TVSquad

No, this is not going to be another post about the shoddy umpiring or spittle analysis or any of the other on-field matters that have been going on in baseball since the playoffs began. No, we're on a TV blog, so I'm going to just talk about the things that have annoyed me about FOX's and TBS's coverage of the ALCS and the NLCS. In no particular order:

1. The Fidelity-sponsored Fox Trak. The pitching tracker, which shows if a pitch actually hit the strike zone or not, has been around for years. But, the flight of the ball has been to this point represented by a red streak and a dot. Now that Fidelity Investments is sponsoring the tracker, the red streak/dot combo has been replaced by a green streak/green arrow combo that mimics Fidelity's "stay on the line" series of ads. What financial guidance has to do with balls and strikes, I'll never know.

I really didn't want to like Victoria Beckham. In photos, she never smiles. She is always impeccably dressed and frighteningly skinny. She was Posh Spice, but she's more famous for marrying David Beckham. She always seemed like a bitch, quite frankly. But, I am embarrassed to say that I found her adorable after watching last night's special, Victoria Beckham: Coming to America.

In response to Bob's post about celebrity blogs, one of our readers, Galley, suggested we check out Alyssa Milano's blog on MLB.com. So, being a fan of baseball and an, uh, "admirer" of Milano, I decided to go over and check it out.

Essentially a promotional vehicle for her line of women's baseball wear, the blog shows that Milano -- a Dodgers season ticket holder -- really does know her stuff. She quotes venerable Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, and speaks about her team with the same passion and attention to detail as Sal from Brooklyn or any of the Joe Six-Packs that call into sports radio shows across the country.

(S01E05) I am so hooked on this show! This was the best episode yet. I was an English major, so the quality of a show's writing is a major component in how well I like a show. The writing on this show is unexpectedly good. Well, by that I mean only that I wasn't expecting it to be this good.

While Lou Piniella was being introduced as the new manager of the Chicago Cubs yesterday, he mentioned the incident that got Steve Lyons fired from Fox after game three of the ALCS over the weekend. If you remember, Lyons made what could have been construed as an offensive remark about Piniella's Spanish heritage during the broadcast. Although, if you read the entire incident, it was really more of a case of Lyons acting like an idiot than being purposely offensive.

Well, Piniella, who laughed when Lyons made his remark during the game, reiterated that he had no problem with it; "There isn't a racist bone in his body. Not one," he told the gathered reporters. "I've known the guy personally. He was kidding with me, nothing more and nothing less."

Lyons will keep his job on the Dodgers broadcasting team, after going through diversity training. I tell ya, Vin Scully's rolling in his grave over this, and the man's not even dead yet.