Watching the Yankees/Royals last night, I was struck by how shockingly amateurish the FSN Kansas City coverage came across. I’m not a huge fan of the YES Network, or the way they handle games, but seeing some small-market coverage served as a reminder of how much worse things could be. It was like watching the Channel 9 news in Peoria or something, then comparing it with Ernie Anastos and Bill Beutel at their smoothest.
The camerawork was beyond shoddy, with quick, disorienting cuts between the dugout and close-ups of the pitcher. Announcers Paul Splittorff and Ryan Lefebvre played the part of small-town yokels, complete with hilarious comments like, “It’s a good thing the Yankees/Red Sox game is on ESPN Sunday night, because we really don’t see enough of them.”
Ha HA! Maybe if you didn’t need to stop using your centerfield camera because mist from your ballpark’s waterfall was getting on the camera lens, people would pay more attention to the Royals.
Splittorff and Lefebvre also leaned heavily on useless stats, particularly, “Player X has hit safely in XX of his last XX games.” At one point, we were told that John Buck has hit in 3 of his last 4 games, which is a sign he’s coming out of his slump. Huh? That stat tells us absolutely nothing. Buck could have been 3-19 over his last 4 games.
I hate it when Michael Kay looks good by comparison.
