Yankees vs. Dodgers; After 43 years, they’re back for more; Should Fox have kept Olsen over Brady?

My Analysis of Fox’ Analysts: Superior Work Is Often Not Rewarded 

The Dodgers and Yankees were great rivals, be it in Brooklyn, Los Angeles Coliseum and Chavez Ravine. The Yankees were amazing, dominating the World Series.

• 1941 World Series: Yankees 4, Dodgers 1
• 1947 World Series: Yankees 4, Dodgers 3
• 1949 World Series: Yankees 4, Dodgers 1
• 1952 World Series: Yankees 4, Dodgers 3
• 1953 World Series: Yankees 4, Dodgers 2
• 1955 World Series: Dodgers 4, Yankees 3
• 1956 World Series: Yankees 4, Dodgers 3
• 1963 World Series: Dodgers 4, Yankees 0
• 1977 World Series: Yankees 4, Dodgers 2
• 1978 World Series: Yankees 4, Dodgers 2
• 1981 World Series: Dodgers 4, Yankees 2

In 1961, when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth’s record when he rushed to set an all-time, single-season run record, Mel Allen was restrained. Red would never raise his voice. Phil Rizzuto called it on radio. Meanwhile, Barber made a big deal of the scrapping fan who snared the ball and got $5,000 for the accomplishment. In 1964, Mel was canned from the Yanks. Barber’s ego was impossible.

Year, matchup and Viewers

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Arthur Solomon thinks about the fairness of what occurred when Greg Olsen does color

I spent a few Sundays tuned to games that featured Tom Brady, a sure fire Hall of Famer, as a football analyst. My conclusion: Maybe by the time he’s eligible to be inducted into the H o F in 2028 he’ll be as good as Greg Olsen, arguably the best of all analysts, who was demoted by Fox because his name is not Tom Brady.

What the Brady-Olsen situation proves is what I’ve always believed regardless of the business you’re in. Often, because of internal politics, good work does not necessarily mean that you’ll be properly rewarded, as the below post from Fox Sports shows:

“Three-time Pro Bowler and two-time Sports Emmy Award winner Greg Olsen pairs with play-by-play announcer Joe Davis and reporter Pam Oliver to call NFL games for FOX Sports in 2024. Since joining FOX Sports, Olsen earned a Sports Emmy for Top Event Analyst in 2023 and for Outstanding Emerging On-Air Talent in 2022. In February 2023, Olsen called Super Bowl LVII alongside play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt.”

Olsen’s reward? Being demoted from Fox’s A broadcasting team to their B team.

Some people think that Brady is improving as an analyst. In my opinion, those who do must be grading his performance on a curve, with Brady at the lower end.

Fox reaching out to Brady reminds me of what NBCUniversal did during the Paris Olympics, having another outstanding quarterback, Peyton Manning, join the Opening Ceremony commentary team. Both Brady and Manning’s commentary proved the truth of the financial industry’s long-time adage, “Past success is no guarantee of future results.”

Most recent football analysts that I’ve seen, unlike Olsen, Cris Collinsworth and Troy Aikman, don’t explain the whys and hows of a play. It’s as they’re just talking to give the play-by-play announcer a chance to catch his breath after screaming about a play as if it was a once in a lifetime experience, even though it happens hundreds of time during the season.

But nevertheless, I can understand why an analyst should be in the announcer’s booth during a game. Not so the sideline reporters, whose interviews with the coaches provide as much insight to their thinking as a goldfish would. (Has anyone seen anything sexist that the great majority of football side line reporters are female, instead of being in the announcer’s booth? But that’s a topic for another column.)

But unlike NBC Universal, who gets it wrong during every Olympics by acting as a PR arm of the International Olympic Committee and sportswashing the actions of the totalitarian countries that the IOC awards its propaganda-rich game to, Fox Sports mostly gets it right.

Fox’s limiting the announcer’s booth to one play-by-player caller and one analyst is a prime improvement over the three in the booth combination of one play-by-play caller and two analysts.

An example: The New York Mets have two suburb analysts behind the mic, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling. However, because they share the broadcasting assignment with play caller Gary Cohen, they do not have the time to fully explain what is happening from a player’s perspective, unlike baseball Hall of Famer John Smoltz did during FS1’s broadcast of the Los Angeles Dodgers-New York Mets play-off series.

“Smoltz joined FOX Sports in 2014, and after just two seasons was elevated to the network’s lead broadcast team,” according to a Fox Sports post.” (Maybe they should have done same with Brady, instead of having him immediately replace Olsen, even though in a fair world Olsen’s work is good enough to never have him replaced. It’s difficult to image that any analyst could do a better job than Olsen.)

Because Smoltz was paired only with play caller Joe Davis, it gave the former pitcher an opportunity to provide viewers with a Hall of Fame Master Class in analysis from a Hall of Fame pitcher.