The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand cranks up speculation that former Mets P Al Leiter might return to the club next season as one of their TV mouthpieces. Much the way the New York Knicks can never have too many guards, it would appears as though the Mets have a similar philosophy when it comes to color commentators. Fran Healy, obstensibly a play by play man, provides no useful function besides influencing and informing future Fred Willard performances. When the Mets elect to team the Franatic with Keith Hernandez and Tom Seaver, as they did this past Monday afternoon when New York visited DC, turning the volume down to zero isn’t far enough.
I thought Leiter did a pretty good job in his previous turns in the booth during the playoffs last year. He’s pretty knowledgeable, fairly articulate and, for the time being, manages to keep quiet about his thoughts on the punitive nature of a progressive income tax and the moral quicksand of reproductive rights. Pair him with Al Michaels — who managed to get a few digs in at John Kerry on Monday Night Football last year — and it’d be nasty. But up against the bedrock progressivism of Seaver — a central valley agrarian populist from the old school — and Keith Hernandez’s pragmatic New Democratic approach, and we the viewing public should be fine.
I do kind of wonder why the Mets insist on using Healy as a play-by-play guy, though. Sure, play Marlon Anderson at first base, but don’t impose The F-Job on us as our primary source of audio information. This is New York, not Fernwood, and I’m not having that.
I’m not going to be able to do this story justice, but a friend of mine who worked for a few years in the Marlins organization related a story from spring training:
Local radio guy is asking AJ Burnett about how great Al Leiter’s influence will be on him, how much he’ll learn, etc. Burnett, who’s from Arkansas, nods along with the question, then replies: ‘Yeah, yeah, it’ll be great, I’ve already learned so much. Al’s just like Bill Clinton–everything he says, you believe.”
The reporter finds Leiter a few hours later, tells him there’s something he’d like him to hear. “Al’s just like Bill Clinton.” Leiter flies into a rage: “You liberal! You set him up! Don’t you dare use that on the air! You fucking liberal!”
But apparently it was basically a friendly performance, and the story ended there.