Sports on the Air
The All-Star star will be the House that Ruth Built
There’s no question as to what deserves to be the most-talked about aspect of Tuesday’s major league All-Star Game on Fox.
No, we’re not talking about Alex Rodriguez’s social life. Play-by-play man Joe Buck pulled a Donte Whitner on a conference call and just about guaranteed that A-Rod’s tabloid life will be ignored during the game.
Of course, the biggest story is the game venue, Yankee Stadium, which is in its final season as the home of the 26- time World Series champions.
I covered an All-Star Game in the House that Ruth Built the last time it was played there, 1977. The final one there will be more memorable than any of Madonna’s songs.
“If there was one game I wish my father [Jack Buck] was still alive, and I could bring him to a game I was doing and have him sit in the booth, this would be on the one,” Buck said.
“What this stadium has meant to this country, being built in the 1920s. All the different events that have come through there. Major acts, NFL games, the Knute Rockne speech in a locker room not far from where we are sitting, a Joe Louis fight, popes celebrated Masses. You have to really honor it.”
The All-Star Game has become a bigger honor since baseball gave the winning league the home-field advantage in the World Series.
“You get every reason to manage to win,” Buck said. “There’s a little more strategy. It becomes less of an exhibition and more of a baseball game. And I like that.”
Major league baseball is preparing quite an exhibition of its history. Fox’s coverage begins at 7 p. m. with a taped pregame red carpet parade that includes interviews with several Hall of Famers, including Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson and George Brett.
“This is just a great celebration of baseball,” said Fox Sports President Ed Goren. “There are going to be fathers taking their kids to this parade and 20 years from now the kids are going to be saying, ‘I saw Hank Aaron and Yogi Berra and [Derek] Jeter,’ it goes on and on. And baseball is about that. It is about generations, it is about a respect for those who preceded and you celebrate them.”
At 8 p.m., Buck is in charge of the pregame show, which Goren said will consist entirely of player introductions.
Buck is just hoping the at-bats last long enough so he can tell all the interesting stories of the first half of the season. They include the incredible story of Texas Rangers star Josh Hamilton, a former No. 1 draft pick who was suspended from baseball in 2004 for multiple violations of the league’s drug policy.
“I have kept everything I’ve read about Hamilton,” said Buck. “I want to tell the story the right way. Here’s a guy who was out of baseball for three years and was playing low A ball and comes back, does what he did last year with Cincinnati and now he’s leading the world in RBIs. He’s living his life in a completely different manner. This is one of the best stories to happen in baseball in a long, long time. As a human, you have to root for the guy.”
Tim McCarver, who will be working his 17th All-Star Game as analyst, is rooting for some extra time in the booth with Berra, the Yankee great.
“In my view,” said McCarver, “he will be the most lovable character in the ballpark. Henry Aaron hit 755 home runs. Willie Mays was the greatest player I ever saw. But I think the person that America relates to more than anybody because of baseball is Yogi Berra.”
It sounds like Tuesday will be must-see TV. But to paraphrase Yogi, “if people don’t want to watch, nobody’s going to stop them.”
• It looks like word of mouth spread in Western New York during Rafael Nadal’s five-set Wimbledon men’s title victory over Roger Federer. The match, which had two rain delays, started with ratings in the 2s and 3s on WGRZ-TV. But the rating hit a high of 5.6 and was in the 5 range for the final 90 minutes. I suspect many viewers realized they were watching one of the two best Wimbledon finals in history before NBC analyst John McEnroe said it was the greatest match he’s ever seen. (He played in the runner-up, against Bjorn Borg.)
• Kevin Everett will receive the second annual Jimmy V ESPY for Perseverance during the ESPN telecast July 20.
