Joe Buck: Another Philadelphia October is very possible

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Fox begins another season of baseball coverage on Saturday, their 15th season, and we'll get the Yankees and Tampa Bay around here on the season debut. Fox loves New York, especially the Yankees. Game time is 3 p.m.

This year Fox will have 26 consecutive Saturdays of baseball, including two Saturday primetime blockbusters - Yankees-Mets and Red Sox-Phillies share the bill on May 22 and they'll have Yankees-Dodgers on June 26.

As unpopular as they are in a lot of places, particularly Philly, six-time Emmy award winner Joe Buck and Tim McCarver are back as Fox's top announcing duo. Love 'em or hate 'em, they've become fixtures.

There was a press conference by phone on Wednesday and Buck said what a lot of others are saying -- the Phillies are the team to beat in the National League.

"We've been in Philadelphia the last two Octobers. I don't see any reason why going into this season we wouldn't predict the same, at least I would,'' Buck said. "I think top to bottom, the way the Phillies are constructed and now with Roy Halladay, and having an ace for an entire season and more guys for the rotation than spots available, they are set up well for a long run in 2010."

McCarver, though, thinks the biggest roadblock to a potential Phillies three-peat in the National League could come from division rival Atlanta.

"I think the Braves could go to the World Series this year, that's how good I think their starters are."

As for the Phillies, McCarver said that getting rid of Cliff Lee and gaining Halladay may be a relatively even exchange from a raw talent standpoint, but said getting the No. 1 pitcher in baseball was "a huge psychological boost" for the team.

McCarver, when asked what he might change in the game, said he'd move the Houston Astros from the NL Central to the AL West to give the leagues an equal number of teams ando give the Astros a natural rivalry with the Texas Rangers that could extend well beyond interleague play. "They're kind of isolated down there right now," he said of the Astros in the NL Central. That seems to make sense.

Buck said that older players and managers still see the "Saturday Game of the Week" as being something special, something different from the many games available across the country the other six days of the week.

"I know growing up as a kid in St. Louis, I couldn't wait for Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola to come to town and I could hear what they had to say about the Cardinals," he said.

Just as is the case with college basketball, there is so much more baseball available every day and everywhere than there used to be. You no longer have to count on the national game of the week to see your favorite team. You don't even need a TV to watch your team play now.

That's why the Saturday afternoon national game, always on NBC when I was a kid, used to be much more special than it is now and yet Buck believes that MLB still wants the Saturday afternoon game to be special and provide a national stage for the sport. That's why you'll see them allow some different gimmicks like interviews in the dugout during the game.

Fox producer Ed Goren said that the all-important advertising revenues are up for the regular season package and for the July 13 All-Star Game.

It's good to hear baseball is doing well, but let's be honest -- pro football is king. And it's going to be No. 1 for a long, long time to come.

FROM KEITH GROLLER