FanHouse Kevin Kennedy

There's a little mini-scuffle in the political realm today about Barack Obama's big paid half-hour closing argument tonight. Obama will be on all three major networks laying out his final case for the presidency, something John McCain can't afford to do because he doesn't know how to use the internet.

Anyway, the baseball game will begin around 8:37, 20 minutes later than usual, prompting John McCain to say that as president he'd never allow baseball to be pushed back, or something. Interesting proposal. FOX? They're noticeably less concerned (HT: Shysterball)

"By no means did they push to get us to accommodate them with Game Six," said Coppola, whom the Obama campaign suggested I call. "We're just missing the pregame, which isn't a big deal for us. It was a business decision."

That might seem strange at first, but it really makes perfect sense. Any network that sets Jeanie Zelasko, Mark Grace, and Kevin Kennedy in the same frame and mandates them to talk baseball can't possibly consider the program to be a "big deal." That would imply some sort of interest in what your analysts are saying, and ... ha! FOX clearly doesn't have that.

Local sports media markets are always a fun ride. Why, here in Chicago, we have quite possibly the most gloriously insane homer in all of broadcasting, Hawk Harrelson. In Hawk's mind, there has never been a strike zone that was favorable to the Chicago White Sox, never a close slide play called correctly, never a fair shake from the local media. (Who are, of course, in the tank for the Cubs.) It's actually beyond annoying now; it's just entertaining in that certain "Uncle Hawk's drunk again" sort of way.

Los Angeles is apparently not immune to this phenomenon. When the Dodgers clinched the pennant, the Dodgers TV broadcast team toasted to the accomplishment -- popping bottles of [cider], putting on division champs t-shirts, the whole bit. And the L.A. Times's media critic, Steve Springer, is not amused:

So what's the problem? This is an L.A. team being covered by a locally based outlet. What's wrong with a little hometown loyalty? Nothing, except a loss of credibility. Fans might love being fans, but they want to be informed fans. If they want inspiration, they'll go to a pep rally. If they want information, they go to the media.

But only if they think they'll get balanced analysis. Only if they think they can get an unbiased appraisal of their team. Telling us between gulps how great the Dodgers' chances are to raise the pennant doesn't result in much faith in the prognosis.

Springer's is a fair point, and it was probably a bit much. Kevin Kennedy sudsing all over his analysis -- that was an unfortunate verb, but I'm keeping it -- is not going to engender sober-minded analysis. But ... Springer is being a little too joyless here. Let it ride, Springy. It is possible, after all, to be happy about a team's success and still be able to correctly analyze that team's chances. Fans get that, because they're usually the harshest critics.

I doubt too many Dodgers fans saw Steve Lyons and Co., bottles in hand, and lost faith in America's journalistic institutions.

Or at least that's what he said tonight in the closing minutes of his radio show. No, really. Was Watching caught the conversation:

I was pretty surprised at what Kennedy had to say there. In wanting to make a point about the Mitchell Report not being the all-inclusive bible of naming PED users, Kevin Kennedy said that a current colleague of his, who was with the Boston Red Sox in 2004, told him that he (the colleague) witnessed, for a fact, a member of the '04 Red Sox injecting himself in the buttocks with a needle full of PEDs. Kennedy said that the user is no longer a member of the Red Sox - but, he was a player on the team that won the ring in 2004. As per Kennedy, his colleague said that the "user" was giving a demo (to the "colleague") on how to do the injection.

Well then! Good to know, Mr. Kennedy. Care to elaborate a little bit? Care to tell, you know, George Mitchell? Because I think he might like to know that an open-air demonstration of steroid use -- a friendly how-to, if you will -- was going on in a World Series winner's clubhouse.

This is where you, non-Red Sox fan, interject an angry comment about Mitchell's connection to the Red Sox. And you may have a point. But either way, this proves a few things: 1. Kevin Kennedy is either oblivious or just an idiot; and 2. Steroids are kind of a big deal. But you already knew that. Oh, and: 3. Rob Dibble and Kevin Kennedy have a radio show together? What?

(HT: Baseball Musings)