Pergament: Series crew good until end
One of the reasons that I've never been a big fan of Fox play-by-play man Joe Buck is that he rarely says anything memorable after the final out in a World Series.
And that held true Wednesday night after the New York Yankees beat Philadelphia, 7-3, to win in six games.
"The Yankees are back on top," Buck said. "World champions for the 27th time."
That wasn't as clever as The Buffalo News headline Thursday — "On top of the heap" — which played off the lyrics of the classic song, "New York, New York."
That said, Buck and analyst Tim McCarver had an excellent series. They saw just about everything almost instantly during the six games and talked about every possible story line except one.
You might have thought they would have discussed how Game Six winner Andy Pettitte in 2008 and Alex Rodriguez in 2009 had turned steroid controversies into distant memories.
However, they speculated that Yankees designated hitter Hideki Matsui would be named Most Valuable Player. He hit home runs in three Yankee wins and knocked in six runs in the clincher, which made him deserving. But Yankees closer Mariano Rivera could have been in the announcer conversation. He is the closest thing to a sure thing in baseball and got the final outs in all four Yankee wins.
As expected, WUTV scored big time with the Yankees. Game Six had about a 16 rating, well above the national rating of 13.4.
• ESPN analyst Jay Bilas seemed to comfort Syracuse University basketball fans Wednesday after the Orange were embarrassed in the Dome by city rival LeMoyne College.
Bilas noted that Michigan State lost to Division II Grand Valley State in November 2007 and still won 27 games and made it to the Sweet 16.
He added the 82-79 loss should serve as a "wake-up call" for the Orange, who were ranked in the preseason Top 25 despite losing Jonny Flynn, Eric Devendorf and Paul Harris from last year's team.
The result of the Tuesday game, carried locally by Time Warner 13 opposite the University at Buffalo's 30-29 loss to Bowling Green on ESPN2, was no fluke. LeMoyne outplayed Syracuse badly in the second half despite a 34-point effort by impressive transfer Wesley Johnson.
The TWC announcers heaped praise on LeMoyne's Kevin Roth, the former St. Francis star who scored 10 points and had a solid overall game. He played so well you wonder why he isn't playing for a local Division I team, such as Canisius or Niagara.
ESPN explained where LeMoyne is located Wednesday and mentioned former major league pitcher Tom Browning went to school there. You would have thought that ESPN would have noted that LeMoyne also was an early stop on Michigan coach John Beilein's resume.
• I was surprised to hear Brian Griese as the ESPN analyst on UB's game. With all the bad quarterbacking in the NFL, you'd think he'd still be in the league. Heck, he couldn't do any worse with the Bills than Ryan Fitzpatrick. Griese did a solid analytical job, notably questioning UB coach Turner Gill's conservative play-calling at the end of the first half that probably cost the Bulls a shot at a field goal. Griese also advised Bowling Green to throw more often to receiver Freddie Barnes, who eventually caught the game-winning TD.
• The Buffalo Bills' latest loss, 31-10 to the Houston Texans, has led to speculation that their fans are ready to abandon the 3-5 team. Don't count on it. The 31.3 rating for that game on Channel 4 was the fourth-highest among NFL market teams Sunday. The only markets that had higher ratings were Minnesota, Milwaukee (which is tied to Green Bay) and previously undefeated Denver. The game had only a 13.3 rating in Houston.
• I could almost hear Terrell Owens channeling NBA star Allen ("you're talking practice") Iverson after CBS analyst Rich Gannon said during the Bills loss Sunday that it was a mistake for Owens to miss the Friday practice before the Houston game. Gannon said he loves Bills coach Dick Jauron but disagreed with his assessment that it wasn't that important to have Owens practice on Friday. Gannon said Friday practices are more important than others.
So that's Owens' problem?
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