King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Fox's hateful coverage of the All-Star Game reaches new heights in insulting baseball fans and the sport they love.

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July 13, 2005 | Fox's broadcast of the All-Star Game Tuesday night was just bad TV, nothing more, nothing to get excited about. But it was also so much more than that. It was also an insult.

It was a direct insult to one of baseball's true greats, and by extension it was an insult to anyone who's ever loved the game. That's because the insult to Ernie Harwell, the retired Detroit Tigers announcer, was a symptom of Fox's complete inability, or unwillingness, to get baseball, to understand it, to at long last show it a little damn respect.

I'll admit to a little bias up front. Out of all of the people I've ever interviewed or even been around as a reporter, Ernie Harwell is, by miles and miles, my favorite. I spent three days shadowing him in 2002, his 55th and final year at a big-league microphone, and I suspect if my career reaches a 55th year those three days will still be among the best I ever spent on the clock.

But I think I'd feel the same way if I'd never met Harwell, never even heard his mellifluous voice.

Here's what happened. A few minutes into the 44-minute pre-game show, Fox ran a nice little taped segment with Harwell talking about baseball, Detroit and his memories of the last All-Star Game in the Motor City, the 1971 contest that featured six future Hall of Famers hitting home runs, including Reggie Jackson's famous shot off the light standard on top of the roof in right field.

It looked like it was going to be one of those syrupy tributes, but Harwell must have had something to say about it because it ended up being a classy little segment, though the best thing about it was that the 87-year-old Harwell looked like a million bucks.

After the canned feature, Harwell appeared with Fox hosts Jeanne Zelasko and Kevin Kennedy, who said to Harwell, "Give us your take on Al Kaline," the Tigers Hall of Famer who played from 1953 to 1974.

Harwell talked for precisely 17 seconds before Zelasko interrupted: "Yeah, we wish, we wish we could just go on and on. There's so much to say about him, and thank you so much for coming with us."

Yeah, yeah, love talking to ya, Ernie, you're a legend and everything, but we simply must get to yet another taped thing we have about ... Reggie Jackson's home run! Which we haven't talked about now for 27 seconds!

Next page: Step aside, Ernie, we have important people to get to. Billy Bob Thornton! Smokey Robinson! Fox's hatred for baseball