More Fox Nonsense From Game Three of the ALCS

Brenneman is at it again in the fourth inning:

After Magglio Ordonez hit a weird spinner down the third base line and was thrown out, Brenneman took him to task in his usual judgmental tone. His voice dripping with disdain, Thom delivered, "What a POOR at bat by Ordonez. This is the clean up hitter, the guy that is being counted on to drive in runs, and he can't even move the runner over."

We need to get a ruling that says the following: "Broadcasters who have never faced major league pitching may not, at any time, pass judgment against the player on the air, provided there is an analyst seated next to him that is paid to do just that." I blame Bob Costas for all of this - once he decided that being a play-by-play announcer made him an expert and started spouting off his own opinions all the time (most famously in the 1998 NBA Finals when he suddenly thought he was Tex Winters with X's and O's), everyone else followed suit. Now we have the Bucks and Brennemans of the world analyzing the action instead of just stating what is happening. Make it stop.

But I digress.

Here is the other Brenneman gem. "That fastball just ate him out." I'm 100% sure he meant to say "ate him up," because the latter doesn't have quite the same, shall we say, sexual connotations. And judging by the 30 seconds of total silence that followed, I'm guessing that a good portion of the tech staff and broadcast crew realized the error of his ways. What a tool.

Not to be outdone, Lou Pinella got into the act.

Out of nowhere Lou gave us: "Boy, when I played .... (10 seconds of silence) ... these fans didn't have these ... (5 more seconds) ... white handkerchiefs."

Genius. Of course, Lyons had to run it by saying, "No, they did, they just used to blow their nose with them." Which was punctuated by that obnoxious laugh he's always tossing around. Somebody put a muzzle on him! He's ruining an otherwise wonderful Friday afternoon.

These guys are the worst. If it wasn't for the fact that Lou's 1973 baseball card looks a little like this old picture of my Dad, I would give up entirely.

I'm sure I'll be back with more complaints in just a few minutes. Desperate times and all that.