Friday, May 9, 2008

This Can't Happen

John Sterling, the "voice of the Yankees," announcing the Yankees-Tigers game on May 9, 2008, at 7:29 p.m., after recounting the Tigers' immense pitching woes, stated: "And they're not hitting; that's why they have the [dismal] record they have."

At that moment, the Tigers were third in the American League in runs scored, second in on-base percentage, fourth in slugging, and, in case you want to take Sterling very literally, fourth in hits. Out of 14 teams. Here's MLB.com's chart of AL offense, captured a few minutes after Sterling spoke.

Perhaps the Tigers' lineup is so stacked that it has somewhat underperformed relative to talent. But clearly, Sterling is dead wrong. The Tigers have a bad record despite their effective offense.

Does it matter? In a world where genocide rages, a billion people live on less than $1 a day, and other things happen that Angelia Jolie is working indefatigably to correct, one is tempted to say: let John Sterling's goofy ass emit what it wants. At the same time, truth is inseparable. Seeking and telling the truth about one thing is no different from seeking and telling the truth about something else, because truth is, or so I think, valuable for its own sake rather than for any byproducts it may bring.

The baseball announcer's responsibility is to transmit accurate, insightful information about baseball games. Sterling said the Tigers are hitting poorly, which is false by any standard. He's more likely bullshitting than lying, failing to check whether his utterances are true. Checking being an easy, ten-second endeavor, the inescapable conclusion is that Sterling doesn't much care about the truth and doesn't take his responsibilities seriously. That can't be good for baseball. That can't be good in any other realm. At the least, such untruths insult fans and should embarrass if not Sterling himself then the Yankees organization to whom he is supposed to be accountable.

2 comments:

Blackadder said...

I agree. Not that this justifies Sterling's comment, but offensive levels are down so far this year (although they are at the same level they were at at this time last year; it is likely a seasonal effect, with the cold weather depressing scoring), so it is possible that he was making his comments relative to some prior notion of what their scoring "should" be. But yes, that is stupid, and irrelevant to their actual ability to win games.

Jack Klompus said...

Sterling, on today's pregame show, just called Jeter "the best defensive player I've ever seen."