Take that, Tim McCarver: Keith Olbermann discovers 21(!) pictures of Joe Torre at the new Yankee Stadium

So much for Tim McCarver's claim that the Joe Torre has been airbrushed from Yankee Stadium. The FOX broadcaster told listeners Saturday that there's "no sign of Joe Torre at the stadium." But TV personality Keith Olbermann, went around Yankee Stadium the other day and counted 21 pictures of Torre, both outside and inside the ballpark. (Go to his Baseball Nerd blog to see some of the images.) There is even a luxury suite number 6, featuring pix of the last man to wear #6 - Torre.

I appreciate that Olbermann took the time to set the record straight with some photo evidence, something no NY paper tried to do.

He writes about the issue:

I'm a fan and friend of Tim McCarver's, and Joe Torre is my oldest baseball friend. I've even worked with them both. And I know the Yankees could have done better by Joe, and his exit was unceremonious and poorly-handled by the club. I would also argue that the Yankees are the most self-important, overly-serious franchise in overtly pro sports (I can think of about 27 college programs that would at least give them a run for their money).

But Timmy was just wrong, in style and in substance. Neither literally nor figuratively have the Yankees excised, erased, airbrushed nor Memory-Hole'd Joe Torre. Doubtless the day will come soon, perhaps even while he's still managing elsewhere, that they will formally retire the number and give him the big ceremony he deserves. To see a conspiracy in the fact that the day has yet to come is, at best, to overreact.

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More on Tim McCarver's meltdown, and a new idea for national broadcasts

My Subway Squawkers piece on Tim McCarver's comparing the Yankees front office to Nazis and Communists was the most popular thing I've ever written for this blog. It struck a nerve with a lot of fans, and was featured and linked in a lot of places, including Yardbarker's home page (and the top story in Yardbarker's Morning Bark email Monday), AOL Fanhouse, Yahoo Sports' Big League Stew, Hardball Talk, Bleacher Report, Staten Island Live, and a whole slew of other places. Thanks, everyone, for the linkage, and thanks to Ross from NYY Stadium Insider for being the first to break the story of McCarver's insanity, posting videos of what he said.

I do think the coverage in the blogosphere had something to do with McCarver having to acknowledge Monday that he was inappropriate. And I've written a followup story on it for The Faster Times about McCarver's non-apology apology.

Also, FOX spokesman, Dan Bell gave a statement agreeing his analogy was inappropriate, saying:

"We've discussed the situation with Tim, and relayed in no uncertain terms that his choice of analogies was inappropriate, which he completely agrees with and regrets using," Bell said. "Given his contrition and flawless 25-year track record, we're comfortable no further action is necessary."

The funniest thing about that statement was the notion that McCarver has had a "flawless 25-year track record." What broadcasts are they listening to?

Heck, the infamous WWII analogy wasn't even the only dopey thing McCarver said just in that game. He also went on and on about how A.J. Burnett must have cut his hand on a "pie plate" when celebrating Nick Swisher getting the walkoff win the night before. Um, Tim, "pie" is just an expression. A.J.'s just smearing the guys' faces with a towel filled with whipped cream. No real pie is involved.You would think McCarver, Mr. Baseball Expert himself, would know better.

I just wish that when contract time comes around, FOX and ESPN wouldn't bother with even hiring national announcers. As I've been saying for years, I would love to just hear one person from each team's broadcast booth. How fun would it be to hear, say, Jerry Remy with Michael Kay? Or Vin Scully with Keith Hernandez? Not only that, but they would be a lot better informed on the teams they cover all year. It just makes sense.

Here's what St. Petersburg Times writer Tom Jones noted from fans during Saturday's Rays-Yankees broadcast. He said emails poured in from Tampa Bay fans slamming McCarver right from the beginning. While Jones said that he "thought McCarver and Fox did a decent job talking about the Rays on Saturday," he noted that "McCarver did make two missteps," one being the WWI analogy. The other was this:

One was acting shocked when the Rays attempted two safety squeeze bunts with runners on first and third and no one out in the fifth inning.

"Very unusual,'' McCarver said. "I have never seen that."

Well, it's something the Rays do all the time. In fact, they have become known for that particular play this season, and McCarver probably should've known that. Still, you could give him a mulligan. He has 30 teams to follow, and he can't be expected to know the nuances of every one.

