ENFORCED ERRORS
Ken Hoffman calls a strike on Fox Sports' coverage of the Astros
Jun 24, 2019, 4:20 pm
Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
This article originally appeared on CultureMap.
Note to Fox Sports: Next time you cover an Astros game, leave your announcers at home. They're awful. Just let the Astros broadcast crew handle the game. We've got it covered.
On June 22, the Astros were in New York to face the Yankees. It was a national game on Fox Sports (Channel 26 here), and the Fox announcers were Aaron Goldsmith, who normally does Seattle Mariners games on radio, A.J. Pierzynski, who played 19 years in the big leagues, and Ken Rosenthal, who wears a bowtie.
It was like they had never seen a baseball game before. Truly amazing and painful and annoying all at once. And I'm not one of those homers who thinks announcers and umpires are against Houston teams.
Kemp, not Sipp
For example: They announced that Tony Sipp was coming to the plate to bat for Jake Marisnick. Tony Sipp, while a former Astro, is now a pitcher with the Washington Nationals. They meant to say Tony Kemp. But I guess any Tony would do in a pinch … hit.
At one point, Astros catcher Max Stassi interfered with Aaron Judge's swing and Judge was awarded first base. The announcers went on for several minutes how Stassi would get an error for the play and poor Judge would be assessed an at bat, which would hurt his batting average. They said how unlucky it would be if Judge hit .299 for the season. If not for Stassi's interference, he would have hit .300.
Wrong! Judge was not assessed an at bat — his batting average would not be affected, now or the end of the season. The weird part, Pierzynski was a catcher for all those years in Major League Baseball. He didn't know the rule about catcher's interference?
Bad math
The Fox announcers said the Astros were leading their division by 4 1/2 games. No, try 7 1/2 games.
Then, the cruelest cut of all. Because the Yankees would be playing the Red Sox next week in England, the announcers brought Henry the Eighth into the conversation. That was a reach. I guess they were stretching for some English references. How about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Brexit, England's undefeated women's soccer team in the World Cup, Mick Jagger back on tour, or fish 'n' chips next time? England's fish 'n' chips are incredible. It's because they fry the fish in beef fat. Disgusting and dangerous, yet delicious.
One of the Fox announcers said that Big Hank No. 8 was beheaded, and they went on and on about the 16th-century monarch who gave Larry King a run for his money on number of wives. According to lore, Henry had six wives. King has been married eight times, though he's had only seven wives. He married one of them twice. I'll let Elias Sports Bureau decide King's total.
An F in history
The point is, Henry the Eighth was not…
Continue reading on CultureMap to hear Ken Hoffman's advice for Fox announcers.
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CC Sabathia will have a New York Yankees logo on the cap of his Hall of Fame plaque and Bill Wagner will have the symbol of the Houston Astros.
The hall announced the decisions Monday for all five of this year's inductees. Ichiro Suzuki will have the cap of the Seattle Mariners, Dave Parker of Pittsburgh Pirates and Dick Allen of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Players and their families give input on the choices to the hall, which makes the final decisions.
Inductees could make the pick through the 2001 induction, and the hall took over the decision ahead of the 2002 vote. The change followed reports in 1999 that Tampa Bay offered to compensate the newly retired Wade Boggs if his plaque bore a Devil Rays logo. Boggs was inducted in 2005 and his plaque has a Boston Red Sox logo.
Sabathia spent the last 11 seasons of a 19-year big league career with the Yankees (2009-19) after pitching for Cleveland (2001-08) and Milwaukee (2008).
Suzuki played for the Mariners in 14 of 19 seasons (2001-12, 2018-19) and also for the Yankees (2012-14) and Miami (2015-17).
Wagner pitched for Houston for his first nine seasons (1995-2003), then played for Philadelphia (2004-05), the New York Mets (2006-09), Boston (2009) and Atlanta (2010).
Parker spent his first 11 seasons with Pittsburgh (1973-83), then played for Cincinnati (1984-87), Oakland (1988-89), Milwaukee (1990), California (1991) and Toronto (1991).
Allen played for the Phillies in nine seasons (1963-69, 1975-76) while also spending time with St. Louis (1970), the Los Angeles Dodgers (1971), Chicago White Sox (1972-74) and Oakland (1977).
Inductions will take place July 27. Plaques include an image of the person and list of accomplishments in about 90 words, including each team a person played for or managed.
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