Weekend Update
I drove up to Boston on Friday so I had the chance to listen to the game on the radio, which gave me my first exposure to new WFAN broadcaster Tom McCarthy.
I had heard the Mad Dog mention how McCarthy's voice bears a resemblance to the voice of the man he replaced, Gary Cohen, the former radio man who now calls games on SNY. On a strictly sonic level, the similarity is uncanny, but McCarthy's call lacks the effortless fluidity that defines Cohen's work.
Another thing distinctly lacking from McCarthy's repertoire is a halfway decent homerun call. As regular readers know, there are few things I hate more in sports journalism than gimmickry, and I'm happy to report that McCarthy doesn't fall into that category.
No, McCarthy's problem is that his homerun call sounds almost disinterested. Compared with Cohen's perfect homerun call, McCarthy's doesn't simply fail to measure up, it's just simply horrible. Dull. Boring. Matter of fact. These are the words to describe McCarthy's call.
It's surprising that somebody who has been broadcasting baseball games for so long (he spent the past 5 years calling Phillies games) could sound so lost on a homerun call, but if there's one area of his game that McCarthy needs desperate work on, this is it.
That aside, Howie Rose is still an absolute pleasure to listen to. I was delighted to hear his trademark "put it in the books!" as I pulled into Boston and the Mets wrapped up their 9-3 victory over the Marlins.
Additional thoughts:
1. I know it's early, but all indications are that ours is a playoff-caliber lineup. It's got pop, it's got speed, it's balanced -- it has all the ingredients of a potent order.
I was thinking about it in the car the other day. If I were a fan of any other team playing the Mets, I would be terrified of the middle of our order. I would be terrified any time Jose Reyes got on base.
Our offense has so many ways to hurt you, whether it's with speed, the long ball, small ball (that is, if we can start getting more sacrifice bunts down already), and it's really a pleasure to watch it all click.
If Anderson Hernandez continues to prove all-glove, no-hit, however, I wonder whether Omar won't try to find a new second baseman, shifting Hernandez into a defensive substitution role. If AHern proves incapable of plating Xavier Nady from third with one out or from 2nd, can we live with that in September or October?
I love his glovework as much as the next guy, but he needs to find his stroke at the plate, because right now he looks worse than Rey Ordonez ever did. He got his first hit on Friday so there's hope for him yet, but when I see him bat I almost can't believe that he was a .300 hitter last year in the minors. He just looks lost up there.
2. Joel Sherman has a good piece on Mr. Glass in this morning's Post. Everything here has been said a million times before, but I'm a sucker for this stuff and I gotta look out for M.G. any time he gets good press. (Link: http://www.nypost.com/sports/mets/62161.htm).
3. I don't regret trading Mike Jacbos now, but 5 years from now I might.
4. The Yankees are 1-4.
- A.F.O.M.G.
I had heard the Mad Dog mention how McCarthy's voice bears a resemblance to the voice of the man he replaced, Gary Cohen, the former radio man who now calls games on SNY. On a strictly sonic level, the similarity is uncanny, but McCarthy's call lacks the effortless fluidity that defines Cohen's work.
Another thing distinctly lacking from McCarthy's repertoire is a halfway decent homerun call. As regular readers know, there are few things I hate more in sports journalism than gimmickry, and I'm happy to report that McCarthy doesn't fall into that category.
No, McCarthy's problem is that his homerun call sounds almost disinterested. Compared with Cohen's perfect homerun call, McCarthy's doesn't simply fail to measure up, it's just simply horrible. Dull. Boring. Matter of fact. These are the words to describe McCarthy's call.
It's surprising that somebody who has been broadcasting baseball games for so long (he spent the past 5 years calling Phillies games) could sound so lost on a homerun call, but if there's one area of his game that McCarthy needs desperate work on, this is it.
That aside, Howie Rose is still an absolute pleasure to listen to. I was delighted to hear his trademark "put it in the books!" as I pulled into Boston and the Mets wrapped up their 9-3 victory over the Marlins.
Additional thoughts:
1. I know it's early, but all indications are that ours is a playoff-caliber lineup. It's got pop, it's got speed, it's balanced -- it has all the ingredients of a potent order.
I was thinking about it in the car the other day. If I were a fan of any other team playing the Mets, I would be terrified of the middle of our order. I would be terrified any time Jose Reyes got on base.
Our offense has so many ways to hurt you, whether it's with speed, the long ball, small ball (that is, if we can start getting more sacrifice bunts down already), and it's really a pleasure to watch it all click.
If Anderson Hernandez continues to prove all-glove, no-hit, however, I wonder whether Omar won't try to find a new second baseman, shifting Hernandez into a defensive substitution role. If AHern proves incapable of plating Xavier Nady from third with one out or from 2nd, can we live with that in September or October?
I love his glovework as much as the next guy, but he needs to find his stroke at the plate, because right now he looks worse than Rey Ordonez ever did. He got his first hit on Friday so there's hope for him yet, but when I see him bat I almost can't believe that he was a .300 hitter last year in the minors. He just looks lost up there.
2. Joel Sherman has a good piece on Mr. Glass in this morning's Post. Everything here has been said a million times before, but I'm a sucker for this stuff and I gotta look out for M.G. any time he gets good press. (Link: http://www.nypost.com/sports/mets/62161.htm).
3. I don't regret trading Mike Jacbos now, but 5 years from now I might.
4. The Yankees are 1-4.
- A.F.O.M.G.
posted by A Friend of Mr. Glass' at 11:30 AM
1 Comments:
As far as Hernandez goes, he looked a lot better batting from the right side of the plate on Friday than he looked batting from the left side. When he turns around and hits lefty, he simply looks like he cannot get his bat around fast enough to connect with major league pitching. But watching him the other day gave me some hope.
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