Well, that, and McCarver doesn't seem to do any research on teams beforehand the way he used to - it sounds like he parachutes into other cities without a clue. Not that he's the only guy to do that, but it doesn't make it any better. That's another reason that the local broadcasters idea would make sense.

Look, I get that national broadcasts are supposed to appeal to the casual fan, as well as the diehard. But what better way could a casual fan learn about another team than to hear one of the team's regular voices tell them about them? It would be a lot better than all the inaccurate stuff the national guys do!

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Tim McCarver compares Yankee front office to Communists and Nazis for not sufficiently worshipping Joe Torre

Squawker Jon and I had other plans Saturday, so I missed watching Saturday's FOX game live. It's just as well, between A.J. Burnett selfishly hurting himself, and Tim McCarver's insane comments (captured by Ross at NY Stadium Insider) comparing the Yankee front office to Nazi Germany and the old Soviet Union for not having Joe Torre remembered in Yankee Stadium. McCarver's rant about Torre not being mentioned in the Stadium isn't even accurate, by the way - for one thing, Torre's picture is on the 2000 Yankee championship banner in the field level.

McCarver, who along with Joe Buck insisted in a previous broadcast that Joe Torre was the biggest reason the YES Network was so successful (as if the reason fans turned in to watch those games was to see the manager, and not the players!) gave a one-sided account of Torre's tenure with the Yankees. The broadcaster accused the front office of "corporate childishness" and said it was "the one thing they have bungled." He also had this to say about the Yankee front office's treatment of Torre:

You remember some of those despotic leaders in World War II, primarily in Russia and Germany, where they used to take those pictures that they had ... taken of former generals who were no longer alive, they had shot 'em. They would airbrush the pictures, and airbrushed the generals out of the pictures. In a sense, that's what the Yankees have done with Joe Torre. They have airbrushed his legacy. I mean, there's no sign of Joe Torre at the stadium. And, that's ridiculous. I don't understand it.

No, what's ridiculous is that McCarver would make such ignorant, outrageous comments, that simultaneously prop up Joe Torre as a victim and smear the Yankees front office, and that have no basis in fact. To compare Torre to a victim of Nazis and Soviet Communists is both offensive and absurd. These comments were in such incredibly bad taste, I half-expected McCarver to compare Torre's "The Yankee Years" to "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "The Gulag Archipelago."

McCarver has a lot in common with Torre, besides both of them having acrimonious ends to their tenure in Yankeeland. Both used to be very good at their jobs, but then they got complacent and arrogant as their fame and fortune grew. And both felt entitled to do whatever they wanted because of who they were, and thought they could just wing it on their names, without any preparation.

Now McCarver thinks that comparing Torre - who became a rich man and a future Hall of Famer thanks to his time as a Yankee - to Nazi and Soviet victims is just peachy. I think McCarver is off his rocker.
 
Let's review - Joe left Yankeeland because of the "insult" of getting a one-year, $5 million contract offer with an additional $3 million in incentives. He signed a contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers for less money than the Yankees offered him. Then he wrote "The Yankee Years" and trashed George Steinbrenner and the Yankee front office. He moved on, and so did the Yankees. But according to McCarver, the team ought to be obsessing about poor Joe every day. Give me a break.

Yes, Torre got left out of that Yankee Stadium closing tribute, and he should have been mentioned there. But McCarver didn't even bring that up; instead he focused on stuff that isn't even true.

How should the Yankees sufficiently honor Torre right now? Retire his number? Give him a plaque in Monument Park? And does McCarver really think that either thing will happen when 1) he's still an active manager for another team, and 2) he has yet to apologize for biting the hand that fed him for twelve years?

Casey Stengel had three more rings than Joe Torre. He didn't get his Yankee number retired until 1970, ten years after he was fired, and five years after he retired from the Mets. He didn't get a plaque in Monument Park until 1976, the year after he died.

If Torre didn't write "The Yankee Years," I think the front office would have retired his number after he himself retired from managing.  Now, I don't see that happening any time soon. But that's Joe's own fault, not the Yankees.


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Won't you come back, Dave Eiland? A.J. Burnett needs you!

If Friday night's Yankees-Dodgers game was one of the more exciting ones of the year, Saturday's game was one of the most painful to watch. It wasn't just that A.J. Burnett looked like Dontrelle Willis did against the Yankees last week. (Actually, Burnett was much worse, come to think of it!) It was that the game dragged on, and on, and on. The first inning took forever. Three hours had passed before the fifth inning was over.

