Ferraro has flawless fawning of Rangers’ Fox
IN THE first period of Game 5 of the LightningRangers series Thursday, the Rangers’ Adam Fox, just 24, made two sixthsense passes, perfectly hitting teammates in stride with cross-ice passes, teammates likely by now conditioned to expect such from Fox.
Soon after, from his position between the benches, ESPN’s Ray Ferraro captured Fox’s game in a suitable-forframing take:
“You watch Fox play once, you might be underwhelmed. You watch him play five times and you start to love it. You watch him play 10 times and you say, ‘That guy is a star.’ ” ➤ Once again, TV execs think the secret to their success is feeding viewers the most conspicuous of reprobates to serve as analysts.
Thus it comes as small surprise that colleague Andrew Marchand reports that Fox interviewed ex-DB Richard Sherman, a career antagonizing scoundrel, as an NFL game analyst.
Certainly Sherman qualifies as either a Fox or ESPN hire. Last year he was charged with a pile of crimes, from drunk and reckless driving to domestic violence at his in-laws’ home, before the police, summoned by his wife, arrived to restrain him.
He apologized for his misconduct yet still pleaded not guilty. He eventually bargained to two misdemeanor charges. Just time served and fines. Good start, but perhaps still not enough to make him, like Ray Lewis, the target of a network bidding war. ➤ A ghost appeared Thursday at the Cardinals-Rays game — an 8 ¹/2-inning number won 2-1 by the Rays and played in a mere 1:54!
Cards manager Oliver Marmol logically allowed starter Miles Mikolas to go all eight, while Rays manager Kevin Cash allowed his starter, Shane McLanahan, to throw eight, relieved by Jason Adam in the ninth.
That was the same Kevin Cash who incomprehensibly blew the sixth and final game of the 2020 World Series against the Dodgers when he removed starter Blake Snell after 5 ¹/3 scoreless innings in a game eventually lost, 3-1.
The World Series decided by ignore-thegame analytics!
Thursday, Cash managed like a manager, not Professor Frink. ➤ wife last week was upset that her husband was the target of vulgar chants from Celtics fans during Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
I’m with you, Mrs. Green, but this is where we’ve landed. What fans wouldn’t chant seated alone they’d gladly join in as part of a mob. This
Draymond Green’s
is all part of the NBA “experience,” and Adam Silver has done little or nothing to remedy it.
But Mr. Green has made himself a natural target of such mass malevolence. His coarse, opponents-trashing “social media” messaging and regular on-court misconduct — he’s a career technical-foul machine — provide inarena verbal vandals inspiration.
And sports events have become no place to bring a kid unless that kid is in need of some social desensitization. Kinda like the kid seen at the end of that video of a Lightning fan being flattened by a suckerpunch Thursday as he left the Garden.