dumb commercial

I really like the show Classic Now on ESPN Classic. They take events that are happening currently in sports, and they compare them or analyze them with a view towards the history of sports. Frank Deford does a spot regularly, and it is wonderful that there is a sense of history in the talk-show world of sports where if didn't happen this week, then it didn't happen.

And they advertise this show with a commercial in which this kid, probably 10 or so, asks the host if Derek Jeter is the greatest shortstop ever. Never mind the fact that he is not the greatest shortstop on his own team. But in the answer, the host compares Jeter to a couple of great Yankee shortstops and then throws in Honus Wagner, too. And as the host is throwing out a bunch of meaningless stats, he says Jeter turns a mean 6-4-3. The only problem is that it is the second baseman and not the shortstop who turns a 6-4-3. For a show that is aiming at the wonkish, shouldn't they get this right and say he turns a mean 4-6-3? Sheesh.

It really is a good show. But the ad sucks.

And for the record, I don't think Jeter enters the debate as the greatest shortstop of all-time. Off the top of my head, Wagner, Banks, Rodriguez, and Ripken all rank higher. I don't think Jeter is yet a lock for the Hall of Fame. He is a favorite to make it, but if he goes Chuck Knoblauch on us over the winter, and has a couple of really crappy years and ends his career in Kansas City, not so much.