TELEVISION COMMERCIALS DECISIVE WIN OVER RED SOX-CARDINALS WORLD SERIES

Now that it's over and the Boston Red Sox have won their third title in nine years, let's look back at the media coverage. Predictably, two team members have been accused of cheating. Gop in Jon Lester's glove alleged by a St; Louis Cardinals' Class A player, which makes it a highly reliable source. And probable PED use by David Ortiz by an ESPN commentator. Paraphrasing: "How could he have done what he did at age 37 without help." Interestingly, Jon Lester went face-to-face with the ESPN accuser to defend Big Papi.
    Fox breathlessly covered the actual play with Joe Buck, the regular Cardinals' announcer, and Tim McCarver, former Cardinals catcher, doing all they could (largely unsuccessfully) to show impartiality.
    Buck was handicapped by the need to introduce each inning and most pauses in the action with mini-commercials. His minis followed an endless series of standard between-innings and between-pitching- changes commercials. As we finally came back to the field of play, Buck re-introduced the action with an ad nauseaum run of, "This is brought to you by, and also by, and also by . . .
    Another annoying Fox Sports technique is to reward baseball-hungry male viewers with lingering shots of pretty girls in the stands. This penchant for pulchritude designed to keep the man caves humming was taken to excess when a nice shot of two attractive young women was held too long, and we missed one of the World Series defining moments.
    Game five ended dramatically and promptly when a Cardinals' pinch runner was picked off first ending the game and probably the Cardinals' Series hopes. The Fox television director, who was probably over-enjoying his neat shot of the cuties, failed to switch to the live action in time and robbed us of a great live baseball and television moment.
    Tim McCarver, on the cusp of retirement, delivered his usual sharp color commentary. He will be missed and is in the conversation, along with Jim Palmer, Steve Stone, Buck Hernandez, Rick Sutcliffe, and a few others as an all-time-great baseball analyst.

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WHAT'S WRONG WITH TOM BRADY? NOTHING.

After Sunday's bad first half, even the former NFL quarterbacks turned pundits, who should have known better, were mouth-agape wondering what was wrong with Tom Brady. They knew full well what was wrong: He and the team had a bad first half. But they couldn't resist attempting to find a story--any story.
    When the Patriots ran off 24 unanswered points in the third quarter, the football media world was suddenly genuflecting and trotting out Brady's career statistics.
    CBS colorless announcer Phil Simms spent about 70% of the game trying to figure out how the Miami Dolphins could win. He even yelled "O-Kay" when a penalty that looked to be against the Dolphins was given to New England. Oh, how those former NY Giants love the Patriots.

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Will the Cardinal-Red Sox 2013 World Series be Decided on a Marginal Umpiring Call?

American League Umpire Jim Joyce now has a twofer. Earlier, he spoiled a perfect game with two outs in the ninth-inning by calling a runner safe at first when he was clearly out by a full step.
    In the fourth game of the 2013 Cardinals-Red Sox World Series, Joyce managed another blunder by awarding St. Louis the win over an alleged obstruction of a base runner. According to the rulebook, obstruction is called when the fielder is not making a play. In this case, the Boston third baseman dove for the ball, it ticked off his glove and rolled into left-field foul territory. The sprawling fielder was clearly making a play. The runner tripped over the third baseman's legs, got up and headed for home. The Red Sox left fielder recovered the errant throw, fired to home, and the runner was out.
    The home plate umpire didn't make the call because he'd seen Joyce signal obstruction, and the runner scored the winning run.
    The umpiring crew called a very unusual press conference and tried to explain away a highly questionable call. I don't recall them referring to the fact that the base runner involved in the tangle, and who later scored the winning run, was out of the baseline when he tripped. This should have nullified the alleged obstruction.    The umpires also noted that the downed third baseman raised his legs further obstructing the runner. It appeared that the Red Sox third baseman was simply trying to get up and never saw the runner. The action was behind him, and replays show him looking straight ahead.
    It appears that once more Jim Joyce was overwhelmed by the moment, First, a bad call amid the tension of a near-perfect game, Second, caught up in the spirit of a howling St. Louis crowd and awarding a win on a marginal play.
    In the NBA, for example, you need to commit under-the-basket mayhem in the last seconds of a crucial game in order to get a foul called. The referees credo is: Earn the basket and the win. I'm not going to give it to you, especially in final-round championship games.

The headlines screamed that Tom Brady had a bad night. Actually, the receivers, other than Edelman, had a bad night.

Keith Olbermann returned to ESPN after 16 years with: "As I was saying." Nice, but first used by 1960's Tonight host Jack Paar after a naughty word (My heart be still, he said 'water closet') suspension.