Hopefully, there will be a rematch of their sabermetrics debate.

Ken “Hawk” Harrelson will be in the studio for MLB Network on Friday and Saturday. He will be among the guest analysts during the first round of the playoffs.

Here’s the official rundown:

Eighteen-year MLB veteran Raul Ibanez, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones, New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira, Toronto Blue Jays infielder Mark DeRosa and longtime Chicago White Sox broadcaster Ken “Hawk” Harrelson will serve as Postseason guest studio analysts on MLB Network during the month of October. MLB Network’s 165 hours of programming covering the 2013 Postseason includes MLB Network’s two exclusive LDS game telecasts this Friday, October 4, with Bob Costas, Jim Kaat and Sam Ryan on the call, and on Monday, October 7, with Matt Vasgersian, Kaat and Ryan.

·         Harrelson, a candidate for the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s 2014 Ford C. Frick Award, will be the first guest analyst to visit Studio 3, with a two-night stint on MLB Network’s Emmy Award-winning MLB Tonight starting this Friday, October 4.

·         Jones, who appeared in the Postseason for the first time in 2012 with the Orioles, will make his guest analyst debut on MLB Tonight during the LDS on October 6 and 7.

·         Teixeira, a 2009 World Series champion with the Yankees, will appear on MLB Tonight on October 8 and 9.

·         DeRosa, who was a member of the 2010 World Champion Giants and appeared as a Postseason guest analyst on MLB Network in 2011, will join MLB Tonight on October 10 and 11.

·         Ibanez, who has made five Postseason appearances over his career including a trip to the World Series in 2009 with the Philadelphia Phillies, will work as a guest analyst during the League Championship Series on October 15 and 16.

MLB Tonight presented by Bacardi Oakheart will air before and after every Postseason game with reporters including Kristina Akra, Alanna Rizzo, Ken Rosenthal, Sam Ryan and Heidi Watney on-site at each ballpark. MLB Network’s daily Postseason programming schedule, including The Rundown, Intentional Talk and MLB Tonight, is available here.

Next year, Wrigley Field celebrates its 100th anniversary. Naturally, given the history of the team that plays there, the most famous moment in the ballpark’s history belongs to a player on a visiting team.

On Oct. 1, 1932, Babe Ruth hit a homer during the fifth inning of Game 3 of the World Series against the Cubs. There’s no dispute that it was one of the longest drives ever at Wrigley Field.

The question is: Did Ruth call his shot?

There was a media component to the Called Shot. Jack Bales, writing at ChicagoSide, discussed the coverage in his anniversary piece.

In the dozens of press reports scrawled that day by on-site reporters, only one—written by Joe Williams of the New York World-Telegram and titled “Ruth Calls Shot As He Puts Homer No. 2 in Side Pocket”—noted that Ruth pointed to center field to indicate the location of his home run ball. Many newspapers mentioned gestures to the dugout rather than the outfield. A few journalists wrote that the Babe signaled his home run (that is, he “called his shot”), but they made no references in their stories to him pointing to the outfield. For example:

Joe Williams, New York World-Telegram, October 1: “In the fifth, with the Cubs riding him unmercifully from the bench, Ruth pointed to centre [sic] field and punched a screaming liner to a spot where no ball ever had been hit before.” (Interestingly enough, this sentence has rarely been quoted accurately in various accounts of Babe Ruth’s famous home run.)

John Drebinger, New York Times, October 2: “Ruth came up in the fifth and in no mistaken motions the Babe notified the crowd that the nature of his retaliation would be a wallop right out [of] the confines of the park.”

Westbrook Pegler, Chicago Daily Tribune, October 2: “Then, with a warning gesture of his hand to [Cubs player Guy] Bush, he sent him the signal for the customers to see. . . . Many a hitter may make two home runs, or possibly three in world series play in years to come, but not the way Babe Ruth hit these two. Nor will you ever see an artist call his shot before hitting one of the longest drives ever made on the grounds, in a world series game. . . .”

Warren Brown, Chicago Herald and Examiner, October 2: “This time he called his shot, theatrically, and with derisive gestures towards the Cubs’ dugout.”

Note: I’ll be writing more about the famous homer soon. In February, my book, Babe Ruth’s Called Shot: The Myth and Mystery of Baseball’s Greatest Home Run, will be published by Lyons Press.

We know the drill in Chicago.

The Cubs fire another manager. It seems to occur as often as snow in January.

Good-bye Dale Sveum.

Since Leo Durocher was dismissed in 1972, the Cubs now have gone through 25 managers in 41 years. Memo to Sveum’s successor: Rent, don’t buy.

However, unlike the other poor souls who wilted in Wrigley, Sveum’s firing produced an all-time statement from the current Cubs regime.

