He Made a Good Pitch, Then Went Down Swinging

New Fox attitude. New low Fox ratings.

With baseball’s submarining All-Star game having set new ratings lows two years in a row, positive-thinking Fox color commentator Tim McCarver was emphatic before last week’s game it wouldn’t happen again.

“It’s not going to fall tonight,” McCarver assured USA Today’s Rudy Martzke.

“With interleague play averaging 29,000 in June, highest since July of 1994, I think that’s added spice to the All-Star game. Plus, look at the matchups and players trying to break the home run record or hit .400. That’s why I think the ratings will be better.”

The ratings dropped another 11%, from 13.2 to 11.8. Since 1991, the game’s ratings have dropped 32%.

Fox’s ratings for its Saturday games of the week are also off 10%.

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Another cobwebbed classic: Then there’s Wimbledon, which has seen better days itself.

The recent men’s final got a lower rating than the women’s final.

“Any self-respecting American baseball player would have stood with hands on hips and admired his handiwork after a few of those forehand winners,” wrote the New York Times’ George Vecsey of men’s winner Pete Sampras.

“Any American basketball player would have performed a victory dance with those backhand return-of-serve winners. Pete just trudged and moped until they handed him the hardware.”

Wrote USA Today’s Michael Hiestand of NBC announcers John McEnroe and Chris Evert: “What do you say about a sport when its graying legends, just doing their television jobs, seem more compelling than the current stars?”

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Trivia time: How many times did Willie Mays lead the National League in runs batted in?

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Capt. Courageous: Albert Belle, who chose to sit out the All-Star game because of hostile fans, said beforehand he wasn’t going to let them run him off.

“At first I was debating whether to show up because I felt my career might be threatened,” Belle said. “I’ve had death threats here. But I figured that’s the chance I’ll take.”

Turned out, he didn’t want to risk an actual appearance in the game. Only later was it discovered that Belle had another reason for attending--a $50,000 bonus for being on the squad.

“He should give the money back,” Met Manager Bobby Valentine said. “ . . . I think that’s exactly what the game doesn’t need.”

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Trivia answer: Never, despite ranking No. 7 all-time.

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And finally: Cowboy owner Jerry Jones on this season’s prospects: “On paper and I know that we don’t play one game on paper, we’ve got as good a football team as we’ve had since I’ve been with the Cowboys.”

Of course, getting them all onto the field will be a problem, since one--Deion Sanders--also plays baseball for the Reds, who have four conflicting dates.

Sanders has assured Jones he’ll be there for all 16 Cowboys games. In other words, he won’t practice with the team, will fly in the day of the game, play and fly back to the Reds. Thanks a bunch, Prime Time.