Interleague a benefit for fans this weekend

Mike Burke
Cumberland Times-News

May 16, 2008 11:21 am

— The feeling here for quite some time has been interleague play needs to go the way of "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell" and "My Mother the Car" because it debases the integrity of the major league baseball schedule.
It's great that MLB finally went to the unbalanced schedule, in which each team plays more games within its own division in determining a true division champion, rather than the balanced schedule that was used for about 30 years. Yet the unbalanced is offset by the interleague because every team in each division does not play the same interleague schedule, and that's because the Weasel Selig, who grew up a Milwaukee Braves fan, had to switch his Brewers from the American League to the National League. Thus, the National League has 16 teams, the American League has 14 teams, and there aren't the same number of teams in each division.
I know. That one gave me a headache, too.
Having said that, if you like great sports broadcasting, you're in for a treat this weekend because of interleague play. MASN, of course, will broadcast all three games between the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals this weekend, but will use only one crew as Orioles announcers Gary Thorne and Jim Palmer will be joined in the booth by Nationals analyst Don Sutton.
Gary Thorne, in his second season with MASN, is one of the very best play-by-play announcers of his generation. And, in fact (brace yourselves), I would put him up there with anybody the Orioles have ever had call their television games. Jon Miller is the best I ever heard on radio and the late Hall of Famer Chuck Thompson is right there with him, and I loved them both on O's television, but I'll still take Thorne with or over anybody in television broadcasting as he's also one of the best hockey broadcasters there is.
First of all, he's got a great voice that commands your attention and brings to mind being at the ballpark in shirtsleeves on a warm summer night. Most importantly, he knows the game inside and out and isn't afraid to speak his mind once he's out of the play-by-play mode. For example, he was one of the first to say on-air (along with Palmer) and write in his Internet column last June that Sam Perlozzo got a raw deal in Baltimore. But neither is Thorne afraid to understand that it's all right to have fun with the game of baseball as well. Ask the putz Schilling.
Last month before a game at Camden Yards when I had the chance to meet Thorne, somebody in the conversation asked him, "What are you doing here?"
"There's a baseball game today," he replied wryly.
"No," the person said, "what are you doing here?"
"Hey," Thorne said, "(the Orioles, who own MASN) came to me at my home in Florida. They made their presentation, and it sounded great. The only stipulation I had was, there would be no 'we' stuff. I don't hit the home runs, I don't strike out, I don't pitch or field. The players do that.
"So I said, 'I don't do the we stuff. I'm not a cheerleader,' " and they said, 'Not a problem.'
"Plus, I like it here. It's a great city with smart baseball fans. And who wouldn't love coming to this place (Camden Yards) every night? It's the best ballpark in the world, and you can see that with each new park that has been built since."
Meanwhile, Thorne's analysts this week will be Hall-of-Fame pitchers (who were also excellent hitters in their day) Jim Palmer and Don Sutton. Other than the sound of their voices, there's very little difference in listening to Palmer or Sutton. They're both bright, smooth, funny, frank, and unafraid. Most importantly, they have brilliant baseball minds.
In that regard, so does Buck Martinez, who does Orioles games as well. So, the feeling here is, in Palmer, Sutton and Martinez, MASN has done quite well for itself and for its viewers in putting together the best collection of baseball analysts in the game. If you don't learn something new during each game any of these guys do, you're just not paying attention.
Now, when the teams meet in Washington June 27-29, Palmer (or Martinez) and Sutton will be in the booth along with Nationals play-by-play guy Bob Carpenter.
Carpenter's style is a lot different than Thorne's is, which lends excellent diversity, actually. Carpenter is a professional broadcaster all the way, make no mistake about it. But his voice doesn't command your attention the way you would think such an experienced play-by-play announcer's voice would (Carpenter has a very rich sports-broadcast resume).
Plus, Carpenter and Sutton freely use the word "we" in the booth, which really doesn't bother me, because I grew up listening to Bob Prince and Skip Caray. However, Carpenter's enthusiasm sometimes gets the best of his judgment, as Tuesday night - and I really do hope I heard this wrong - he compared Nats shortstop Cristian Guzman's "bat wizardry to Rod Carew's."
Look, I've said a lot of silly things while I'm at the ballpark, but Carpenter isn't drinking beer while he's watching the game. Cristian Guzman and Rod (bleeping) Carew? That was just silly.
Nonetheless, MASN viewers can't go wrong no matter who's telling the score on any given night. The same, sadly, cannot be said for Pittsburgh Pirates fans on days or nights they choose to follow the Bucs on television and the great Lanny Frattare is doing play-by-play on radio.
And there is nooooooooo doubt about that.
Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.

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