On a more cheerful note, Joe Buck really got in his jabs at Tim McCarver’s inordinate amount of Jeter-worship in the Yankees-Cubs game. Grunherz54 over at Sons of Sam Horn had a transcript (which saved me a hell of a lot of work - thanks Doug!):
Joe Buck: Now, obviously, you’re talking about one of the best (Jeter) leaders in the game today, somebody who is just a winner, and somebody who - when he came up in his rookie year in ‘96 - just had that look about him like he’d been here before. Jeter has been one of the most consistent players in the game over the past nine years.
Tim McCarver: At the risk of going ga-ga too much, I mean, this guy is thoroughly hip. He is about as hip, to use that young expression, as there is any player in the game. He’s tough, he’s rugged, he is a winner, he’s a guy who makes the big plays, and he has four World Series titles to his credit.
JB: Clearly the two of us are thoroughly in love with Derek Jeter.
TM: Ah, c’mon! I knew, see, when I say ‘at the risk of going ga-ga’ I knew that you would point out that I was going ga-ga.
JB: Well I was over there too, I was in Ga-Ga Land, too. (With a broadcaster tone dripping with sarcasm.) He’s a winner, he’s a born leader, this is a live Yankeeography…
TM: (Laughs uncomfortably)
JB: …24 home runs, this handsome, debonair, swashbuckling…
TM: Quit it!
JB: …last guy to wear number 2 for the Yankees hit back in 1999. HE is Derek Jeter and HE is out. One away here in the third inning.
TM: Cut it out. (More forced laughter.)
JB: Somehow Glendon Rusch got him to ground out. And here’s Womack. Ga-ga land is shut down for Tony Womack. The rides are closed.
So Joe Buck makes some atonement for bearing the demon phrase “slamma-lamma-ding-dong” into the world. And I have no idea what Tim McCarver thinks “hip” means.