Phillies Announcers Do Not Know the Rules
Heard the exchange below on Phillies radio tonight. I believe the broadcasters were Scott Franzke (SF) and Larry Andersen (LA).
Cardinals lead the Phillies 5-4 in the bottom of the 10th inning when Cardinals pitching Coach Mike Maddux visits the mound….
SF: That will leave them with one mound visit remaining.
LA: Even if you go extras?
SF: Don’t they get extras in extra innings?
LA: I don’t know.
SF: I think you’re given … uh … em [long, pregnant pause] maybe even one an inning, right?
[about :10 of crowd noise]
LA: I can’t keep track of all the new rule changes.
Franzke and Anderson go on to describe the Cardinals mound visit being broken up by umpire Eric Cooper, and never re-visit the topic of how many mound visits the Cardinals have remaining, even though it’s a possible factor in the Cardinals strategy in the bottom of the 10th. After the Cardinals put the potential winning run on base by intentionally walking Carlos Santana, Aaron Altherr hit a two-run double to give the Phillies a 6-5 win.
The above exchange might be one of the most incompetent stretches of radio play-by-play I have ever heard at the major-league level.
One of your primary jobs as a play-by-play announcer is to KNOW THE RULES of the sport you are announcing. I whirled away many an hour on minor league buses studying the Official Baseball Rules, and I have always read through the respective rulebooks at the beginning of each football or basketball season. If you ask me to broadcast a sport I have never broadcast before, or at least have not broadcast in a year or more? First thing I do is find the rule book and start studying.
I understand that part of Larry Andersen’s role is to play the “cranky old ballplayer” character on the Phillies broadcasts, which can be entertaining if the “straight man” – the play-by-play announcer – is on top of his craft.
But to not know the rules this deep into the season, and to not be tracking mound visits like a football or basketball announcer tracks time outs, is inexcusable. Franzke’s lack of attention to detail truly detracted from what otherwise would have been a nice call of a dramatic, come-from-behind win.
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OBR Rule 5.10(m)(1) states:
Mound visits without a pitching change shall be limited to six per team, per nine innings. For any extra-innings played, each team shall be entitled to one additional non-pitching change mound visit per inning.
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If I were broadcasting today, I would have a searchable PDF of the rulebook standing by on my laptop, accessible for a quick search, just in case. You never know what might happen during a ballgame.