"Bristol Clown Community College" has no respect for baseball fans--Raissman

From Bob Raissman's NY Daily News column today--re ESPN's screw-up of Game 1 Dodgers-Mets:

• "The anxiety level was high. Seventh inning. Nomar Garciaparra at the plate facing Guillermo Mota. Mets 4, Dodgers 2. Two outs. Bases loaded.

Gary Thorne, ESPN's play-by-play man, called it one of "those key" moments in a playoff game and perhaps the entire Dodgers-Mets division series. On the screen, the familiar sight of Garciaparra adjusting his batting gloves.

"Tim," Thorne said. "A little bit about the movie."

Were we watching a key moment of a playoff game or "Inside the Actors Studio"?

Considering ESPN's curious/moronic decision to put actor Tim Robbins in the booth during the seventh inning of yesterday's playoff game, the question is valid.

The calendar said it was October - not August, didn't it?

• Having a celebrity in the booth to plug his latest project during the regular season is lame. Putting one in the booth during a playoff game - in a late inning to boot - shows the Faculty at Bristol Clown Community College has neither regard nor respect for baseball fans.

With the Dodgers threatening in the seventh, did anyone care what Robbins would say when Thorne asked: "You got a favorite Met player, Tim?"

And with Garciaparra at the plate, Steve Phillips asked: "In the (new) movie are you a good guy or a bad guy?"

"A complicated bad guy," Robbins answered.

Phillips: "You play the sinister role pretty good."

Judging by his performance yesterday, perhaps Phillips should become a movie critic. His baseball analysis left much to be desired. The former Mets GM went in the tank after Willie Randolph did not pinch-hit for Mota with the bases loaded in the sixth inning.

Instead, Phillips explained how Mota was originally signed by the Mets as a shortstop and was "a pretty good hitter." Big deal. What did Phillips think of the move? Analysts are paid for their opinions. In this key instance, Phillips did not offer one.

Thorne, perhaps nervous about the upcoming session with Robbins, did not have a good day behind the microphone. As Cliff Floyd put a charge into one deep to right in the fourth, Thorne said: "Way back ...Right field ... Shawn Green. Goodbye, home run." At last check, Green was playing right field for the Mets, not the Dodgers.

Still, why worry about minor details when the people you work for put a higher priority on doing vanity interviews with celebrities during a playoff game?

Maybe this all confused Thorne, a usually reliable voice. At one point, obviously having a hockey flashback, he called Dodgers starter Derek Lowe, "Kevin Lowe." Hey, at least Thorne did not refer to the broken bat that grazed David Wright as a "breakaway."

The most surprising part of ESPN's Dodgers-Mets telecast was the absence of "Shawshank Redemption" references.

As often happens with an ESPN telecast, viewers would have been better off invoking The Chris Berman Rule. Hit that mute button. No sound. No harm.

Then again, this would have meant missing Thorne's most important inquiry of the night: "Tim, the (new) movie will be out when?""

Thank God for Bob Raissman.

• CLOSE DOWN ESPN NOW. FIRE ALL BROADCASTERS. JUST RUN HIGHLIGHTS.

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