Friday Cat Blogging

In the Athens Olympics, the USA Softball team outscored its opponents 55–1. This summer, we were told that the world has been catching up to the USA.

You’d never know it from USA Softball’s first four games, where the United States has outscored its opponents 29–1. It’s pitching staff, supposedly young and not terribly experienced in International games, has allowed only two hits. The ace of the staff, Cat Osterman (right), pitched a no-hitter against medal-contender Australia, allowed only one hit in relief against Japan, and now has 21 strikeouts in 11 innings. In contrast, the pitcher thought most likely to cause trouble for the USA, Yukiko Ueno of Japan, has allowed six hits and three earned runs in seven innings.

USA Softball had to win two games against medal contenders on Friday. Monica Abbott threw a one-hitter against Japan, and the USA won 7–0 in five innings, with Jessica Mendoza hitting two homers and Natasha Watley and Crystl Bustos hitting one homer. Then Abbott and Osterman combined for another one-hitter against Canada, a game that was started on Thursday and suspended due to rain. The United States fell behind 1–0 before the rains came, but scored 4 runs in the sixth and 4 more in the seventh to win 8–0.

And they said the world is catching up.

Meanwhile, NBC has fallen clearly behind ESPN in their coverage of softball, mostly because of NBC’s decision to have the announcers call the game from a studio in New York. Their was no sideline or on-site reporting, so when Abbott started the game (after Osterman was announced as the starter), the announcers were left to guess why. When Canada had to remove their pitcher, we never found out why. The play-by-play announcer didn’t know if a pinch-hitter had come up or not. When the camera failed to follow the play, the announcers had to guess what had happened. And of course, the announcers hadn’t spoken to the players or coaches before the game, so those inside insights about what the players and coaches were thinking were missing.

NBC also shot itself in the foot in other ways as well. Their anchorwoman, Alex Flanagan, quite simply hadn’t done her homework when she called Jennie Finch the ace of the USA staff. Finch is one of the best pitchers in the world, but she has never been the ace of the staff. There was usually one replay of important plays. The play-by-play announcer Joe Castellano felt that Canada right-fielder Alison Bradley had made a diving catch on a ball hit by USA’s Taria Flowers, the ball came loose and Castellano said Bradley had held the ball “long enough”. Unfortunately, there is no such rule.

At least NBC chose to use Michelle Smith as their color announcer. Smith is one of the best color announcers in any sport, but she is working from New York and her commentary was not as insightful as when she works at the game site.