The Birth Pangs of a Network, the Death Rattle of a National Team

What's up guys, A Friend of Mr. Glass' here. You know, it wasn't too long ago when finding material for a post was a chore. Now here we are 2 weeks before the season even starts (god how great is it to be able to say that it's only 2 weeks?) and I'm loaded with material.

Indeed, either of the subjects below might have earned their own individual posts, but given that SportsNet New York (SNY) debuted yesterday and Team USA got bounced from the World Baseball Classic last night, I figured enough shit had gone down in the past 24 hours that couldn't wait until Monday.

In case that doesn't quite qualify me as being "loaded with material," consider also that I've been meaning to write a review of Adam Rubin's new book, Pedro, Carlos and Omar: The Story of a Season in the Big Apple and the Pursuit of Baseball's Top Latino Stars for the past several days. That one's gonna have to wait until Monday though, cause you know me, I can be kind of long-winded.

SportsNet New York debuts at 5 p.m. EST.

Truth be told, I wasn't able to watch every minute of the action last night. I had to get drinks with my coworkers and that kept me out of the house until 8. Fortunately, I had planned it all out in advance and when I got done with dinner I watched as much SNY content as I could.

As for the results, they were kind of a mixed bag. There were numerous technical difficulties; while I trust the Mets brass to right the ship by opening day, I can't say they weren't annoying in the meantime.

In terms of gripes, I found myself a bit disappointed in the job done by field reporter Siafa Lewis. Lewis' gig is basically the SNY of Matt Loughlin's on MSG/FSNY. It's entirely possible that he was nervous on the network's first broadcast, and there's no reason to think he won't grow into the job a bit more, but I found his interviews a little flat.

Part of the problem may be that I was a big Loughlin fan, and it's always difficult to fill the shoes left by an industry giant such as him. It's a tough road to hoe, but here's to hoping he gets better in time.

My last gripe concerns the music used on SNY -- the theme is a little much if you ask me. It almost sounds like it's got something to prove. I found myself wanting to ask it to chill the fuck out, but that never happened (that is, I asked, but it didn't respond). Oh well. It only gets played so often so I can live with it.

That all said, the rest of the night was pretty much one big positive. I love the Daily News Live concept. Basically they have a roundtable discussion with several reporters or columnists from the Daily News, the only true New York daily in the game, to talk New York sports. Yesterday that meant a lot of college basketball talk, which was salt for a guy like me.

But in my mind's eye I caught a glimpse of over-analysis of every random Mets game come those warm summer days, and I smiled. Something to look forward to, indeed.

SportsNite seems like the perfect alternative to SportsCenter. It's New York-centric, it doesn't employ Stuart Scott, Steven A. Smith or any of the other blowhards that ESPN does, except for Steve Berthiaume, but I like Steve Berthiaume. I like his name. Berthiaume. Fun to say.

Before moving on, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my three highlights from the night. One came from the Mets Pregame show, the other two from the Mets-Braves game that was the first game broadcast on the upstart network.

3. Tell us how you really feel, Keith.

The No. 3 moment came in the pregame show. Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez were discussing the glut of Mets players who would be returning to Spring Training now that Venezuela and Puerto Rico had been eliminated.

In the course of this discussion, Cohen gave a set-up question to Hernandez about how ready WBC players would be, to which Mex responded something along the lines of the following: "Now that they're done with the BS, they should be able to use the rest of Spring Training to get ready for the season without any significant setbacks in terms of readiness."

That's not a direct quote, but the pivotal part, in which Hernandez referred to the WBC as "the BS" is absolutely true. As soon as the words left his lips, Cohen, who had been facing Hernandez, whipped his head around and stared dead into the camera with his eyes stretched about as wide as possible and his eyebrows lifted as far up as they could go.

Maybe it was an honest mistake, maybe he'd blown a few too many lines of coke, maybe he just doesn't like the Classic. Who's to say? It was a great moment in TV journalism one way or another.

2. Mets score twice in the bottom of the ninth, beat Braves 6-5.

Sure it's meaningless, but it's a hell of a lot better to be able to say that the Mets beat the Braves in the first game broadcast on SNY than the reverse. Someday we might care about these things.

1. Gary Cohen's home run call.

I've written about this once before, but Gary Cohen's homerun call is just perfect. That almost gutteral sounding "And it's outta here!" as if the words came from the deepest depths of his stomach. If there's a better homerun call in the business, I haven't heard it yet. It's not flashy or gimmicky, it's just honest, emotional, and to the point.

So needless to say, when Cliff Floyd crushed that pitch to deep center field for a 2-run homer, I was filled with a sense of deep satisfaction. Mets baseball, if only in exhibition form, is back.

Thanks for playing, Team USA.

Well that was embarrassing, eh? A heavy favorite to at least make the championship game, Team USA was shown its exit from the inaugural World Baseball Classic after suffering a 2-1 loss at the hands of Team Mexico. In what might have been his last start ever, Roger Clemens took the loss after surrendering 2 earned runs through 4.2 innings of work.

As much as I'd love to pin the blame for this one on the Rocket, truth is it belongs squarely on the hitters' shoulders. This was a feast or famine kind of team, and in yesterday's game they just couldn't get it done.

When Team USA threatened in the bottom of the ninth putting runners on first and second with 1 out, the game was genuinely exciting. The competing chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" and "Mex-i-co! Mex-i-co!" leant the game the playoff atmosphere the tournament needs if it's going to succeed.

No level of excitement could save Team USA, however, which was bounced from the tournament when Vernon Wells hit into a game-ending double play.

As Mets fans have grown awfully fond of saying, there's always next year. Or maybe "there's always next time" is more fitting for Team USA, which won't have another chance at WBC glory until 2009.

There's reason to believe that next time around the American team will have a more complete roster of stars, and won't have to turn to say, Dan Wheeler, for middle relief. For god's sake the guy was a Met castoff two years ago, I don't care how well he did for Houston last year, there's gotta be a better option out there.

Anyway, we all know Sip doesn't like the WBC because of the timing and all that jazz, but put the Glass squarely in its corner. I think the timinig is fine (maybe start it a week earlier next time?). Pitch counts and ties have got to go, or at least the latter does. If the former were simply amended slightly I'd be happy.

All in all, it's a fine little tournament, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it concludes. The smart money's gotta be on the Dominican Republic, with Korea second in line. Look for the DR to take this one down, and look for a little village called Los Conucos to party all night.

Anyway, that's all for the day. I'll get around to writing that book review sometime next week. Until then, have a good weekend.

- A.F.O.M.G.