NewsTBS covers Division Series completely
Veteran broadcasters set for postseason to begin
By Mark Newman / MLB.com
10/01/09 3:58 PM EST
It is about to become a way of life again for baseball fans everywhere.The Division Series on TBS.
It is the intense, unpredictable and always-eventful beginning of the road to the 105th World Series -- a tradition that starts with three openers next Wednesday and then one of the American League Division Series opening a day later. Six of the eight clubs already were known entering today, and the remaining participants could be confirmed by night's end.
On Thursday afternoon, the TBS broadcast talent that is about to become such a fixture in the average baseball household got together on a conference call with media to discuss how this regular season is finishing and what they see in the days ahead for viewers. They talked about such topics as: new wrinkles in the 2009 coverage; closers Brad Lidge and Huston Street; whether the Dodgers can "flip the light switch" back on again; Boston's catching situation and A.J. Burnett's head; and about using club broadcasters for ALDS and NLDS international audiences.
The talent
TBS will kick off its coverage with a studio show at 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday, featuring host Ernie Johnson, Cal Ripken Jr., Dennis Eckersley and -- an addition to this year's studio analyst talent -- David Wells. That will be immediately followed by Rockies at Dodgers, a game that may or may not decide who is the National League West champion and Wild Card.
Jeff Behnke, executive producer at Turner Sports, said Chip Caray and Ron Darling will be the primary play-by-play team, working the ALDS between the Yankees and either Detroit or Minnesota -- and then joined in the NL Championship Series by Buck Martinez. The other three TBS play-by-play crews will be Don Orsillo and Martinez; Brian Anderson and Joe Simpson; and Dick Stockton and Bob Brenly.
"We have a lot of consistency in the booth," Behnke said. "Everyone except Brenly has been with us before -- he was with us two years ago -- and it's great to have him back. Having some consistency is something we feel is very important."
If you look at those list of play-by-play broadcaster names, many are recognizable as familiar "voices" of various clubs during the regular season. For example: Orsillo in Boston, Anderson in Milwaukee, and Brenly with the Cubs. When pressed by national media to explain how you avoid at least the perception of possible "slant" in their calls -- a subject that always is going to be thrown around by some fans -- Behnke said it is irrelevant in the weeks ahead.
"When we put our announcing groups together, we feel we have very unbiased announcers who can call it right down the middle regardless of what market they call during the regular season," Behnke said. "We don't go into our schedule and say, 'Let's put Don with the Red Sox' or 'Let's put Bob Brenly with the Cubs' if they were in. We go into it putting our A team out there first, that's Chip and Ron with the Yankees, then we try to match them up with where they're going to be best-served for where they were over the regular season. It helps that they're around those teams all year long, we think that helps viewers. But we feel we have a core group of play-by-play and analysts who are as journalistically sound as any announcers. That's a criteria we have across the board for all announcers at Turner Sports."
Darling has been a staple for Mets viewers on SportsNet New York broadcasts, and also has made the rounds with the TBS Sunday Game of the Week telecasts. He added: "I totally understand that some Yankee fan is going to ask, 'What's that SNY guy doing there?' I know that. But I did more Yankee games than any other team for TBS. I know that team, know that town, have a relationship with players and managers there, and it will supercede everything I do with the Mets."
The technology
"We'll trying a few new things this year," Behnke said. "On select games will have a robotic camera on the backside of foul poles -- always looking for that definitive look out in the outfield. We're also adding Pitch Trax, which is the box with balls and strikes. We'll be adding it live on the HD side for every game we're doing in the Division Series and in the LCS."
Fans already are drawn each day to the TBS Hot Corner on MLB.com, featuring a constant array of fresh content and interactivity. Behnke said: "There will be game highlights, player/manager interviews, special features, and all of our announcers in the studio and on the road will be doing video clips and analysis.
"Something else I wanted to mention that will be on Hot Corner: We're doing a series of features called the 'Pride of October.' Mr. October (Reggie Jackson) himself has joined TBS to do those. He's doing pieces on October legends. The two he's already shot for us are Bob Gibson and Frank Robinson. They not only air in Hot Corner, but in our pregame shows during postseason as well."
The closers
Last year, Lidge was a perfect 41-for-41 in save opportunities and he threw the last pitch of the World Series -- the dream season. This year has been an occasional nightmare, with 10 fewer saves. A good chunk of the conversation was spent on how Charlie Manuel handles his bullpen as the Phillies try to become the first team to repeat since the Yankees in 2000.
