(Isn't there a song with words at least close to those?

(Editorial Comment: Seems as how the folks at National Broadcasting Company were a-wishin' that they didn't have to send their big bucks broadcasters along with the Indians, who went fishin' down in Marlin country to begin the World Series coverage.)

Is anyone else of the impression that the World Series network (NBC) and its New York broadcast boys aren't too thrilled about the Indians and Marlins being in the Big Show?

Someone said that announcers Costas and Morgan sound as though they had bitten into a worm inside the fruit after the Big Apple baseball team was sent home way back when. He said Bob Ueker was the only fair-talk-announcer in the trio.

Now, one hastens to add, that all this bad-mouthing of the microphone-mouths is a Clevelander who doesn't like the way the NBC team calls the games.

Of course, in Florida, Marlins fans gave that broadcast team a Bronx-cheer when their pictures were flashed on the stadium scoreboard, so the folks down there don't think much of 'em either, one would guess.

A Cleveland-Florida series just doesn't seem to dump big enough numbers into the ratings hopper, one would guess. The big network mogul on the West Coast has been quoted as saying the peacock people would like this series to end in four games to get it off the air.

W-A-H-O-O-O-O-O-O!!!!

Hey, folks: it ain't ending in four games.

Of course, one must remember that any town without a team in the Series probably won't turn out too much fan interest in the games. And the big population centers of N.Y., and L.A., and Belleville (oh; sorry...Chicago) don't have a team in the World Series.

So, one must make do with the Cleveland Indians and the Florida Marlins.

W-A-H-O-O-O-O-O-O!!!!!!!

Heck, maybe the network mavens should relax a bit and follow Izaak Walton's advice: "I have laid aside business, and gone a-fishing." (The Compleat Angler. Epistle to the Reader) They might even discover, like Walton: "Doubt not but angling will prove to be so pleasant that it will prove to be, like virtue, a reward to itself."

Of course, the reward of TV broadcasting is big numbers of viewers and that possibly doesn't have anything to do with virtue.

And, of course, fishing for Marlins has been the business for the Indians.

Ah, well.

Random notes (including another editorial comment, or two, a prayer or two, and other stuff):

The prayers: Bishop Anthony Pilla, of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese, is scheduled for triple-bypass surgery Nov. 19.

Several Indians players say that they prayerfully ask for help to do their best...not, necessarily, to win, but to do their best.

(And this seeking may just be more widespread among athletes, as well as others, than a lot of people realize.)

Yeah, that bit between the "(" and the ")" was at least on the border of an editorial comment, wasn't it?

The (other) editorial comments:

Great: The return of Dick Feagler to a "think-and-talk" TV format! And it will be a weeknight slot on WVIZ, Ch25, just before prime time begins on the networks (7:30 p.m. Thursday, beginning Oct. 30).

A congratulatory pat-on-several-backs to the Cleveland theater (or, theatre, if you prefer) audiences and theater-believer Ray Shepardson for the revival of the Hanna and the good things being said about "All Night Strut" now showing (through Nov. 26) at "The Hanna Theater Cabaret." (Tickets: $24.50; $29.50 on Friday and Saturday evenings; Advantix, 216-241-6000 or 800-766-6408). On Oct. 30, performances of "A Brief History of White Music" begin on an alternating schedule with "Strut." Previews of "...White Music" (tickets are half-price): Oct. 23, 24, 25, 26.

And, okay, an editorial "good-on-ya'!" to Mother Nature, too, for all that nice stuff she does to the colors of the leaves. The fall color-change-spectacular may be slowed a bit, the experts say, but things should be "lookin' good" soon. (Or, not so good, if the high winds come and blow down the leaves too early. But...never mind that kind of negative thinking!)

Ah, yes; these are the days!

W-A-H-O-O-O-O-O-O!

		"Gone fishin'...
			Instead of just a-wishin'..."  

OTHER STORIES by John Herrington

RETURN TO Cleveland, The New American City