked against the wall. Finally, he said the ball was caught for an out.

The next batter, Damon, struck out on a 3-2 pitch that Sterling thought was strike two. Although the YES monitor in front of him showed a full count, Sterling blamed his error on the scoreboard operator.

In the top of the second, Sterling was so eager to describe a spectacular 6-4-3 double play, so eager to put his hollering pre-fab excesses to every play, he became the last in the house to notice that it wasn't a double play; the low throw to first wasn't caught.

Yesterday, Sterling didn't bother to describe, as it happened, a seventh-inning wild pitch that made it 2-0, Twins. He suddenly declared that a run just scored, then explained it.

And, despite it all, Sterling's on-air demeanor remains smug, haughty, condescending.

I've never advocated any sportscaster's removal. I don't take anyone's livelihood lightly. But something's gotta give -- either Sterling gets better (most unlikely), gets his time reduced by a fresh voice (why not?), or gets out.

And the idea that New York baseball fans, the last 20 years and counting, deserve better is too parochial. What baseball fans, and where, deserve this?

*

Lines of the Weekend: Friday, after Brett Gardner's inside-the-park dash, YES's Paul O'Neill said: "One of the quickest home-run trots you'll see." ... Steve Somers, on WFAN Saturday complained about a caller who "always calls with the radio on in the background. Worse, it's never on our station."

It's a Craig Carton, wiseguy, low-life sports world. In a promo for a new Versus TV show yesterday, a young man was asked what he'd do if he could spend the day with the Stanley Cup. "I'd use it to get [bleeped]," he said, expletive undeleted. What a pity.

*

Bob Rosburg, accomplished PGA Tour pro who for ABC in 1974 became one of the first on-course, roving commentators, died last week at 82.

"Rossie's" legacy is sustained in an expression that's spoken by all levels of golfers, even if they're unfamiliar with its derivation. Thirty years ago on ABC, after a player hit an approach shot close, Dave Marr would say: "You could hit a small bucket [of practice balls] and not do better, Rossie."

To this day, a good shot will inspire some to this compliment: "You could hit a small bucket, Rossie."

*

If you didn't think the world is crazy enough, Jeremy Schaap, from Serbia for ESPN's "E:60," reported otherwise. He updated the year-old story of Bryan Steinhauer, the SUNY-Binghamton student who was stomped into a coma by Miladin Kovacevic, a Binghamton basketball player twice Steinhauer's size.

As Steinhauer, a graduate of NYC's Stuyvesant High School, undergoes extensive physical and neurological rehab, Kovacevic fled to Belgrade after posting a $100,000 bond. He now plays for a Serbian pro team.

Though he didn't feel much like speaking with Schaap, Kovacevic, Schaap noted, in January made an appearance in the Serbian parliament, invited by anti-Western politicians who paraded him as a hero. Kovacevic, incidentally, was recruited to Binghamton on money supplied by New York taxpayers.

phil.mushnick@nypost.com
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http://www.nypost.com/seven/0518200..._deserve_better_than_sterli_169830.htm?page=0

devilonthetownhallroof · May 18, 2009

I honestly think the Yankees have some of the worst broadcasters in sports, on TV and radio. And even though no one will believe me, it has nothing to do with me being a Sox fan, I just legitimately find them all absolutely unbearable.

EcKo151 · May 18, 2009

devilonthetownhallroof said: ↑

I honestly think the Yankees have some of the worst broadcasters in sports, on TV and radio. And even though no one will believe me, it has nothing to do with me being a Sox fan, I just legitimately find them all absolutely unbearable.
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Who doesn't believe you?

Moskowitz, Waldman, and Kay are terrible...

I do like O'Neil.

JetFanInTampa · May 18, 2009

Sterling and Waldman are just brutal. I like Ken Singleton, i think he does a better job then Kay.

Cappy · May 18, 2009

Singleton/Cone doesn't bother me. I'd never say they were fantastic, but he calls a decent game, and can occasionally say something amusing.

Orsilo and Remy is easily my favorite broadcasting duo.

And, despite the suckiness of most of the Yankee broadcasters, I'd still take them over Miller/Morgan, Buck/McCarver, and Hawk Harrelson's blatherings.

Yisman · May 18, 2009

Absolutely. Sterling is the worst play by play announcer I have ever heard, bar none.

I've had the misfortune of listening to him a lot.

The article is about Sterling, though, not Moskowitz.

Cappy · May 18, 2009

Yisman said: ↑

The article is about Sterling, though, not Moskowitz.
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Psst... that's his real name.

EcKo151 · May 18, 2009

Cappy said: ↑

Psst... that's his real name.
Click to expand...

:wink: Just a small attempt at some humor.

Yisman · May 18, 2009

Odd, never heard that anywhere before.

typeOnegative13NY · May 18, 2009

I like singleton and oneill. the rest suck

EcKo151 · May 18, 2009

Yisman said: ↑

Odd, never heard that anywhere before.
Click to expand...

John Sterling (born July 4, 1948 as Harry Moskowitz)[1][citation needed] is an American sportscaster and the radio play-by-play announcer of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sterling_(sportscaster)

and devil...I think the responses from Yanks fans debunk your original thought...Wait till alio and jonny say the YES team sucks.

Yisman · May 18, 2009

Yeah, I looked it up on Wikipedia after Cappy said it was his real name. This is the actual link. Also, the article says Harry.

Unsourced, though.

Yisman · May 18, 2009

NYJ EcKo151 said: ↑

and devil...I think the responses from Yanks fans debunk your original thought...Wait till alio and jonny say the YES team sucks.
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I've ripped him on many occasions and the only one to ever defend him was junc.

desert swordz · May 19, 2009

On a different note, Gary, Keith, and Ron are the shit.

davecrazy · May 19, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5hK90Itwb8[/youtube]

AlioTheFool · May 19, 2009

Hahaha, yeah devil, you're not going to find much support for Sterling, Kay, or Waldman here. I like O'Neil, Cone, and Leiter. Singleton always got on my nerves, but over the past couple seasons (especially since they've had him do games without Kay in the booth) he's gotten better.

But like Cappy said, I'd take what we've got over Miller/Morgan, or Buck/McCarver. If either of those teams were on the Yankees radio team, I'd listen with the sound off.

EcKo151 · May 19, 2009

Man you do like to nitpick and try to find any error..ok HARRY Moskowitz...

Yisman said: ↑

Yeah, I looked it up on Wikipedia after Cappy said it was his real name. This is the actual link. Also, the article says Harry.

Unsourced, though.
Click to expand...

Yisman · May 19, 2009

Well, if I'm going to be corrected, I try to make sure the correction was correct. :wink:

devilonthetownhallroof · May 19, 2009

I actually do like O'Neil and Lieter, I've never heard Cone. Maybe it's just the play by play people that suck?

AlioTheFool · May 19, 2009

devilonthetownhallroof said: ↑

I actually do like O'Neil and Lieter, I've never heard Cone. Maybe it's just the play by play people that suck?
Click to expand...

Bingo. Unfortunately, they take up most of the talk time.

It is High! It is Far! It is....FOUL?

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