I didn't stay up for the whole game - I went to bed when the score was 9-4 Dodgers, and felt like I had watched fifteen innings or something, because what I did see dragged on so long.

A.J. Burnett seems to desperately need pitching coach Dave Eiland back - he's been in a downward spiral ever since Eiland left the team due to some undisclosed personal issue. Please come back soon, Dave! Yankee fans are flipping out over watching A.J. pitch!


And so much for skipping Phil Hughes, eh?

It figures that the Yankees lost, though - it was a FOX game, and the Yankees' record in those games always seems to be bad. And having to hear Joe Buck and Tim McCarver in the booth added to my misery. All the effusive, unwarranted praise for Joe Torre was just nauseating. The two of them acted as if "The Yankee Years" book never existed, and that nobody in the world, except for maybe Alex Rodriguez, had anything but positive stuff to say about Teflon Torre.

They went on and on about how Joe increased attendance, and somehow was involved with the YES Network become a success, and stuff that sounded like it came straight from Torre's mouth. Buck even suggested that Torre would make a great MLB Commissioner. Yeah, because somebody who tells private tales about incredible people like Johnny Damon, all the while preaching the sanctity of the clubhouse, is just the guy I want running the game. Good grief.

Billy Crystal and his dopey Switzerland hat were also nauseating. Guess he didn't read "The Yankee Years" either - his "good friend" Torre threw him under the bus in that book, griping about Crystal getting a World Series ring from the Yankees in 2000.

Then there was the train wreck that was Tommy Lasorda and Reggie Jackson in the booth. Actually, Reggie was fine. It was Lasorda who seemed to have had a bellyful of bile and bitterness, showing incredible hostility towards Reggie. He kept on threatening to deck him, and said Reggie would never be able to hit his curve ball. Huh? I guess I missed when Lasorda was a Hall of Fame pitcher. Lasorda also said Jackson was "about as funny as a bloody nose," but it was the Dodgers' old manager, not Mr. October, who made a fool of himself in the booth.


Banter like that needs to be good-natured, or it just comes off like you're stuck in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" or something. FOX owes fans an apology for that nonsense.

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Where was Tim McCarver's Bob Gibson story today?

FOX broadcaster Tim McCarver needs a primer on baseball's unwritten rules. Because his faux outrage over CC Sabathia hitting Dustin Pedroia in the butt is a bit much, given how much McCarver worships and praises former teammate Bob Gibson, one of the biggest headhunters of all time.

McCarver should know better that according to those unwritten rules he worships so much, whether or not Josh Beckett intentionally hit Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter (and threw inside to Francisco Cervelli) is irrelevant. The fact is, two Yankee stars got hit, and Boston had to expect a payback. As I noted earlier, even the Boston Herald had a piece today saying the Sox could expect that to happen today, and that it would be justified.

But Tim, the broadcaster who always seems to have a Bob Gibson story to chastise These Kids Today, didn't seem to have one for today's game. This, even though that if there were any time for a Gibson story, it was in this game.

Instead, McCarver insisted that what Beckett did was unintentional, disregarding that whole unwritten rules thingy he usually obsesses over. And then he chastised CC for harmlessly hitting Pedroia in the buttocks, even though his idol Gibson would have aimed a lot higher, and potentially done much more damage. Then again, maybe McCarver was worried that the pitch CC threw would give Dustin brain damage!

Just two weeks ago, McCarver was citing Bob Gibson for the umpteenth time. This was to gripe about Alex Rodriguez breaking that unwritten rule about walking across the mound. You know, the rule that nobody under 50 ever heard of until A-Rod did it. In that case, McCarver praised Gibby for throwing in at Pete Rose - twice - for walking on the mound.

Heck, McCarver is on record as also praising Gibson for hitting a batter at an Old Timers' Game, 15 years after the batter hit a home run off him.

So it is kind of funny, given how many times McCarver has cited Gibson as the arbiter of all that is true and correct in baseball over the years, how Gibby's name never crossed Tim's lips when it came to what CC Sabathia did today. And how McCarver even insisted that an up-and-in pitch to Jeter later in the game was completely unintentional.

I don't know why McCarver seems to have forgotten all his Bob Gibson stories today, but it sure makes him sound pretty hypocritical.



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