McBush McWhiffs Again

This Daily Kos post tells us that John W. McBush is revving up the Whaaa-mbulance one more time over Barack Obama’s prime-time broadcast tonight at 8:00 (on Fox, MSNBC, CBS and NBC I believe)…

"No one will delay the World Series with an infomercial when I'm president," (McBush) said to the approval of a crowd of thousands at a stadium (in Hershey, Pa.).

(Note to self: do not go to Hershey next year for summer vacation.)

Well, as the post and the WaPo story tells us, Obama didn’t “delay” anything, since Game 5 is due to resume tonight at approximately 8:37 (cancelling only the “pre-game” show with Joe Buck – more on him in a minute), though McBush’s convention speech this year caused the NFL to change its schedule to accommodate him (“pot, meet kettle” once again).

And while I’m on the subject, please allow me to digress into a sports-related vein, since this is the first time in a number of years that I’ve chosen to endure Fox TV coverage to watch any portion of a championship event because a home team was involved.

Sam Donnellon of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote what I thought was a spot-on column today about the farcical decision of Fox and Major League Baseball to allow Game 5 to be played on Monday night in conditions that might have been more appropriate for an episode of “The Deadliest Catch” than a sports competition.

Among Donnellon’s many good observations is that, while announcers Buck and Tim McCarver blathered on about the team speed of the Tampa Bay (Not Devil) Rays and how it could be affected by the rotten weather, Rays center fielder B.J. Upton stole second base before he eventually scored the tying run on a single by Carlos Pena. Also, Reuben Frank of the Courier Times noted that, while Tampa Bay stole 142 bases last year, the Phils stole 136 (to match their NL-leading 214 home runs; I believe that was the number), so while Tampa Bay is quite good in that department, the Phils are no slouches either (so, wouldn’t the Phils’ speed be affected also?).

Another thing… is there a more joyless baseball announcer in the universe than Joe Buck? Every utterance from his mouth sounds like a command, which works from time to time, but it’s OK to have fun too (his father, the legendary St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster, Jack Buck, never had a problem with that – I used to listen to him broadcast “Monday Night Football” on the radio with Hank Stram, former coach of the Kansas City Chiefs). But of course, Buck the younger is a real pro when it comes to transitioning into the promos for Fox TV shows (particularly the return of “24” next month – repeated to the point where we could not possibly forget it) and then returning to the action as the pitched ball is already on its way to the next batter.

Ok, that’s enough; I’ll get back to bitching about politics later.