Great post about the best broadcast team in baseball

Anthony DiComo of Mets.com has a fantastic post about the Mets' SNY broadcast team, including this nugget about one of their pre-game prep sessions:

"Eventually, their conversation drifted back to that night's broadcast, which was to feature a heavy dose of Harvey analysis. Picker asked Darling to address Bob Ojeda's comments, made earlier in the day, regarding the stress that Harvey's low-90s slider may have contributed to his season-ending elbow tear. That led to a discussion of pitching mechanics in general, which somehow funneled to a commentary on foreign exchange rates, which melted into talk of Hillary Clinton's potential presidential candidacy, then a dissection of Juan Lagares' batting stance."

I'm curious to know how they got from pitching mechanics to foreign exchange rates but sadly that wasn't covered in the post.

Pathetic Yankee fans hate Ron Darling

The Daily News’ Bob Raissman with a great column about the vitriolic reaction of some Yankee fans to Ron Darling being one of the color commentators for TBS's coverage of the ALCS this year:

“It’s comical so many Yankees fans get worked up over a mild-mannered guy such as Darling. It’s revealing, too. Their obsession is hilarious. The revelation is sad. Some of the Darling “hate” email is so over the top, the authors should ask themselves why a baseball broadcaster has the power to drive them to such pathetic and desperate lengths?

When they see or hear Darling, they only see Mets. He fuels their hate for a team that ain’t exactly near the top of the baseball world. It’s kind of like getting mad at a bag of marshmallows.”

Oddly enough, no one notices the other booth analyst, John Smoltz, grew up a Tigers fan in Lansing, MI and would have pitched for the Tigers had it not been for that infamous trade between Detroit and Atlanta in 1987 that sent Doyle Alexander to the Tigers.

Gary Cohen says these are the 1984 Mets; I think they're more like 1983.

The New York Post has some great quotes from Gary Cohen about his optimism for the 2012 New York Mets:

"“Mets fans always talk about ’84. They had gone through seven straight horrible seasons and then all of a sudden there was a great young infusion of talent — (broadcast partners) Ronnie (Darling) and Keith (Hernandez) were a part of that — and they won 90 games out of nowhere and that led up to the World Series a few years later. Those are the years the Mets fans tend to relish and what they are waiting for.”"

With all due respect to Mr. Cohen, this team actually reminds me more of 1983. That team had a veteran leader (Keith Hernandez) and a rising star (Darryl Strawberry) but it also had an aging former power hitter (George Foster). Most of the players making the buzz though were yet to be major leaguers: Ron Darling, Dwight Gooden, Sid Fernandez, Lenny Dykstra. And even Strawberry and Hernandez didn't join the team until May 6th and June 15th of that year, respectively.

This year's team has a veteran leader (David Wright), a couple of rising stars (Ike Davis and Lucas Duda), and an aging power hitter (Jason Bay). But most of the buzz is still on the farm (Matt Harvey, Jeurys Familia, Zack Wheeler, Jordany Valdespin, Kirk Neiuwenhuis, Matt den Dekkar, Jenrry Mejia.)

I hope Gary Cohen is right but it seems more likely that I will be.

Broadcaster Rankings (TV): #10 – #1 | Fangraphs

Fangraphs ranked the broadcasters in Major League Baseball. The New York Mets' announcers Gary Cohen, Ron Darling, and Keith Hernandez ranked #2, behind the legendary Vin Scully.

For the record, the YES Network announcers came in at #22, which is remarkably high for them.