The One Thing Dodgers Do Is Talk a Good Game

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Dodgers as they studied the Major League Baseball statistics Friday morning.

There they were, buried in just about every category: 27th in runs scored, tied for 22nd in batting average, 15th in home runs, 20th in earned-run average, tied for 12th in fielding percentage, 23rd in winning percentage.

Depressing, yes. Especially when they looked at the National League West standings and saw themselves in third place, five games out, with no one in the division holding anything better than a .500 record.

What could they do, then, other than give up immediately or keep digging until they found something encouraging worth spinning? If you know the McCourts and Paul DePodesta, you know the answer.

And there it was, on USA Today’s website this week: The Dodgers, ranked No. 1, sitting atop all 30 major league clubs, rated the absolute best in the sport ... in broadcast teams.

Citing a “renaissance” in local baseball announcing teams because of online and satellite radio broadcasts, USAToday.com decided to rank all 30 teams in three categories: technical rating (“the nuts and bolts of the broadcast, such as how often the score is mentioned and how accurately the game is described”); fan rating (“the excitement and uniqueness the announcers bring to the broadcast, as well as their ability to connect with the audience”); and entertainment rating (“how well the announcers interact, the fun they have in the booth and the stories they tell, among other things”).

The Dodgers’ crew of Vin Scully, Charley Steiner and Rick Monday scored 9.5 in all three categories for a major league-leading total of 28.5. Tied for second at 26.5 were the broadcast teams of the San Francisco Giants (Jon Miller, Duane Kuiper, Mike Krukow and Co.) and the Chicago White Sox (John Rooney and Ed Farmer). The Angels’ tandem of Rory Markas and Terry Smith placed 19th at 21.5.

The Dodgers’ ranking is no surprise, considering Scully’s standing in the sport and the profession. Put him in any booth in the majors and that booth would top this list.

USAToday.com’s Jeff Zillgitt described Scully as “the master” and “a verbal wordsmith,” noting, “Even when he just does three innings a game for Dodgers contests west of Denver, Vin Scully makes the Dodgers the No. 1 broadcasting team.”

But Steiner too drew praise from Zillgitt: “Charley Steiner only adds to a Dodgers’ broadcast. A guy who tells stories -- straight ones and funny ones -- and a guy who holds his own when it comes to the intricacies of the game, Steiner takes his job seriously without taking himself too seriously.”

The Angels’ duo of Markas and Smith ranked 11th in the American League, ahead of only Detroit (come back, Ernie Harwell!), Toronto and Tampa Bay. Markas-Smith received a technical score of 7.5, a fan rating score of 7 and an entertainment rating score of 7.

Steve Gardner assessed the Angels’ broadcast team: “Now in their fourth year together, Markas and Smith seem to be hitting their stride. Markas’ play-by-play grows on the listener -- I wasn’t a big fan when I first heard him, but he gets better with each game.”

So which fans are happier after one of their team’s broadcasts?

The Dodgers’, given Scully’s unparalleled command of the game and Steiner’s first-year contributions?

Or the Angels’, given the club’s 127-point edge over the Dodgers in winning percentage before Friday’s games?

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Available for viewing this weekend:

TODAY

* PGA Buick Open

(Channel 2, noon)

To answer the question “Is Tiger Woods’ recent dominance of the majors good for golf?”: ABC’s national rating for the final round of the British Open -- 4.6 with a 14 share -- was that tournament’s highest final-round rating since 2000, 4.3 with a 13 share. Woods counts two British Open championships among his 10 major titles -- in 2000 and 2005.

* MLS All-Stars versus Fulham FC

(Channel 7, 12:30 p.m.)

This probably sounded like a good idea at one point.... Oh, let’s not kid ourselves, what does Major League Soccer have to gain by pitting its All-Stars against an also-ran from the bottom half of the English Premier League?

Last season, Fulham placed 13th in the 20-team EPL, winning 12 of 38 matches. If the best players in MLS can’t beat a Fulham squad still in preseason training mode, what does that say for MLS? And if the MLS All-Stars do prevail, what kind of feat is that? Hey, our very best players combined to hold off the 13th-best team in the English Premier League!

On the other hand, it’s only an all-star game, and matters could be worse. At least nobody will be wrapping a red carpet around Columbus Crew Stadium. And home-field advantage in the MLS Cup is not on the line. For one, site of the MLS Cup already has been determined. And if it hadn’t, whatever would Fulham do with home-field advantage in the MLS Cup?

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SUNDAY

* Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony

(ESPN Classic, 10:30 a.m.)

Big moment for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays: One of theirs, Wade Boggs, a late-career rental in 1998 and 1999, will be inducted. Ryne Sand- berg also will be inducted in the annual midsummer ceremony that got David Schoenfield of ESPN.com musing about potential Hall of Famers among current big leaguers.

Schoenfield ranked the Angels’ Vladimir Guerrero 11th among his top 20 potential Hall of Famers, writing, “Vlad already has Hall of Fame-caliber nicknames -- Vlad the Impaler, Vladdy Daddy -- and will eventually have Hall of Fame numbers, assuming he doesn’t permanently ruin his back carrying Darin Erstad and Steve Finley into the postseason this year.”