Foxed

Here is your Fox Network All-Star lineup for the broadcast booth to do the MLB’s midsummer classic: Harold Reynolds—couldn’t hit, can’t announce.  Joe Buck—if only Harry Truman were right and the Buck stopped (talking and talking and…).  Ken Rosenthal—a bow tie in search of a beanie.  Tom Verducci—who did he know to get his job?     

Wait—and with any game on Fox, that’s all you do while enduring plugs for upcoming Fox shows, like the latest Ryan Seacrest dreck—there’s more.  MLB gave Fox a run for the money with two dumb offerings all its own, the Franchise Four and the four Greatest Living Players.  The four greatest players for a non-expansion team or even first-generation expansion teams?  That’s Friday-night bar talk suitable for January.  As for the best in Marlins’ history, who cares?

Supposedly, the greatest living players are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax and Johnny Bench.  The first two I’ll grant you, but why not Nolan Ryan over Koufax, or Greg Maddux even?  Johnny Bench?  Not while Yogi Berra draws breath.  And what about that red-blazered, rotund gnome running around the Great American Ballpark last night?  Love him or hate him, Pete Rose has the stats to belong to any such group of demigods.

But I do like that the game determines home-field advantage for the World Series.  And I love watching All-Star Game MVP Mike Trout play.  You can only hope that Willie Mays could see him, too.