I used to respect Fox Sports and their coverage.  I had no trouble separating Fox Sports from its overtly biased and woefully inaccurate sister network, Fox “News.”  I like their football pre-game show more than CBS’, and I like the fact that there are multiple regional networks that cover specific events for particular parts of country.  But after Fox blew their baseball coverage last weekend and today, I’ll have a tough time giving the Sports division of the network viewing time in the future.  Here’s how they blew it:

Last weekend was the final weekend for interleague play, the merits of which (or lack thereof) I’ll save for another entry.  It was “proximity rival” weekend, so the Cubs were playing the White Sox, the Yankees played the Mets, the Angels played the Dodgers, etc.  Fox was broadcasting the Cubs/Sox game, and I thought everything was fine and dandy (except for the fact that the Sox were winning the series).  All of a sudden, Fox decides to switch the coverage to the Mets/Yankees game.  I sat there on my couch in disbelief at what just transpired.  First of all, they didn’t even wait ’til the inning was over; they just went to the Joe Buck (whom I like) and Tim McCarver (whom I can’t stand…more about him later) pre-game hoopla over the overrated “Subway Series.”  Secondly, the Mets were a second place team and the Yankees a third place team, while the Cubs and Sox both held the top spots in their respective divisions.  I was appalled that Fox would switch to the New York game just because it’s The Big Apple, in order to broadcast the game between two middle-of-the-pack teams when they were in the middle of covering a drama-filled contest between two first-place teams in The Windy City.

Then, today at 4PM, the second game of the Cubs/Cardinals series started, a battle between the top two teams in the NL Central.  It just so happened that the Yankees/Red Sox game started at the that time, too.  I was hoping Fox wouldn’t do it to me again, but they did.  They chose to showcase the fourth-place Yankees and second-place Red Sox, while there was a nail-biter going on in St. Louis.  WHAT?!?  The Cubs/Cards game today actually affects the standings in a meaningful way, with only 2.5 games now separating the first-place Cubs from the second-place Cardinals.  The Yankees won day, cutting their deficit in the division to a scant NINE games.  Again: WHAT?!?  Thanks Fox Sports, for perpetuating the no longer so-called “East Coast” bias.  No one cares about Yankees/Red Sox any more: it’s overdone.  Plus, the Yankees stink right now.  The way I see it, had it been a game between top two teams in the AL East, then it would have been more understandable.  But that was not the case.  Wake up, Fox.  The Cubs and Cardinals have just as intense a rivalry as New York and Boston, and the rest of the country just might be able to appreciate that if your choice of game coverage wasn’t so poor.

Oh, and speaking of poor, please let Tim McCarver go.  He’s a terrible broadcaster whose glaring lack of analytical talent only brings down Joe Buck.  McCarver’s analyses are wrong more times than they’re right, especially when it comes to replays, commentating as if he’s blind.  I’m reminded of Joe Morgan of ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball.”  They’re both know-it-alls who really don’t know much, or at least can’t express what they know on TV.  They talk way too much and often either say the wrong thing or dwell on the obvious.  Steve Stone’s a know-it-all, but I can tolerate him because he, indeed, does know it all.  McCarver and Morgan may have been great players, but they’re awful announcers.  They should take notes from the “Smartest Man in Baseball.”