The one joy I did get was when the other announcer called Joe Buck out on flip flopping over Ortiz. When Ortiz got out he said Francona should have played Youk. Then the very next at bat Buck said it was good they played Ortiz. Buck got busted on live tv.

I too like McCarver. They can do away with the manager interviews during the game. You only get generalities and nothing new. No manager is going to say,on national tv in the 4th inning, "Well, if they bring in the lefty to pinch hit, I'll keep Jones in the game because if I bring in Smith, they'll bring in Brown, and that guy tears us apart."

Similarly, I get a kick out of the brief interviews with the college coaches just after the half and before the 3rd quarter. Certainly, no coach worth his weight in salt would give anything more than the cursory "Gotta play better," or "Gotta hold 'em." I'm waiting for a coach to say "Well, our second play from scrimmage this half will be a double reverse, lateral to the QB, who'll throw it deep to Johnson in the left corner. I think we'll fool 'em."

Ugh, Tim McCarver makes me want to stick needles in my ears. He was a broadcaster for the Giants for only one year, and by the end of the year he STILL mispronounced players names, or called them by completely different names all together. I cannot stand that guy. He is often times too prejudiced towards one team or the other. Usually if the Cardinals are in the post season the other team doesn't have a chance at being recognized during the game.

I'm surprised to hear he is liked on here. I wonder if it's a west coast thing because nobody here likes him (that I've heard).

McCarver is one of those polarizing figures. There's no middle ground. People generally love him or hate him. Admittedly, I always liked McCarver when he played. He played several years in Philly and announced there too.

Many thought then that he would go into coaching and managing.

McCarver has a great understanding of the game, and although he's somewhat biased by his love of catchers (in which he has a REAL expertise) his sense of humor (IMO) more than makes up for any other announcing shortcomings.

I can take or leave McCarver, but SC is correct about his baseball knowledge. I really like Joe Buck on MLB play-by-play.

There was a great MLB announcing team in the early 80s that did the MLB "Game of the Week" on Saturday afternoons. Obviously it was a time before cable and satellite tv were much less prominent. The guys were Joe Garigiola and Tony Kubek. I thought they were phenominal. Anybody else remember them?

Joe Garagiola used to do the Yankees games in the mid 60's. He was totally awesome! Knowledgable and the funniest broadcaster I remember (always told wonderful stories with a humorous touch, especially the ones about growing up with Yogi Berra). His book, "Baseball is a Funny Game" is a real treasure and one worth reading.

I was never a fan of Tony Kubek (either as a player or a broadcaster).

Him and Joe Buck are so anti-Yankee as well it's not even funny

I remember Garagiola and Kubek well on Saturday afternoons. I wasn't as big a fan of Kubek, but they gave you the sense that they were friends of yours, watching the game with you.

I subscribed to the Major League Ticket this past season where I was able to pick up all the games. Vin Scully still does an outstanding job calling a game. He doesn't do all the Dodger games anymore, but he works alone. It's amazing that he has been calling Dodger games while they were still in Brooklyn.

In the 80s he did the Game of the Week games with Garagiola. Together they did postseason and World Series games. I remember after the Mets won Game 7 of the series, after paying tribute to the Mets, Scully concluded the broadcast by saying, "Hey Jim Rice; Hey Tony Armas; Hey Roger Clemens; Hey Marty Barrett; Hey Bill Buckner; Hey McNamara; Hey Boston. Hold your heads up. You played your hearts out and came up a buck short."

I may have a few of the players wrong, but I found that sign-off memorable for some reason.

Maybe you're used to those YES and MSG broadcasters, who praise the Yankees from the first pitch to the last.

No because the best duo currenly IMO is Joe Morgan and Jon Miller, and they're not anti-Yankee. Fox broadcasters have for a long time just always been anti-Yankee. I don't find ESPN to be that way.

I'll agree that FOX is biased, and that Murdoch has not have much love for the Yankees. I haven't noticed it with McCarver.

Miller and Morgan do an outstanding job on ESPN, which is certainly not anti-Yankee. ESPN generally, however, is the poster-child network of the prevalent East coast bias in sports, particularly baseball.

