You may have noticed something just a tad unusual during the Fox telecast of the Phillies' second straight victory over the Mets. If Manny Ramirez so much as flicked a dreadlock out of an eye during the Dodgers' game against the Padres in San Diego's jammed - with Dodgers fans, that is - Petco Park, the screen went split. On Fox, you got some of Manny all-of-the-time. On CNN, it was continued all MJ Memory/Inquest all-the-time.
Fireworks don't play well in broad daylight, but freak shows play 24/7.
Give Fox analyst Tim McCarver credit for stepping up. He's getting on in years and hardly has been a Phillies cheerleader in recent seasons, but he came about as close as is healthy to ripping Fox's pandering to a cheater's every move, including each at-bat.
And Timmy was harshly critical of the hero worship bathing the eccentric slugger's return from a 50-day suspension after getting nailed for enhancement-tainted wee-wee in an MLB testing jar. McCarver questioned how a man suspended for breaking baseball's substance-abuse rules rated conquering hero treatment in Baja Mannyland. Tim emphatically pointed out that Ramirez is back from "the suspended list, not the disabled list," but that a number of suspected enhancement abusers, including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Rafe Palmeiro, while never suspended or punished in any way, "have been ostracized."
Then again, McCarver has never been shy about sharing his old-school opinions on the Big Bertha of loose cannons. Before calling the Phillies' NLCS matchup with the Dodgers last October, the former Phils catcher and broadcaster dropped a few choice opinions on the Inquirer.
