Not Quite

The Phillies are annoyed because prior to Game 1 in the World Series, the entire teams weren’t introduced on the field, just the starters.

It was then when a Phillies PR representative came into the clubhouse and informed the team that only the starting players would be announced on the field and on national television. That meant no clubhouse staff, no coaches and no Matt Stairs. He, along with 45-year-old Jamie Moyer, had waited their entire lives for this moment, and then it was gone. All non-starters were allowed to walk out onto the field, but they were never publicly acknowledged — not to the TV audience, not even to the crowd.

Now, I happen to agree that this sucks.  But it isn’t as if this hasn’t happened before.  Although ESPN would have you think differently:

Fox Sports spokesman Dan Bell said that since the 2004 World Series Fox has only broadcast the starting lineups. He said it was a joint decision between Major League Baseball and the network to try and get to the first pitch faster during the broadcast.

But that isn’t the issue for the players, who said they had no problem if Fox wanted to broadcast the starting lineups, but that this was the first year in which the reserves and coaches weren’t announced to the ballpark. Bell said that there have been no conversations on excluding the rest of the announcements.

Sorry, but that bolded part is just flat-out wrong.  I was at Game 1 of the 2007 World Series at Fenway Park and I promise you, they only introduced the starters.  I know this because 1) I was waiting for the introductions because I was excited that Kyle Snyder would be introduced since he made the World Series roster and 2) I was wondering how the fans would respond to Eric Gagne.  Neither happened because, as I said, they only introduced the starters.

So, as much as  I understand players being bothered by losing possibly their only chance at getting introduced to the crowd at a World Series game, the Phillies and Rays aren’t being singled out here.  This has happened before – as recent as last year.  Nice fact-checking ESPN.

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