Diane Pucin’s live commentary on how Fox is handling the Angels-Yankees Game 3 telecast

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Nice finish

Liked, liked, liked how Joe Buck and Tim McCarver were just quiet and let the emotions of the moment play out, picture and sound, as Jeff Mathis just won this game for the Angels.

Nice shot

Fox got us the shot of how Johnny Damon backed up the play at third where Mariano Rivera’s throw off the bunt after Erick Aybar’s sacrifice bunt.

Late from the commercial

So we had to trust Joe Buck when he said that Angels reliever Brian Fuentes got a ‘mixed reaction’ from the crowd. It was Fuentes who gave up the game-tying home run to Alex Rodriguez in the bottom of the 11th inning in Saturday’s Angels loss. Wonder if it was the Angels fans who booed him and the (apparently large and noisy) contingent of Yankee fans who cheered him?

From an Angels fan

Via email an Angels fan said he noticed that every time Tim McCarver says something nice about the Angels he prefaces it by saying, ‘If you’re an Angels fan,’ whereas whenever he says something nice about the Yankees McCarver just launches into the praise with no mention of Yankees fans. Reader wonders if this means McCarver is, in fact, a Yankees fan. What he isn’t is a fan of Angel baserunning blunders, such as the one Bobby Abreu just made. For you Angels fans anyway.

Turn on the lights

Interesting to hear Yankee catcher Jorge Posada ask home plate umpire Bill Miller to have the lights turned on. Hey, Jorge, this stuff you’re seeing is sun! Otherwise known as natural light.

Wouldn’t you know

And it’s not as if Joe Buck could have expected an Angel, any Angel, might actually hit a ball hard, much less hard enough to leave the park. But there was Buck, listening to Yankee manager Joe Girardi saying how great his pitcher, Andy Pettitte, looks while Howie Kendrick takes a Pettitte pitch out of the park. Timing is everything.

Tim McCarver, while praising the job Angels general manager Tony Reagins has done, unfortunately first called him Tom, then talking some, then coming back and saying ‘I mean Tony Reagins.’ Have heard from more than a few Angels viewers who think Fox is being too New York-centric. It’s hard not to be when the Yankees are up 2 games to 0 and leading Game 3 1-0. But it doesn’t help when the analyst seems to not know the Angels GM’s name.

Bad dressing

Jack Nicholson looks rather untended to with his red hat and wrinkled Laker-purple shirt. It’s better to go with grey like Adam Sandler, who’s standing next to Jack. Super-agent Scott Boras is in a box with Pat Sajak. Is Boras looking to buy a vowel for a rock-bottom price?

Bad timing

Joe Buck as Jered Weaver started to throw to Yankee hitting Hideki Matsui: ‘Good breaking ball but it’s ripped into right.’ So, not so good after all. Tim McCarver watched the replay and decided, ‘The break was good but the location wasn’t.’

good breking ball but it’s ripped into right. A lot of the curveball, a ton of break or not, Matsui

Nice to know

Tim McCarver is explaining how the left-handed Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte has a move that is almost a balk when he holds runners close at first base. McCarver said that because Pettitte is so good at picking off runners from first, that first base umpire Jerry Layne is going to probably give any close calls to Pettitte. Chone Figgins was on first. He’s been diving back a lot. Pettite just threw to first for the sixth time. But a double play takes care of any more talk about holding Figgins close to first.

It might be Buck’s opinion...

But Derek Jeter isn’t in to that. As Joe Buck said, ‘So much for the Angels jumping out early.’ Hey, the ball jumped out early. Off Jeter’s bat and out of the field. Home run Jeter, not such a great start for Weaver, Angels jump out behind 1-0.

Weaver be good, Angels score first

In Fox sports play-by-play caller Joe Buck’s opinion, Angel starter Jered Weaver ‘has to get off to a great beginning,’ and, ‘The Angels need to get on the board first to get some of the momentum back.’ Buck prefaced both comments with the words, ‘In my opinion.’ Don’t think he needed to add that. It’s pretty much everybody’s opinion.

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