Off Year for Sterling....

If you think the Yankees have played badly this season, check out John Sterling, the voice of the Yankees. If they kept statistics for such things as broadcasting, Sterling would be mired in one of those Oh-for-Tino slumps. Remember those?

In Saturday's 15-6 win over the lowly Royals, Sterling went into full wig-out mode when he incorrectly called a homerun by Xavier Nady. "X Marks the Spot," proclaimed the avuncular Sterling. Sounded like classic Sterling. But the homer itself had been hit by rookie Cody Ransom. In fact, Sterling was so out-of-it he didn't correct himself until his Yankee companera, Suzyn Waldman, chimed in: "Uh, John, that was actually Cody Ransom's first major league homer."

Now, everyone can have a bad game. But Sterling, it seems, has had more than his share of gaffes this year. Remember how he similarly called Cabrera's wall-clanging double earlier in the year: "The Melkman delivers.....a double." Classic.

Of course, there was also the New York Post item that noted that Sterling was one of the worst offenders of etiquette in the Yankee clubhouse. Yup, power-mongering the help and worse, double-dipping the ice cream using his finger. Gross.

I'm a huge Sterling fan because, more often than not, he fulfills one of the chief tenets of a baseball broadcaster: to entertain. Of course, more than a few baseball purists would call me crazy like my friend McCracken. An old school guy, McCracken is more of a play it down the road broadcaster (but always call it correctly). I'd rather chalk it up to the uninspiring baseball being played out in front of him.