Cubs president Theo Epstein wrote a 589-word treatise to explain the decision. Epstein, who appears to be on scholarship under owner Tom Ricketts, felt the need to reiterate his plan to Cubs fans, begging for their patience until at least 2018.

It is quite a document and an amazing lesson in spin.

From Prince Theo with some of my comments in bold:

“Today, we made the very difficult decision to relieve Dale Sveum of his duties as Cubs manager. (We screwed up hiring him in first place)

“Dale has been a committed leader for this team the last two seasons, and I want to thank him for all of his dedication and hard work.  I have a lot of admiration for Dale personally, and we all learned a lot from the way he has handled the trying circumstances of the last two years, especially the last two weeks, with strength and dignity. (Handling our young players was another story)

“In his own authentic and understated way, Dale always put the team first and never complained about the hand he was dealt. (A pair of 3s). He and his staff helped us excel in game planning and defensive positioning, contributed to the emergence of several players, and helped put us in position to make some important trades. (Giving him no chance to win) I have no doubt that – much like Terry Francona, whom we hired in Boston after his stint with a losing Phillies club – Dale will go on to great success with his next team.  We had hoped Dale would grow with our organization to see it through the building phase to a period of sustained excellence; instead, I believe Dale, who felt the weight of losing perhaps more than any of us, will grow because of this experience and find excellence elsewhere. (Dale is thinking, “F-you, Theo”)

“Today’s decision to pursue a new manager was not made because of wins and losses. (If it was, you’d be gone too) Our record is a function of our long-term building plan and the moves we have made – some good, a few we would like back (Hello, Edwin Jackson for $52 million) – to further this strategy.  Jed and I take full responsibility for that.  Today’s decision was absolutely not made to provide a scapegoat for our shortcomings or to distract from our biggest issue – a shortage of talent at the major league level.  We have been transparent about what we are, and what we are not yet. (You’re not even close)  Today’s decision, which was painful for all of us, was made to move us closer to fulfilling our ultimate long-term vision for the Cubs.

“Soon, our organization will transition from a phase in which we have been primarily acquiring young talent to a phase in which we will promote many of our best prospects and actually field a very young, very talented club at the major league level. (Later than sooner, I suspect)  The losing has been hard on all of us, but we now have one of the top farm systems in baseball, some of the very best prospects in the game, and a clear path forward. (Cubs said same thing about Corey Patterson, Felix Pie, Gary Scott, blah, blah) In order for us to win with this group – and win consistently – we must have the best possible environment for young players to learn, develop and thrive at the major league level.  We must have clear and cohesive communication with our players about the most important parts of the game.  And – even while the organization takes a patient, long view – we must somehow establish and maintain a galvanized, winning culture around the major league club. (Which has lost 197 games in last two years)

“I believe a dynamic new voice – and the energy, creativity and freshness that comes with this type of change – provides us with the best opportunity to achieve the major league environment we seek. (And will do as told) We will begin our search immediately – a process which will be completed before the GM meetings in early November and perhaps much sooner.  There are no absolute criteria, but we will prioritize managerial or other on-field leadership experience and we will prioritize expertise developing young talent. We have not yet contacted any candidates or asked permission to speak with any candidates, but that process will begin tomorrow morning.” (Hello, Joe Girardi….)

*******

For the latest in sports media, please follow me at Sherman_Report.

The Houston Chronicle reports that nobody watched Sunday’s Astros game in Houston. Can you blame Houston?

According to television’s official scorekeeper, nobody in the 20-county Greater Houston area watched the Astros’ game Sunday at Cleveland.

The score was 9-2 in favor of the Indians on the scoreboard and 0.0 for Comcast SportsNet Houston — the regional network owned by the Astros, Rockets and NBC Sports Group — in the daily report compiled by the Nielsen Co., which measures television viewing levels.

It was the first time in Houston, where games have been broadcast on cable outlets since 1983, and perhaps the first time in the history of Major League Baseball that an MLB game had no measurable viewership in its home market.

By comparison, Nielsen reported that the Texans’ loss at Baltimore had a 23.0 rating, which equates to an average audience of 526,553 of Houston’s 2.28 million TV households, on KHOU (Channel 11).

Nielsen’s figures are, however, subject to challenge on a number of fronts. For one thing, the company’s business is based on the concept that Nielsen can measure what millions of television viewers are watching by monitoring the behavior of hundreds.

On Sunday, Nielsen had reports from 581 meters in Greater Houston. In any given quarter-hour between noon and 3 p.m. Sunday, anywhere from 47.6 to 52.6 percent of those meters (roughly 270 to 300) were in use by viewers watching television.

But not a single, solitary Nielsen household tuned in for as long as a few minutes in any given quarter-hour to watch the Astros lose to the Indians for their 105th defeat of the year.

I have vivid memories of this story, especially since it took place in Chicago.

