Baseball BeatApril 30, 2004
Oh Kay!
By Rich Lederer

I received the following email from Repoz of Clutch Hits fame Thursday evening:

Overheard on the YES Network Yankee game tonight (not verbatim)...

Michael Kay: "Not many people know this, but Jeff Weaver has a brother named Jered, who will probably be the number one pick in the country. I believe he goes to school at USC or Cal State Fullerton somewhere ... help me out here Kenny (Singleton)."

Kenny Singleton: "I think he goes to Long Beach State or is it ... maybe Fresno State?"

Repoz adds that the exchange "ended with Kay coming back from a break and stating that Weaver goes to Long Beach State and thanking one of the guys in the booth for the info".

I'm going to pull a Mike Carminati here and evaluate that little chit chat. Let's take 'em one at a time.

  • "Not many people know this..."?

    Yeah, maybe your wife and mother-in-law don't know, Michael, but that doesn't mean the rest of us are in the dark, too. It must be nice to have such inside information at your disposal. Gee whiz! Thanks for sharing.

  • "I believe he goes to school at USC or Cal State Fullerton..."

    Yep, and I believe Mike Mussina pitches for the Mets or the Phillies. And to think Kay gets paid for such wisdom. My oh my!

  • "I think he goes to Long Beach State or is it ... maybe Fresno State?"

    Gosh, I bet it's one of those four schools, guys. It's just so doggone confusing. Weaver has been compared to Mark Prior, who went to USC. And Jered's brother Jeff went to Fresno State. And hasn't Fullerton State been Long Beach's biggest nemesis? I mean, how does one keep all of this information straight?

    • Comments

    Dude, they are slightly on the other coast. I cut them some slack for not following local college baseball. Heck, I'd be damned if I could tell you who Alabama State's big baseball rivals were.

    Posted by: Rob McMillin at May 2, 2004 10:26 AM

    Two things, Rob. First of all, Michael Kay brought the matter up. I don't think it is asking that much for a paid sportscaster to do his homework on subjects he can pick and choose to mention (rather than winging it while on the air).

    Secondly, Long Beach State has been ranked in the top ten most of the year and has had one of the top 20 or so baseball programs in the country the past 15 years. I don't think Alabama State's baseball program is analogous to Long Beach's.

    Posted by: Rich at May 2, 2004 6:27 PM

    I would bet the majority of people tuning into your average baseball broadcast, have no idea what Jeff Weaver's brother is all about.

    Posted by: Steve at May 3, 2004 8:40 AM

    Rich, I don't like Kay, but this is really a non-issue. What he said is literally true: "not many people know" much about college baseball. Furthermore, while it's unfortunate that Kay and Singleton didn't have all the relevant information at their fingertips when the issue arose, to correct themselves after a break is the perfectly acceptable.

    If anything, as a leader of the Weaver bandwagon, you should be grateful rather than critical of the coverage, even if it is imperfect. The bottom line is that they mentioned "Jered Weaver" by name as the probable top draft pick, which right there is far more information than you're going to find on any other MLB broadcast (excepting Scully and the Dodgers, most likely).

    Posted by: HL at May 3, 2004 10:19 AM

    The issue is more that Kay brought it up without bothering to have the rest of his information at hand. It just sounds unprofessional.

    To be fair, though, I like to think I'm pretty up to date on these things, and I'd been operating under the assumption that Jered Weaver and Jeff Weaver weren't related - that it was just a coincidence of last names.

    Posted by: Jason at May 3, 2004 3:49 PM