Fox Is Making Baseball Sound Good on Field but Not in Booth

Goodness knows there hasn’t been much in the way of on-field drama through the first two games of the World Series, so perhaps the thing to watch is how Fox manages to juggle the traditions of baseball with the need to drag the sport into the 20th century.

Fox has pledged to take the grand old game to new places, and, for the most part, the network is doing well. The zippy graphics have been nice, but the hallmark of Fox’s presentation has been the sound of the game.

With 20 microphones planted around Yankee Stadium, viewers have heard just about everything, from the sound of feet striking the bags, fans going for batted balls in the corner and Bobby Cox’s toss-away profanity during Game 1’s introductions.

We’ve even heard the sound of Fred McGriff’s home run Sunday night doinking off the foul pole in right. The game has never sounded better, and we can thank the instincts of producer John Filippelli and director Bill Webb as well as their keen eyes and ears.

Where things have gone adrift is with the announcing crew. Play-by-play man Joe Buck is a solid talent who will soon be in the class of his Hall of Fame father, Jack. Bob Brenly, added to the No. 1 broadcast crew for the National League Championship Series and World Series, has shown signs that he will be a pretty good analyst, as will pre-game show analyst Steve Lyons, though with the Yankees’ desultory play, they haven’t had much to call.

But pre-game host Chip Caray has simply got to stop trying for the glib line, and analyst Dave Winfield is going to have to settle down and quit stumbling over his tongue if either is going to be taken seriously.

And then there’s lead analyst Tim McCarver, whose presence in the CBS, ABC and Fox booths over the past six years can only be explained by the notion that New York-based network executives have grown enamored of listening to him doing Mets games. For almost anyone else, McCarver’s over-analysis and unceasing use of bad word play are an absolute chore to sit through. Where’s Joe Morgan when you really need him?