Twitter last night was flooded with reaction to Fox' broadcast of Cubs-Indians World Series Game 7. THE DAILY offers a roundup of what people were tweeting about the telecast.
DYNAMIC DUO: ESPN's Ed Werder wrote the World Series "has enabled me to recapture my love of baseball." He noted Fox' Joe Buck and John Smoltz "have been outstanding." The Boston Globe's Pete Abraham: "John Smoltz and Joe @Buck have been excellent in the WS." ESPN Radio 1500 Twin Cities' Judd Zulgad: "What do people dislike about Joe Buck? He and John Smoltz have been great. Tonight's call is fantastic." CBS Sports' Adam Schein: "Smoltz is amazing. Love the Buck / Smoltz team. Incredible." Dallas-based WFAA-ABC's Mike Leslie: "Buck is way underrated and over-hated, and Smoltz has been a brilliant breath of fresh air." The Bergen Record's Art Stapleton: "Credit where it is due, Joe Buck brought his A game for tonight." NBC's Mike Tirico: "Bravo to @buck John Smoltz and @MLBONFOX crew .. you all have been as good as these games. Thanks for the great tv." ESPN's Scott Van Pelt: "Phenomenal work from @Buck John Smoltz @kevinburkhardt & everyone at @FOXSports on an epic event. Cheers all around on a job well done."
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR: The Portland Oregonian's John Canzano wrote Smoltz is "throwing a perfect game" and has "just been outstanding." SBJ/SBD's John Ourand: "What a call by Smoltz on Fox. I thought he was crazy suggesting a squeeze with two strikes." YES Network's Jack Curry: "Smoltz called that bunt attempt by Baez. He's a superb listen." The Columbia State's Josh Kendall: "Smoltz has called basically every significant thing in this game before it happened. He's series MVP." Omnisports' Marc Lancaster: "John Smoltz has been MVP of this WS." NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah: "John Smoltz is really good at his job. Knowledge without arrogance." Boston-based WBZ-FM's Tony Massarotti: "John Smoltz is a fabulous analyst." CBS Sports Radio's Doug Gottlieb: "Smoltz has been terrific, but he has been soft on managerial decisions -Buck has actually had better instincts on pointing out Maddon errors."
KUDOS ALL AROUND: ESPN's Jeff Darlington: "In addition to a great call by Smoltz and Buck, Verducci and Rosenthal are putting on a clinic from the field with their interviews." The Record's Stapleton: "No stage is too big for Kevin Burkhardt. Great job, pal." The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram's Drew Davison: "@AROD is a heck of an analyst. Him and Smoltz are terrific." FS1's Chris Broussard: "Pete Rose a poor man's Barkley?"
DOUBTING THOMAS: The Seattle Times' Bob Condotta: "Frank Thomas has never met a cliche he didn't want to give 110 percent to." The Boston Globe's Christopher Gasper: "Apparently, Frank Thomas is now the Big Cliche. Yeeesh." Fox Sports Radio's Ben Maller: "Frank Thomas is human Rolodex of sports cliches." Author Jeff Pearlman: "Frank Thomas says any team can win this game. I would argue -- strongly -- the New York Jets and Edmonton Eskimos cannot."
WINNING STREAK: A World Series-record 18 million tweets were sent out about this year's Fall Classic, while an MLB game-record 10.5 million were sent out during Game 7. The end of Game 7 was the most-tweeted moment, followed by Indians CF Rajai Davis' game-tying home run in the eighth inning. Since the World Series began, Cubs P Aroldis Chapman was the most-mentioned player on Twitter, followed by Cubs 3B Kris Bryant. Facebook also reported that 33 million people had more than 150 million interactions on the social media platform related to this year's World Series (Oct. 25-Nov. 2) (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