The California Angels played a September day game against the White Sox. Afterward, Lyman Bostock, the star outfielder, visited with family in Gary, Ind. Then in a case of being in the wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time, he was shot in the head with a bullet intended for someone else.

Incredibly, the Angels went ahead with their game against the White Sox less than 12 hours later. The team, though, was numb, as was everyone who cared about baseball on that day.

Thirty-five years later, MLB Network revisits the tragedy in The Lyman Bostock Story (Sunday, 10 p.m. ET). Here is a clip with the details from MLB below.

From MLB Network:

MLB Network will televise the The Lyman Bostock Story this Sunday, September 22 at 10:00 p.m. ET, an original program looking back on the star Minnesota Twins and California Angels outfielder who was murdered four seasons into his career at the age of 27. Narrated by MLB Network’s Bob Costas, the special marks the 35^th anniversary of Bostock’s death on Monday, September 23 and features the first on-camera interview with Bostock’s widow, Yuovene Whistler, since the night she lost her husband.

Through interviews with Bostock’s former agent Abdul-Jalil al-Hakim, Jim Fregosi, Bostock’s manager with the Angels, and several of Bostock’s former teammates including Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven, 1979 American League MVP Don Baylor, Kenny Landreaux, Roy Smalley and Ron Jackson, The Lyman Bostock Story recalls Bostock’s rise to prominence as a hitter with the second-best batting average in the American League in 1977, and his free agency after the 1977 season, which brought him to the Angels. His contract made Bostock one of the highest paid players in baseball at the time of his death.

In what former prosecutor Jack Crawford describes as “the classic instance of being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Bostock was shot and killed in Gary, Indiana during a September 1978 road trip with the Angels to play the Chicago White Sox. The gunman, Leonard Smith, plead insanity and was spared jail time by being confined to a mental facility, only to be declared sane and released six months later. The controversial verdict ultimately led to a change in Indiana state law. At a time before the Internet, social media and 24-hour news networks, many people first learned of Bostock’s death when broadcaster Dick Enberg, who was the play-by-play voice of the Angels at the time, broke the news on the air before the Angels played the White Sox the next afternoon.

Quotes from The Lyman Bostock Story are included below, and additional quotes and advance copies of the program are available via MLB Network PR.

Yuovene Whistler on seeing Bostock after he died:

The worst ever was just seeing his lifeless body lying there and thinking, “What a waste.” It didn’t get any worse than that.

Whistler on her emotions following Bostock’s death:

I couldn’t even say that he was murdered. The words would not come off. He just “died.” Just admitting that he was murdered was very traumatic. Once I was able to work through my own personal pain and get clarity on that, it really was about Lyman and just his legacy.

Jim Fregosi on being in the Angels’ clubhouse the day after Bostock passed away:

I’ve been in this game 54 years and it’s probably the most difficult day I’ve ever spent. To be surrounded by that type of atmosphere, it is something I would never want to go through again.

Don Baylor on the day after Bostock’s death:

There was a photographer inside the locker room wanting to take pictures of [Bostock’s] locker, and somehow I picked him up and threw him out of the locker room.

Dick Enberg on calling the Angels at White Sox game following Bostock’s death:

It was horrific. I mean, who expects to go on the air having to announce that one of your ballplayers, someone that everyone cares about is dead suddenly? I mean, you came on the air and you started with, “We begin today’s broadcast telecast with terrible news,” and then just bluntly saying, “Lyman Bostock was murdered last night in Gary, Indiana.” We are not trained to handle a tragedy like that, are we? You think in all of baseball history how many times has that happened? Where a ballplayer plays one day and the next day he’s expected to appear, but he’s gone.

Abdul–Jalil al-Hakim on Bostock’s passing:

Lyman was instrumental in having the rules and the laws change in Indiana, so I guess in some ways Lyman still lives. But to me, that’s too great a cost.

I wonder if ESPN president John Skipper ever anticipated that giving Keith Olbermann a show would put him in such uncomfortable spots.

I have to figure Bud Selig will be in his ear after Olbermann’s opening commentary last night. He absolutely torched baseball for not allowing the Washington Nationals to wear Navy hats during its doubleheader Tuesday to honor the victims of Monday’s tragedy; they only wore them pregame. He portrayed MLB as a greedy outfit that emphasizes only one thing: Making money.

It was a brutal takedown. Selig and MLB had to feel it was grossly unfair. You judge for yourself.

Once again, Olbermann’s commentary underscored the uneven ground that ESPN walks on these days. ESPN is in the midst of an eight-year, $5.6 billion contract with MLB. They are business partners with Selig’s gang.

While MLB isn’t about to walk away from that deal, it can make life a bit more difficult for ESPN in the wake of Olbermann’s commentary. Cooperation is a two-way street, and those little things have a tendency to add up.

