Yup, I really miss Skip Caray too...

And with no Fox (yet), no McCarver and Buck.

If you liked Skip Caray, you'd like Michael Kay on the YES Network. Very low-key, matter-of-fact, focuses on the game, obviously smart but doesn't flaunt it, a very pleasant voice to listen to, and tries to be objective and not a homer.

First,I enjoyed the article concerning TBS vs Fox. You are 100% correct. Fox is schlock!

My other comment concerns a comment one of the game announcers made during the Philly/Brewer game about the fact that blacks are a small percentage of players and that Major League Baseball is trying to correct this horrible situation.

Why is it that nobody worries that the white man is nearly non-existant in basketball and football is a close second. Nobody is discriminating here it just that blacks do not prefer baseball anymore. So let the chips fall where they may.

And by the way the white domination of sports reporters is coming to a close. The only use for whitey is to buy the tickets.

why the incessant chatter? Can't there be any down time? And stats upon stats, feigned like the announcers are pulling this info out of thin air. For dog's sake, just shut up awhile.

re: Fox's fan shots - it's "reality" TV. Fox directors accompany the cameras around the stands and tell the fans what to do. Remember all those praying bouffants in the San Diego stands 10 years ago? Drove me crazy they were told to "pray for a comeback." Yuck.

@ jackburden: "Why the hell didn't Scioscia use a pinch-runner in the 8th inning?"

Because there was one out. It was a one run game. The game could easily have gone to extra innings. And who would you want coming up to the plate in the 11th or 12th? Reggie Willits (.193 / .321 / .231 ) or Vlad Guerrero (.303 / .365 / .521)?

I was so happy to watch the games on TBS last night. As an SF Giants fan, I am accustomed to excellent play-by-play and color and am always frustrated by watching the all-star game (because I like baseball THAT much), playoffs and world series on FOX. They ruin the real game with their flashing graphics, before game "anchors" and, sorry, Tim McCarver. Good job TBS. We'll enjoy you while we can.

@grandgrand -- Thanks for the tip on the Hot Corner! I have a TV but no cable, and up to this point I've been relegated to checking Yahoo box scores or catching ESPN radio if I happen to be in the car.

TBS is a godsend when it comes to nationally televised baseball. Their playoff telecasts are uniformly respectful, informative and no-nonsense. It's almost unnerving at first -- you keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. It seems *too* quiet, especially after the sensory barrage that Fox (and even ESPN) hit you with. TBS' regular season Sunday afternoon games were similarly enjoyable. Not everything has to be a soap opera -- this is a major flaw in 95% of current sports broadcasting, especially at the national level. Watch any NFL broadcast or pregame show, anything on Fox, and, sadly anymore, anything on ESPN. It's all about character driven human interest stories, instead of, you know, the games.

I'll take TBS' strange, less-than-top-tier broadcast team in a heartbeat over base-cams, Jeannie Zelasko, and Joe Buck describing each pitch as if he was a character in a third rate melodrama.

It's the same thing with football on Fox. That stupid robot thing in huge football pads "warming up" on the screen as they go to another commercial break almost makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I can't stand that stupid thing!

As a Cubs fan, I had an out-of-body experience on Tuesday night - I found myself engrossed in a White Sox game (Sox versus Twins). It was a great game, well pitched, well defensed, but I also realized it was about the first game I had seen in a while that was not on Fox.

TBS is letting "Baseball be Baseball" - no bottom crawl, side crawl, zooming "swish" effects, no ADD camera cuts. Instead, we get to watch the game, which really has all of the drama you need. I especially loved the replay's of Jim Thome's home run - watching the baseball arch into the black sky, reaching an apex and then crashing down in the middle of the concession stands.

Fox would have put "ball track" lines, graphics of every other home run at Comiskey Park, and satellite views.

I had also forgotten how much drama exists even when there is nothing happening. Leaving the camera on the pitcher or batter between pitches, to see the the approach to the game, (instead of cuting away incessantly) is the game - the game that baseball fans love.

Finally, someone at TBS must have remembered a Bob Costas dictum "sometimes you just need to shut up." There was no concern about filling every available second with chatter and commentary.

Baseball has a rythym. To its detractors, its slow. To its fans, the rythym is the game - batters setting themselves in, pitchers and catchers working signs, fielders shifting for the batter and for the pitch selection. That rythym is destroyed on Fox. Fox would have thought Tuesday's game (1-0) as boring - but it was anything but boring because TBS let Baseball be Baseball.

Thanks TBS, and thanks King for recognizing that as well.

joe morgan is yet another example that the best players often make the worst announcers....i also do not miss the constant blurbs that those of us who don't have GINORMOUS FLAT SCREEN TVs find so annoying since it often interferes with the action and is really, really, really maddeningly distracting...i don't mind the commercials..i expect a station that bids huge $$$ to get the playoffs will promote its lineup just EVERY 15 SECONDS during the game...and of course fox directors need to switch to decaff or take a Valium since they seem to think that the audience consists of hyperactive 3 year olds that need a new camera angle every 10 seconds or we will change the channel...we won't and we don't need that...please stop it, it makes me sea sick.

Were you trying to recreate that feeling by writing without paragraphing or punctuation?