Start with the Nationals and Orioles doing battle in interleague play, mix in an exciting Preakness and add the NCAA Lacrosse tournament with local interests at stake and you get a rare full weekend worth watching because the events lived up to all the hype.
One game, two announcers
Neither the Nationals nor the Orioles will be in the World Series this year and the Beltway Series has a long way to go before it reaches the heights of the Subway Series. However one thing is certain, both color analysts — Buck Martinez for the O’s and Don Sutton for the Nats — made flipping between MASN and MASN2 fun this weekend.
Sutton, the hall of fame pitcher with the home spun wit, and Martinez, the manager who is ever thinking one step ahead, proved their network-quality status and each used their distinctive styles to breakdown the game.
They actually made the Nationals-Orioles “Battle of The Beltway,” both entertaining and interesting.
Credit should also go to play by play men Bob Carpenter (Nats) and Gary Thorne (O’s) as both did a great job setting their partners up.
As for the Nationals Xtra post game show that was to have been seen live from RFK with Johnny Holiday and Ray Knight, it was nowhere to be found on MASN2 channel 79 on Comcast in the Washington area.
NBC does it again
David Michaels the race director for the NBC telecast of the Preakness told me last week that he had angels for the Preakness covered — and he was spot-on.
Curlin’s win by a nose over Derby winner Street Sense was covered to perfection complete with two super slow-mo replays.
The post race interviews were a bit less classy than the Kentucky Derby — by the way, does Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley really think that the Preakness Trophy is the most sought after trophy in sports? He must not get out much.
But overall, NBC showed again why they continue to get high marks for their Triple Crown coverage.
Local Lax
Finally, area lacrosse fans got to see all the action of the NCAA tournament on MASN through an agreement with ESPN. While Georgetown didn’t win, at least we got to see all the area teams play — and lots of local high school products playing at the next level on the out-of-town teams as well.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on www.examiner.com.