The Fox broadcasters may be anti-NY, it's debatable. But the TNT guys were practically jerking each other off in the ALDS with their gushing for the Yankees. It was sickening. They were doing everything to drum up support for NY and practically every at-bat was "will this be the one where A Rod gets going?" I lost count of how many times the TNT dolts said "here come the Yankees." Even after the final out was made in Game 4 of the ALDS, TNT was fawning more over the Yankees than giving Cleveland the credit for winning the series.

I thought the Fox team was much more objective in the ALCS than TNT would have been. I agree - Miller & Morgan are the best tv tandem calling baseball right now.

I feel privileged to get to listen to Jon Miller on the radio every Giants game. There was a funny moment during the ALCS where he came back from commercial with "San Francisco Giants baseball! *pause* who I watched a lot of this year.. *pause* and, uh... the Giants didn't do much of anything, that's why we are here in Fenway now to watch Boston..."

Now when Miller goofs up like that it's funny because it rarely happens. He is the best when he is broadcasting a blowout game on the radio because he wanders off talking about anything and everything, and he can be so funny doing it.

Yes I'll give you that. As Blibble has said, the West Coasts is forgotten about because we're all asleep over here

I too am fortunate to listen to a legend. Harry Kalas has been calling Phillie games since the early 1970s. He's been with the team since as long as I can remember watching or listening to games. I regret not making it to Cooperstown when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame a few years ago.

I hate Joe Buck, and I find FOX to be VERY anti-NY. When the Yankee games are on FOX, we mute the TV and listen to the game on the radio. It's a little weird because of the delay, but better than listening to them refer to the Yankees as "The Evil Empire".

As for the BoSox, I LOVED the parade footage that I saw on the news. Papelbon doing the jig was just priceless!!!

Papelbon is on Letterman tonight. There's a good chance you'll see him dancing.

I wonder if they will ever make Tivo Radios, so you can pause the radio for a few seconds and then let it play at the same timing as the television. The delay just bothers me too much.

Is he Scottish or Irish? Why was he wearing a kilt at the party?

It was actually one of his skirts. Sometimes he likes to put one on when he's feeling pretty.

I don't know his ethnicity, but Papelbon is a nice and interesting name, which I had never heard before.

I thought about that idea myself too. I don't listen to the radio very often but I figured, if they did it for TV, why not for the radio?

Hi everyone. I usually reserve baseball discussion for the official Yankees/Red Sox boards, but this sports forum seems like a good idea.

Just a little info about me. I live near Boston so I'm a Celtics/Sox/Patriots fan. I actually went to the rolling rally parade a short while ago which was awesome.

I agree the World Series may have been boring for some, but 3 of the games were really, really close. The Red Sox won though so I'm happy.

You're in a minority here, but I'm there with ya!

I've looked through these topics so yes, I know. Thanks.

SF Chronicle is reporting that former thirdbaseman Matt williams and pitcher Ismael Valdez, and present outfielder Jose Guillen had spent tens of thousands of dollars for shipments of HGH and steroids in 2002.

It's the tip of the iceberg.

Matt Williams was a childhood favorite of mine. Second only to Will Clark. This news is heart breaking.

Some final team stats on the 2007 season:

* Team with the best home record? The Angels. Worst home record belongs to Kansas City.

* Best road record belongs to the Mets while Texas had the worst.

* The hardest team to shut out were Detroit and Philadelphia, but the most shut out team was the Twins.

* The Yankees and Red Sox scored 10 or more runs in 25 games to be tops in the league. The Giants did it a league low 7 times. However, the Giants gave up ten or more runs only 7 times (league low) while Tampa Bay (cannon fodder for the Red Sox and Yankees) gave it up 24 times (league high).

* The Rockies, Padres and Giants played the most extra inning games while the Mariners and red Sox were involved in the fewest. The Padres, Indians and Phillies won the most extra inning games while the Rockies lost the most. An interesting note: The Marlins played in 13 extra inning games, but only one of them was a road game.

* Arizona was the best team in 1 run games (32-20); Baltimore ranked last at 13-31.

* The Padres shut their opponents out 20 times (nobody else was close); The Devil Rays recorded a low of 4 shut outs.

* Finally, the team with the best winning percentage against teams with a winning record was the Angels; The Pirates had the worst.