TBS taking heat for its playoff baseball broadcasts as Blue Jays start ALCS
The American League Championship Series starts Friday and that can mean only one thing: television viewers are going to be unhappy.
Now it's not as if baseball fans need anything more to anger them and add fuel to the many conspiracy theories to which they adhere. After all, most believe that the league, the umpires, the broadcasts and possibly even the hot dog vendors are biased against their team or, in the case of the Toronto Blue Jays, their country as well.
They also believe that the Jays get inferior start times because of anti-Canadian bias, overlooking the fact that it's simply a matter of an American network seeking the highest ratings in the U.S.
But logic doesn't always prevail in these matters.
Witness the flap over Harold Reynolds' ham-handed comment about Canadians' ham hands last year. Diplomats were at the ready before he apologized.
Add in the fact that TBS will be broadcasting the series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland and you have the potential for a conflagration of nuclear proportions.
That's because the Atlanta-based offspring of media mogul Ted Turner annually manages to rile fans with a combination of silly comments, horrendously flawed graphics and just plain stupidity.
Where to begin when listing the sins against broadcasting committed by TBS?
Was it the graphic noting the fact that Cleveland's Tyler Naquin was ``the first outfielder to start a post-season game since 1948" for the team, an amazing feat even when you consider how few post-season games the franchise has played since then? (On the other hand, not starting any outfielders may explain their lack of success.)
Or was it the graphic listing Cleveland closer Andrew Miller's 2016 record with the Yankees, Indians and Orioles, which must have come as quite a surprise to both Miller and the Orioles?
Or was it the reference to TBS analyst ``Carl" RIpken Jr.? (Carl Sr. must be so proud.)
Or maybe it's the TBS virtual strike zone that appears to indicate that every MLB umpire is either drunk or severely myopic.
The list of TBS sins goes beyond graphics, though. During Sunday's series-clinching game between the Blue Jays and Texas Rangers, fumble-mouth Matt Winer was conducting a long interview with Texas coach Tony Beasley when Elvis Andrus hit a key home run. As if that wasn't enough, Winer interrupted Beasley to tell viewers that Andrus had hit a double, before correcting himself as he keenly detected Andrus heading for home plate.
That, of course, was nothing compared to a video that was either sophomoric or offensive -- and probably both: a montage that showed the TBS broadcast crew in front of a burning river and the words ``Welcome to Cleveland." Canadian fans breathed a sigh of relief that TBS didn't do a ``Welcome to Canada" video featuring Canadian disasters such as 10-foot snowdrifts or the Toronto Maple Leafs. (Then again, the series doesn't go north of the U.S. border until Monday.)
Not surprisingly, TBS apologized for that considering Clevelanders are a little sensitive about being known for having a river that was so polluted it caught fire 47 years ago.
Needless to say, the avalanche of gaffes has irritated fans to no end.
While Cleveland fans certainly have reason to hate TBS, hardcore Blue Jays fans are already in high dudgeon over the fact that an American network is doing the games instead of Sportsnet.
After watching more than 162 games with Jays-friendly announcers Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler, Canadian fans feel a little out of sorts watching broadcasters who don't know the players as well and may not gloss over some of the team's deficiences as frequently as the Sportsnet guys do.
But that's the way it is in the world of baseball.
TBS paid a lot for North American rights, something that Sportsnet can't match as a regional broadcaster. The fact that Sportsnet adds commentary by Martinez and Gregg Zaun during breaks might mollify them, though probably not.
They also might be a little happier with the broadcast crew for the ALCS. Instead of the B-team of Brian Anderson, Dennis Eckersley and Joe Simpson, they'll be getting Ernie Johnson, Ron Darling and Cal (Don't Call Me Carl) Ripken, Jr., a notable upgrade.
And they'll also be getting pitch counts, something TBS did not include in its ALDS coverage.
Whether that's enough to keep fans from gathering with torches and pitchforks is another matter.