Phil Mushnick

Phil Mushnick

Sports Entertainment

Too many broadcasters have too much fluff rather than opting for silence

Ever consider whether game announcers return home after games to review their recorded wor🐻k? Given that announcers rarely change their overall𒅌 approach, most must be well satisfied with their work, right?

In other words, is it possible that Michael Kay enjoys his superfluous verbal presence on Yankees telecasts? Say, the way he adds to moments with “Here’s the 2-2 pitch … fouled back. Count remains 2-2.”

What a perfect time to have remained silent.

Monday, as Cleveland and the Yankees were in extra innings, Kay noted the “Yankees lost an extra innings game Sunday in Williamsport, [Pa.], but are trying to take this one here i🅠n The Bronx.”

Who knew?

N.Y. Post phot illustration

Then there are Kay’s tired, played out, forceꦿd and ill-considered signature phrases, starting with the first pitch — “Let’s do it!” — and extending to “Free baseball!” should the 10th inning arrive.

Does Kayꦅ, if and when he reviews his work, glℱoat that such self-attachments never grow old or that they elevate him from the pedestrian?

Signature calls, such as Marv Albert’s “Yes! And it counts” wer𒅌e cherished because they blended style with substance, thus were meaningful. They held juice, not gas.

Michael Kay and John Sterling pose for a photo before the game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on April 20, 2024, in New York, New York. Getty Images

Over at Fox, does John Smoltz — now in his 10th year o꧅f sedating audiences with his pitch-by-pitch diagnostics, empha﷽sis on spin rates — ever give himself a fair postgame hearing?

After 🍸all, Fox’s shot-callers are incapable of distinguishing bad from awful — and no network has shown that it possesses a credible broadcasting coach — thus the John Smoltz Era plods on.

Does NBC’s Cris Collinsw🉐orth review recordings to finally recognize that he’s a condescending, “You could see that coming!” know-it-all who never tells us what he saw coming u♏ntil after it occurred?

Obviously NBC has no idea that Collinswoth is so transparent and has made himself so unpopular 🦋that NBC granted him an annual raise from $4 million to $12.5 million, never considering that viewers watch NFL games on NBC in spite of him.

And NBC has allowed his sidekick, Mike𒈔 Tirico, to become such a grinning, obedient, shallow network shill. For crying out loud, he repeatedly called last season’s money-defeats-fans-again Dolphins-C🅷hiefs playoff game shown exclusively on pay-walled Peacock “an historic telecast” that shouldn’t be missed! — thus earning our continued mistrust.

Sunday Night Football color commentator Cris Collinsworth (L) and play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico walk onto the field before a game between the New York Jets and the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on November 12, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Getty Images

Do CBS/TNT’s Kevin Harlan and Fox’s Gus Jಌohnson ever review their football and basketball work to conclude what we can’t miss: They’re obviously engaged to scream and holler at everything, anything and absolutely nothing. Not that their bosses would know or care if they became hysterical over nothing, as di✨m-witted viewers might confuse that with significant action.

It’s a perversion of the Latin ars gratia artis, as televised art is destroyed for the sake of destructi🍬on, a form of vandalism.

Or do Fox NFL analysts Greg Olson and — for 23 years! — Daryl “Moose” Johnston wrap up their Sundays by reviewing recordings of themselves twice analyzing the previous play before the next snap while endlessly talking, causing sensory deprivaജtion among viewers until they surrender to the mute button?

Now Fox has former Cardinals pitching standout Adam Wainwright as o♐ne of its MLB analysts. I strongly advocated the hiring of Wainwright by any network that covers baseball. He was, as a pro, an engaging, personab꧑le, giving and clever speaker of baseball and of life.

Adam Wainwright on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.” Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty Images

But since joining Fox, he has been heard as a pitch-by-pitch near copy of Smolt🎉z, unable to become what he 🤪was hired to remain. He, too, could use what doesn’t exist: a good firm, know-the-audience broadcasting coach to convince him to relax and just be himself.

Or, as Winston Churchill said, “It is wonder🌳ful how well men can keep secrets they have not been told.”

Skip-less FS1 lineup still easy to skip

The problem with Fox 𒊎Sports 1’s newly named weekday t꧑alk show lineup is that it seems like the previous, eas💮ily ignored one, thus there’s little reason to tune in to discover what’s new.

It’s as if the departure of Skip Bayless is a cataclysmic event that needed to be overcome as opposed to easily duplicated. How hard is it to find a host who generates forced, foolish debates and arguments over who will win Sunday’s game or be t♛he starting point guard?

Thus FS1 will simply shuffle its existing deck, add a couple of so-whats and susta😼in a sports network fully predicated on fooling all of the people all of the time.

Skip Bayless’ last day on Undisputed X / @undisputed

Collect ’em all! Trade ’em with youཧr friends! Keyshawn Johnson, Craig Carton, Mark Schlereth, Paul Pierce, LeSean McCoy and rotten guesswork artist and personal history revisionist Colin Cowherd, for starters.

Been there, heard them, moved along.


Reader Bill Guterding senses TV’s and MLB’s furtওher detachment from baseball fans can be found in the form of new-age stats that mirroꦿr analytics:

“So now ESPN leads🐼 with OPS (calculated🌜 as the sum of a player’s on-base percentage and slugging percentage, plus habeas corpus) and not his batting average when a new batter comes up. Most fans I know couldn’t care less about OPS.

“I’m not embarrassed to say I don’t even know what a good OPS is, but I do know t✨hat a .300 batting average is pretty darn good.”

‘The Lou’ down on Cardinals jerseys

Many devoted St. Louis Cardinals fans ar🌳e livid with the new, on-sale-now MLB/ Nike “City Connect” uniforms that identify St. Louis as “The Lou.”

“The Lou” has become a nickname for St. Louis as per the vulgar, N-word enriched, women-degrading, backward-pointed lyrics of🌟 St. Louis rapper Nelly, who last week was arrested in a casino for possession of ecstasy pills.

But thatꦐ’s just fine with MꦏLB and Nike. Heck, Nike is likely thrilled and Team Manfred has blissfully allowed MLB to rot.

St. Louis Cardinals’ Nolan Arenado (28) is congratulated by teammate Lars Nootbaar (21) after hitting a solo home run during the second inning in the first game of a baseball doubleheader against the Kansas City Royals Wednesday, July 10, 2024. AP

That may become Rob Manfred’s la𝕴sting legacy. He took and followed Nike’s orders for every nickel they were worth, every wonderful baseball traditio⛦n it abandoned.


Does it strike anyone in ESPN’s truck that the one time you may not want t🔜o distract LLWS parents with a live interview is when their kid is at bat?

Nah, not ESPN. This is the network that in consecutive🗹 years had the coaches of Spanish-speaking LLWඣS teams miked, but failed to include an interpreter!

If we didn’t know that ESPN hires and fires based on everything except abiltiy and knowledge — politics, religion, race, gender, bogus tweets count ✤most — we’d surmise that football analyst Robert Griffin III was let go because he so clearly wasn’t a good football analyst.

Somewhere Phil Simms is awaiting a call to make 🐻NFL telecasts better, the way he did before CBS threw him in the studio to was🅘te his time and ours.


University of Miami tight end Cam McCormick, 26, soon will make history, playing his ninth season of college ball. Reader John Busacca: “Nine years of college? We usually cal🐈l such people ‘doctors’!”

ESPN’s LLWS coverage Sunday will include a fea𝐆ture show🐟ing Disney characters visiting Williamsport, Pa., General Hospital to spend time with 11-year-old LLWS pitchers who have undergone Tommy John surgery.