"It's amazing the Phillies have won in spite of his blown saves," Eckersley said, qualifying his remarks by noting he does not "know the temperature" in the Phillies clubhouse. "It's not so much the violent delivery, but the wildness. Throwing pitches out of the strike zone so much. What has been good for him is killing him right now. And everybody knows it. I've never really seen from one year to the next like this. It's been incredible.
"But that being said, is he capable of getting it back all of a sudden? Yeah, probably. But if I had been watching it al along, I'd be scared to death."
Street has been nearly as reliable this season as Lidge was last year, making the most of his move to Colorado in that deal that had sent Matt Holliday -- now a Cardinal in this postseason -- to Oakland. Eckersley, who won a ring in 1989 as Oakland's closer, said he has "been watching him a long time" and believes the moment has arrived for Street in 2009.
"I love him," Eckersley said. "He's got this quiet confidence. A wonderful kid, great character, some recent arm trouble, but has left Oakland and turned into what he always wanted to be. He can paint with his fastball. Best pitch is probably that slider when he's got a right-handed hitter up -- but more than anything, he's got guts. He throws strikes.
"He wants that big stage. That's a steal for Colorado to get a kid like that. As long as he's healthy for the playoffs -- I've watched him the last couple times out, and he's got to get over that three-run bomb against the [Brewers] -- but I love the kid."
The Dodgers
The Dodgers have led their division longer than any other club this season, which has made it more startling that they have had such a difficult time this past week of wrapping up the NL West title. Already assured of at least the Wild Card, the question is whether Joe Torre's club can return from sputtering to steady.
"It's interesting when teams don't have as much to play for -- whether they can turn it back on," Ripken said. "The Dodgers have been able to answer the call when it's important. Sometimes that's the makeup of a team. You want to call it and whether it might be there is the big risk. When you have a team playing hot at the end, sometimes they can carry that momentum in, and sometimes you start a little slow and you can flip that switch. I think the Dodgers will be able to flip that switch without a true No.1 (starter). Their matchups I'm not so sure they can go real deep, but they're a real good team that has played well all season long. I look for them to turn that switch on, and see if it goes full power."
The Red Sox catcher
Jason Varitek has been a fixture in Boston's heyday this decade, helping the club to titles in 2004 and 2007, but Victor Martinez's acquisition before the trading deadline was one of the biggest in MLB. Eckersley said this is when he sees Martinez proving his worth.
"I'd be surprised if Varitek catches at all," Eckersley said. "Will he catch or not? I tend to think Varitek may not, because obviously their best lineup is without him in it. The question was, Can (Martinez) catch everybody? And he even caught Dice K's last start. I'd be surprised if Varitek caught."
The Pie Guy
Burnett was one of the Yankees' three major offseason free-agent signings -- along with CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira -- and in the first half it looked like a coup. Burnett's subsequent inconsistency has some people around New York asking whether that will be an X-factor this postseason for the Yankees. It's the first postseason action for Burnett, who is also known to many for being the guy who started the tradition of putting a pie in the face of any Yankee who got a walk-off hit during postgame interviewing.
"When he's on, he's unhittable," Darling said of Burnett. "He has a slider that when he throws it where he wants, no one can hit it. The key for him is, he's kind of an excitable boy. Sometimes that works in his advantage, sometimes I think it works against him. Getting in charge of his emotion will be key. He's brought a lot of levity to that team. The Yankees were always a team that seemed more like IBM than Apple. ... He's the wild card for the Yankees. if he doesn't pitch well, they might be in trouble. ... He has that kind of shutdown stuff, though."
Eckersley said Burnett "does scare me, but the experience he gained this year has been invaluable, and I would predict he will do well." Ripken said he won't be surprised if Yankees manager Joe Girardi makes veteran Andy Pettitte his No. 2 starter in the postseason behind Sabathia, with Burnett bumped to No. 3.
The countdown
It is only days away, the start of the process that will culminate in one big celebration scene the first week of November. After the TBS coverage of the Division Series, the field narrows to four for the NLCS and ALCS. The latter will be broadcast by FOX -- they rotate LCS coverage each year -- and then FOX will be back in its usual role of broadcasting the Fall Classic.
To Darling, the theme of the Division Series coverage on TBS is that the best are going to get better.
"The theme to all these great teams in this postseason is that they get better when they go to the postseason," he said. "The Yankees won't have to use Joba (Chamberlain) as he's struggled down the stretch, they don't need a fourth starter. It makes a team like the Tigers, which might not look like they would have much of a chance against the Yankees, much better because they need just three starters."
The Tigers and Twins are still vying for one of those last two postseason spots, and the other one will be either the Rockies or Braves. The Division Series awaits, with a familiar TBS team at the ready.
Mark Newman is enterprise editor of MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
