This weekend, as the Nationals took on the Cards on MASN2, the team of Bob Carpenter and Ray Knight were reunited for the first time since they were both with ESPN and the duo hasn’t missed a beat.
Knight who normally is in the studio with host Johnny Holiday doing Nats Xtra pre and postgame shows on MASN was filling in for regular color analyst Don Sutton who was on a short weekend vacation with his family.
The 1986 World Series MVP was insightful as he talked about defense and was on the money as he explained two key plays in the Nats’ win on Friday night. He dissected the brilliant plays by Felipe Lopez and Austin Kearns.
On Saturday night with no outs and the bases loaded as the Nationals were down 8-1 to the Cards, Knight picked up on a great play by Albert Pujolis who fielded a slow roller hit by Nook Logan and fired it home to nail Kearns. Knight explained how if Kearns had taken a running lead he would have been safe. He was careful to explain — and not criticize Kearns for his efforts.
So we will see more of Ray Knight as he will fill in for Don Sutton from time to time throughout the long season. But his main role will remain as the co-host of Nats Xtra with Holiday.
Meanwhile, a fine job was done by Don Baylor who fills in on Nats Xtra when Knight gets some time off, or in this case, doing the game.
» ESPN to air the NCAA LAX finals today: Duke and Johns Hopkins will play at 1 p.m. in front of a crowd an expected crowd of over 60,000 in Baltimore and ESPN will air the game in HD and cover it the same as it would a BCS Bowl game.
The folks at ESPN and CSTV have seen the growth of the sport of lacrosse on a national basis and ratings have been on the rise over the past five years.
John Vassallo the network’s executive producer oflacrosse told me: “This sport is growing like wildfire all across the country and in places like Texas, California and Florida they are starting high school teams and there are some universities that are looking to add the sport to their roster of sports — both men’s and women’s. It has it all — speed, contact and scoring — what is not to like?”
On the air today
» NCAA Division I Lacrosse finals, 1 p.m., ESPN
» Stanley Cup Finals, 8 p.m., Versus
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on www.examiner.com.
