Monday, April 12, 1999
SPORTS ON TV-RADIO
Biggest choke: Norman or CBS?
BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
As you watched the final round of the Masters on Sunday, you had to wonder if Greg Norman had the stuff to ever win the tournament.
But no one on CBS would say the obvious. They questioned a wedge shot. They questioned a putt. But they never questioned whether Norman was wilting under the pressure.
I think that was a legitimate question. So did the guy hosting One On One Sports on WBOB-AM (1160). He opened his show with “Did Jose Maria Olazabal win the Masters or did Greg Norman choke?”
That may be a little harsh, but that is what people on couches all over America were thinking.
Ken Venturi of CBS was dumbfounded by a wedge shot Norman took at 15. “If I didn't see it, I wouldn't believe it,” Venturi said.
When Norman left a putt short on 16, Sean McDonough said, “I'm surprised he didn't make more of run at that putt ... ”
Venturi added, “The last thing you want to do in that situation is leave the putt short.”
But they treated it like an isolated incident, like Norman didn't have a history of collapses at Augusta.
CBS treats the Masters and Augusta with such reverence that little negative is ever said, and its analysts tend to lay it on a little heavy.
Other than that, CBS put on a good show for the final two rounds of the Masters.
Jim Nantz, the host, knows all there is to know about Augusta and the Masters. He was ready with obscure facts for every situation. Like “Tom Watson is the only one in the last 25 years to bogey the ninth on the last day and win.” Like “Davis Love III was born the day after the 1964 Masters.”
You have to like Venturi because he's the one guy who gets worked up. Venturi also has a knack of knowing exactly where a ball is going to end up as soon as it hits the green.
The camera work by CBS was flawless. The different angles on tee shots worked well. You also had the microphone picking up Olazabal's caddy saying the 16th green was “like concrete.”
The fact the network's time win dow does not allow it to show all of the final 36 holes of the tournament didn't come into play at all on Sunday.
Saturday you did miss Steve Pate's Masters record seven straight birdies because he was finished by the time CBS came on. But Sunday, coverage began as Olazabal and Norman completed the fourth hole.
The expected duel between David Duval and Tiger Woods never happened (Duval was in contention briefly Sunday). However, I thought CBS paid too little attention to Duval and Woods.
But with Norman in contention, CBS built its story around him. It looked like he might go head-to-head with Olazabal until the end, but then Norman faltered.
GREAT GRAPHICS: Kudos to Fox Sports Net Ohio for its graph ics during the Reds-St. Louis series this weekend. It went beyond the ordinary, such as:
• An inning-by-inning pitch count on Pete Harnisch.
• Noting that Harnisch started 19 of 22 batters with a strike.
FSNO also added the mph on pitches to its on-screen scorebox, which is a nice touch.
Analyst Chris Welsh has had some strong commentary on the Reds pitching woes. When Brett Tomko allowed a game-tying single to pitcher Jose Jimenez, Welsh said: “Right there, Tomko's got to have a strikeout of a pitcher who can't handle the bat.”
A RANT: Drew from Reading called in with this: “The new sound effect Fox Sports Ohio uses with the speed of the pitch is exceptionally annoying.”
The folks at Fox must have thought so, too. I didn't hear it once during Sunday's game.
John Fay covers TV/radio for The Enquirer. He can be reached at 768-8445
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