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THE WORLD SERIES CONTINUES

We are in Yankee Fan World Series Mania! The phone rings at all hours. E-mails come from all over. Clients know not to call during the games. Friends call asking for a preview of the coming game. Fellow fans call during the game to discuss what just happened. Others call right after to conduct a post-mortem.

Our buddy Greig in Scotland is watching the games, despite it being the middle of the night for him. He doesn't TIVO it, since it is an event to be watched as it happens.

We wonder if our buddy Vincent in Germany, nicknamed YFIP (Yankee Fan in Pajamas) is also listening during the wee small hours.

This series, which we feared might be anti-climactic following the tense and tight Yanks versus Red Sox ALCS, has turned out to be a captivating, thrilling, and completely emotionally draining affair. The highs are high, the lows are like powerhouse depth charges.

Only two more games to go.

We hope.

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WHY THE LAPSE IN BLOG POSTS?

This article from the Friday NY Daily News hits the nail on the head. Late-night World Series games. Much frustration and concern as some of the action has been, well, of the nail-biting sort. Who can just roll over and go to sleep after these high tension games?

But when the game is over, the coverage is still going! Thereís the YES Network post-game coverage with Bobby Murcer and Suzyn Waldman, thereís the ESPN-News channel, carrying the post-game press conferences. There the late-night special ESPN Baseball Tonight telecasts. And the fact that after these games, who can sleep??!!

FOX SUX

Also, in addition to the Baseball action which is exciting, thereís also the stomach-turning FOX Network coverage. One could be up all night with gastric problems brought on by miserable FOX telecasts. Bad camerawork, ad-inserts during the action, those Sprint ads and the on-camera idiocy with calls to celebrities. Makes one want to never, ever do business with Sprint PCS. Or any other advertiser putting their money on FOX Sports coverage.

THE ESPN RADIO CURE

Here in New York we are fortunate: there are two viable audio alternatives to the FOX horror. We have 1050 AM - WEPN, the New York flagship ESPN Radio Network station. On WEPN we can tune in and hear the game called by Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. This is a great play-by-play team. They are more well-known for their ESPN TV Sunday Night Baseball Game of The Week telecast play by play. Miller has been calling baseball on the radio for years. For a long time he was the Radio Voice of The Baltimore Orioles, and has been doing the San Francisco Giants games for the past few years. Teamed with Hall of Famer Joe Morgan as his analyst and broadcast partner, they do a great job.



We turn down the sound on the abysmal FOX TV coverage and listen to Jon and Joe calling the action. This link will tell you if thereís a station near you carrying the games on the radio, so you can turn down fox and listen to Jon & Joe, too.



WCBS 880 is the Yankee Radio Network flagship, and this station also carries the games locally. The Yankee Radio Network is not carrying it, as ESPN Radio has the national rights for the World Series radio broadcasts. As the teamís local home-town station, all the World Series games are aired on WCBS. There one can hear The Radio Voice of The New York Yankees, John Sterling. His play by play and his signature end-of-broadcast ìThe Yankees WinÖ.Theeeeeeeeeee Yankeeeeeeeeeeeeees Win!!!!!!!!!!!!!î (only when they do, in fact, win, of course) are great. He is the one who coined the home run call, ìÖ.it is HIGH, it is FAR, it is GONE!!î Sterling is a joy for the ardent fan. His call of the action, his recaps and painting of a broadcast picture of the game is top drawer. Sadly, for the past two years heís been partnered in the broadcast booth with Charley Steiner.



Steiner, formerly of the RKO Radio Network and ESPN, is what radio people would call a "puker." Everything he says is overprojected. Susan and I refer to the WCBS team as John Sterling and The Blowhard. Oddly enough, on his pre-game interview, when Steiner is one-on-one with the interviewee (player, coach, manager, whomever), he sounds normal. But this, sadly, is the only normalcy one gets from Steiner. Otherwise, even in play-by-play, he is puking away, and sounds very forced and mostly ridiculous.



Weíre hoping Steinerís contract will not be picked up. Let him go back to ESPN, where he did a much better job. He was in the right element there, and not so much the puking blowhard heís become on the radio as Sterlingís partner. Then we would love to hear Suzyn Waldman as Sterlingís broadcast partner, or perhaps former Yankee Bobby Murcer, who does some part-time work on the YES Network TV coverage of the Yanks.



K-WILLY & I WERE WRONG



K-Willy had been right on target with his predictions. He correctly predicated the outcome of all the post season series. Yep, he called it right down to it being a Yanks ñ Fish final showdown.



But K-Willy predicted the Yanks in 5. I had the Yanks in 6. The only way the Yanks can win now is in 7. So I amend my prediction. Yanks in 7.



The Yanks must win, so Geraldine who weíve written about, and Eddie Layton, too, can go out in style, with a winning 2003 Yankee team, going all the way!



Go Yanks!