Wow, you caught even more idiocy than I thought I heard. I've gotten to the point where I can sort of tune out the FOX announcers (and Joe Morgan) most of the time and just focus on the visuals. Or I put the TV on mute and listen to the radio broadcast instead.

FOX might be the worst thing to ever happen to baseball. And Tim McCarver gets worse every season. Ugh.

Wouldn't it have been *so* tragic if Joba had hurt himself trying to catch that homerun ball?

I will vouch for this. I have the emails to prove it all.

"The Red Sox covered up the center field seats because of the rain. They sure lost a lot of money!"

Well let's see. Tim McCarver supposedly played the game. I wonder how he would have hit the ball in a day game at Fenway without those seats covered.

Those two guys are tools.

Oh man, I wanted to kill myself listening to the broadcast. And that woman/girl yelling, I damn near went deaf...

Other than that WOOOOH BoSox won!

FOX is always a debacle. Just terrible. McCarver should be put out to pasture (and possibly put to sleep for good). I'm sorry you had to deal with all that nonsense.

But I have to ask what the Joba thing is all about? I was sitting near the Yankee bullpen and I didn't see him reach into the stands... Was that in Friday's game? Was it a Red Sox homerun? I didn't think it was possible to reach from the dugout into the stands...and if it is, could he have been trying to swat it away in frustration? (Still a dick move, but understandable.) I know all you guys want to hate him, but I have to give the benefit of the doubt.

Also, at the risk of putting my head in the lion's mouth, I do think the fans overreacted to Youkilis getting hit. This is Chien-Ming Wang. C'mon. If we were talking Clemens or Joba or even Mussina, I might entertain the notion that it was on purpose. But Chien-Ming Wang? Everybody just needs to calm down a bit.

No- this was tonight. Hinske's homerun in the eighth. Joba saw the homerun ball headed to the stands just to the right of the bullpen (if you're facing the bullpen), and he purposely walked over and jumped up and stuck his glove out into the stands to try and catch it. His glove was over top of the bullpen wall. Eric Hinske's homerun video clip is on MLB.com- you can see whole thing. Twice. Fox actually showed it again a THIRD time, but zoomed in on Joba and commented on it. It was a grade-A dick move. I didn't hate him after the Youk incident. I do now.

As for the Youk drilling, I fear we'll never agree. First, the Yankees have now hit or buzzed Youk THREE times this year. Second, the fans in the ballpark have no benefit of replay to see that that Youk trying to get out of the way of the high inside fastball probably caused him to get drilled. I don't think Wang meant to hit him, I do think he meant to give him a brushback- but considering Youk's been intentionally thrown at by the Yankees pitching staff 3 times already in just this season, I think the Sox fans are perfectly within their rights to boo when he gets hit by a Yankee. Again.

I was dreading having to watch the game on Fox, as I think I've been too spoiled watching it on NESN. Yesterday was particularly bad - for all the reasons that you mentioned. One you didn't add: Number of times they called Jacoby a "Young Johnny Damon": at least 2. Which made me sick to my stomach. And tonight we have to deal with ESPN.
One good point: though their mic placement may have sucked for most of the game, they had at least one mic pointed correctly, because you can hear Youk yell "Oh SHIT!" really clearly when he got hit. And they replayed it a couple of times.
It's gonna really suck when we make it to the playoffs and have to watch all of the coverage on Fox.

Thank you for this. The announcers were making me crazy with their idiocy. Ellsbury is blowing my mind but even I got sick and tired of the "good looking player" thing. Substance? Anybody? In this house we're starting to think Joba might have some fetal alcohol syndrome issues. On top of being a massive douche, of course.

No, Texas, we won't agree on this, sadly. (But I was the good luck for Josh you were hoping for!) The problem for me is that Red Sox fans take everything personally. Youk gets hit because he crowds the plate. Much like Jeter. Jeter doesn't go around whining that specific teams hate him.

As for Joba, I was just wondering if there was tape of it, so now I'll go watch it and see for myself. Personally, I don't think he's the Grinch Who Stole Christmas or anything. He's just a jerky, young guy.

I still love your writing and your analysis of how painful FOX is. We've been living with McCarver's full-on dementia for years.

Drilling someone in the arm, waist or leg is VASTLY different than buzzing someone's head. When you throw at someone's head, you are putting their career, their livelihood (and that of their family) and their life in danger. When you throw at someone's head three times? That's insane. Brushbacks don't have to be lethal. So, considering he'd been the recipient of three pitches at his head from one pitching staff in one season, I don't think he's nuts for thinking it's partly personal when he got hit again yesterday.

Is McCarver a NYC guy? Is he on there locally all the time or something? If so, that sounds like my own idea of HELL.

And he doesn't necessarily HAVE to be on our postseason coverage team, does he? I'm telling you now: any postseason game I turn on where he's in the booth? I'm finding a radio to listen to it on instead, and muting the TV.

And I'm calculating how I can make sure Kristin is present through all of Beckett's remaining starts through the end of the year...

Thanks for this post. I used to watch McCarver when he did Mets games. But, it's been just downhill for years. I can't get the Sox games on the radio, but I'm seriously thinking of getting XM so I can hear the game on the radio and forget about Fox.

Luckily, my son is not being led astray by McCarver. His father and I are careful to point out all the errors of bad broadcasting. We must protect our young from this man! We cannot allow the corruption of future fans who will have no idea how a game should be broadcast and may be scared for life. My kid does a great McCarver immitation, btw.

Texas - just send me the tickets and I'll go to every single one of Josh's remaining starts (and all of next year's!!).

I understand what you are saying about Youkilis and the aiming at the head. I've always maintained that Scott Proctor is an ass, so I will in no way defend that one. But when the crowd overreacted the other day, Wang most certainly was not aiming anywhere near his head. He was pitching inside trying to jam him up.

Also - Pedro used to DISPROPORTIONALLY throw at the Yankees' heads as opposed to other teams. Sometimes, the emotion of a series gets to you. I just don't believe that Torre and Guidry are cooking up a grand plan to hurt Youkilis.

As for McCarver - he used to do all the Yankee games locally when I lived up in Syracuse. It was totally my version of Hell.

PS: Actually quote from my mom yesterday:

"I love that Jacoby Ellsbury. I don't care if he's on the Red Sox - that kid is good!!"

now Joba strikes again - lobbing at Ellsbury this time.