As ESPN ombudsman Robert Lipsyte wrote in a piece last week, “I have retired the routine use of the phrase “conflict of interest” when it comes to ESPN – it’s simply inadequate to the nuances of the, um, conflicts of interest.”

Indeed, the lines are blurred at ESPN between doing journalism and doing business.

I anticipate/hope Skipper will tell Selig that Olbermann is free to go wherever he wants to go on his show. Otherwise, what’s the sense in having an Olbermann?

I also think Skipper will tune in again tonight to see what major sports commissioner will be calling him tomorrow.

******

For various reasons, Tuesday was the first night in a while that I actually was home. At 10 p.m. (Central), I had a momentary brain cramp while searching for something to watch. And then I thought, oh yes, Olbermann on ESPN2.

Simply put: It is unlike anything you’ll watch on sports today. If you aren’t watching, you are missing out.

It was on Tuesday when I realized something that probably never happened to me before. I had gone perhaps a week or more without watching a single minute of a White Sox game.

Obviously, the Sox are dreadful this year. Usually, though, I catch an inning or two here and there.

But not last week. I guess I met my threshold of pain tolerance.

It has been beyond bleak in Chicago this year, with both teams in last place. However, the games and the telecasts go on.

Budding sports media writer Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune examined the challenge facing the TV game producers for the Sox and Cubs:

How do they manage to keep viewers interested when their team stinks?

Here’s how two Chicago veterans, Sox telecast director Jim Angio and Cubs telecast producer Marc Brady, manage to create something out of nothing.

Angio, a 35-year veteran dating to the days Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall called Sox games on WSNS-Ch. 44, said he stresses the three E’s: Education, entertainment and enthusiasm.

“We put a lot of effort into Hawk and (analyst Steve Stone) teaching the game,” Angio said. “Even if Alexei (Ramirez) makes three errors in a game, what they’re great about is they’ll still tell you what happened and where he should be.

“You trying not to drum up the negativity, but (explain), ‘Maintain your focus, see the ball …’ You’re not making excuses that the errors happened, but you teach something and then we move on. Hawk and Stoney do a great job of teaching the game to new and existing fans.”

Brady, a part of the WGN telecasts since 1998, has more of a sabermetrical approach to broadcasts, crunching numbers for new-age fans. Brady introduced “Stats Sunday,” in which broadcasters Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies focus on a statistic, often citing an accompanying article from a guest writer. The Cubs use the Internet more, Brady said, “because there is so much immediacy to what we can show” during a game.

“If Len says, ‘Hey, we had a fan email us and say, ‘Whatever you do, don’t play ‘We Built this City,’ the next thing you’ll hear, of course, is ‘We Built This City,’ ” he said. “There’s so much more interaction with fans. They can ask a question on Twitter and say, ‘We hated this or that.’ But at least they’re watching. The Internet, Facebook and Twitter have all enhanced our games, especially during a down period.”

The only way for the shamed Brewers cheater to worm out of this one is to invent a machine that erases everyone’s memory.

Not only did Ryan Braun cheat and lie, he also tried to take down that poor drug tester. Unforgivable in my mind.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel asked several veteran PR people and others to see if there is a way for Braun to rehabilitate his reputation. Or at the very least, regain a shred of dignity.

From Ari Fleischer, who advised on Mark McGwire’s coming out:

“There are three parts to it,” Fleischer said about what Braun should do. “One is a full mea culpa now, like Mark McGwire did. He has to bare his soul, explain he messed up. But it has to be heartfelt and he has to mean it. It can’t be mouthed. It can’t be somebody else’s creation. It has to be genuine or fans and reporters are going to see right through it.

“If he were a client, I would really work him over to make that assessment,” Fleischer said. “If they just can’t pull it off, because they are too arrogant or because they don’t believe it, then I would say you don’t have a way back.”

Part two in his plan is a little easier.

“Go away,” Fleischer said. “Then lay low. Go away. Accept your punishment.”

And part three, “Come back and get hot,” Fleischer said. “You let your bat do the talking.”

From Fay Vincent:

“I would say two things,” Vincent said. “One is, he should see that the problem is a very serious problem for baseball, not think that the Ryan Braun case is about Ryan Braun. It’s really about baseball, which is much bigger than any of us. And secondly he should, in my view, go to somebody like the commissioner and say what can I do to go around and make it clear to fans and to people in baseball that we’ve got to do something to keep these drugs from infecting the rest of the game?”

From Steve Eichenbaum of Eichenbaum and Associates in Milwaukee:

“Create a 30-second or 60-second TV spot in which you do a complete mea culpa. Admit to using PEDs and to lying. Apologize especially for lying to the fans, team, organization and your friend Aaron Rodgers. Roadblock every local newscast within the sports news on the same night, at either 6 p.m. or 10 p.m. Do not promote the spot. Just let it run. At the end of the commercial, tell people you wanted to address the fans first, and you will address the media in a press conference the next day.“