Three TV Sports Stories
by Zube (zube@stat.colostate.edu)  
Created:  Sep 7, 2009
Updated:  Sep 7, 2009
http://www.stat.colostate.edu/~zube/tvsports.txt

I haven't watched sports regularly since I was in high school, but I
do recall a few interesting tidbits from that time.

*****

1) Tim McCarver

Tim McCarver was a catcher for the Phillies and Cardinals in the 60s
and 70s.  He was apparently a distinguished player in his early years,
but I remember him only as the catcher for Hall-of-Fame pitcher Steve
Carlton, as Carlton didn't like anyone else to catch for him.  McCarver
retired and I forgot about him.

He reappeared, much to my dismay, in the New York Mets broadcast booth
in the 80s.  He was loud, obnoxious and a know-it-all, although like
most people of that ilk, he didn't.

My second favorite McCarver story is the one noted in Wikipedia, where
he hit a grand slam but overtook one of the runners on the basepaths
and was called out, so it went into the record books as a three-run
single.

My favorite McCarver story requires a slight bit of baseball knowledge, 
so please bear with me.

Many times when there are runners on first and second and no outs, the
next batter will perform a sacrifice bunt.  The batter gives up his
chance to swing away in exchange for trying to advance the runners to
second and third, where they will have a better chance to score.  This
is very common if the batter is 7th, 8th or 9th in the batting order
(9th being the pitcher in the National League).

To counter the sacrifice bunt, the defense will often do the following
(it may be called the rotation play):

The first and third basemen charge the plate as the pitcher delivers
  in an attempt to get to the ball quickly.
The shortstop covers third base.
The second baseman covers first base.

The idea is that if one of the players gets to the ball quickly,
perhaps he can throw it to the shortstop covering third and get the
runner coming from second out.  If he cannot, he will then throw the
ball to the second baseman covering first to put the batter out.

To counter this counter-measure, a manager will sometimes tell the
batter to swing away when a bunt is expected.  This is a risky maneuver
and used infrequently, but when used it tends to make the defense think
twice about overcommitting itself.

While watching the Mets one day during the McCarver era, the above
situation occurred.  McCarver was spouting with complete confidence
about what was going to happen, how the bunt was coming and on and on.
Surprisingly, the batter did not bunt, but instead swung away and
dribbled a very weak ground ball to where the shortstop would have
been had he not been covering third.  It was a risky decision,
perfectly executed.  The manager earned his salary that day.

McCarver, like most know-it-alls faced with being wrong, could not
own up to it and instead became very angry.  As I recall it, he said:

"That's the wrong call!  Even though it worked, it was still the wrong
call!"

I think that sums up all you need to know about Tim McCarver.

2) Football Without Announcers 

One Sunday in the early 80s, NBC televised a game between the Jets and
the Dolphins.  The amazing thing about it was that there were no
announcers.  You could hear the crowd and the signal calling as if you
were at the game.  NBC would display information on the screen ("3rd
down and 11"), but there was no stupid chatter of any kind.  It was the
single most enjoyable football game I had ever watched.  As far as I
can tell, it was never repeated.  I'm sure whoever represents the
chattering morons had a fit.  Frankly, I think almost all televised
sports would be much more enjoyable to watch this way.

3) Al Del Greco

During the 80s, Al Del Greco was a kicker for the Houston Oilers, and
someone on ABC or Monday Night Football really had it in for him.

Once a game, there would be a segment that looked very much like a
commercial and was called something like _The Top Five Players of the
Week_.  This was followed by four quick shots of diving catches,
breakaway runs and the like but The Number One Player each week was
always Al Del Greco and he was shown sitting on the bench or tying his
shoes or wiping his hands on a towel.

In at least one of these segments, the ending had a Big Toe football
toy (the one where you hit the toy on the head and it kicked a small,
plastic football) in an Oiler jersey falling over at the top of an
escalator while the Voice Over talked about how great Al was.

I've found one other person who remembers these things, so I'm sure
I didn't dream them.  Anyone know the story behind this?