May 14, 2010

Jays Radio Gaffe On Drew Swing

I was watching Wednesday's afternoon game on mute and Laura had the Jays radio broadcast on in the kitchen. (I meant to post this earlier, but kept forgetting.)

Jerry Howarth is in his 30th season as the team's play-by-play guy. He's got a great voice and his work is solid. But on Wednesday, he was seeing things that were not there.

The TV was lagging behind the radio by about five seconds, so in the fourth inning, when I heard him say that J.D. Drew swung and missed and almost fell down, and was trying to keep his balance, I was curious to see it "live", since Drew does not often take unhinged cuts. (Is it still live if I have already heard a description of it on the radio?)

In came Shaun Marcum's 0-1 pitch and Drew swung and missed. And .... nothing. No huge Reggie Jackson corkscrew swing, no loss of balance, no stumble. At all. Just a normal Drew swing and miss, like we have all seen dozens of times.

Later on, Howarth said Jeremy Hermida's fly ball was hit to right-center, but Vernon Wells caught it in straightaway center (or maybe a step or two towards right). That's a minor gaffe, but the Drew call was bizarre.

Also: I noted that the out-of-town-score-updater guy made a fuss that the Yankees game was over in only 2:15. His "Are you guys sitting down...?" comment seemed like overkill, but he was right to be surprised. The Yankees have played only two games (of at least nine innings) in under 2:15 since May 2005, and only four since the 2003 All-Star Break:
June 6, 2004   - 2:12
April 29, 2005 - 2:08
August 8, 2008 - 2:14
April 22, 2010 - 2:07

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