Weather fools Fox analyst

Some of the highs and lows of watching Angels-Yankees Game 1.

Say hey

Joe Buck, Fox’s play-by-play man, welcomed viewers to New York where he said the temperatures were in the mid-40s. Someone get Buck a thermometer. The actual temperature would be nice.

Say what?

In the top of the fifth, Buck said, “The Angels have to get Chone Figgins figured out. Figgins has to figure out what he’s doing with the bat.” Figgins was in an 0-for-14 slump at the time. But what the Angels have to figure out isn’t Figgins. It’s his swing.

Replay this

The sweeping shots of the fine Angels play in the bottom of the fifth -- where Juan Rivera hit Erick Aybar who found Jeff Mathis in time for Mathis to make a sweeping tag of Alex Rodriguez, who was out at home. We saw all angles including a close up of the tag.

Sharp shot

Was Aybar’s hood muffling his brain waves? Were Figgins’ lips frozen shut? It seemed that way after the close-up of both standing, well, frozen, as Hideki Matsui’s pop up fell at Aybar’s feet while Figgins stared in the first inning.

Before & after

The death of Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was the focus of a schmaltzy opener as an ominous voice intoned: “The Angels season started with tragedy and they were forced to endure. Now an Angel of their own watches over them from above.” This isn’t a made-for-TV movie. On the postgame show, analyst Mark Grace predicted the Angels “will steal Game 2 behind Joe Saunders.”

Not in the box score

Analyst Eric Karros noted before the game that the Angels hadn’t played in temperatures colder than 55 this year. Can there be an E, Cold?

And another thing

Tim McCarver sometimes talks too much, but if you can tune out the blather you get great information. In the first inning, with Derek Jeter at the plate with a 3-and-2 count, McCarver said one thing Jeter does so well is take a 3-2 pitch to right field. As the words settled, Jeter singled to right. Word-for-swing choreography.

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