John Mayberry's father wasn't the guy on the cell-phone

Sandomir, NY Times Bats Blog: Update | 8:18 p.m. "When John Mayberry Jr. hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning against the Yankees on Saturday,

• Fox Sports said that a gent wearing what looked like a Panama World Baseball Classic cap, with a stylized ‘P’ (it could be mistaken for a Phillies hat), was his father, John Sr., a former Kansas City Royal, Yankee, Blue Jay and Astro.

• But it wasn’t. The man looked nothing like the much leaner John Sr., who is 60. Evidently, no one from Fox asked the man if he was, indeed, John Sr.

Fox found that very wrong guy for a reaction shot (but did not identify him as the elder Mayberry), then cut to him several times on his cellphone, with a graphic saying that he was Mayberry, who hit 255 home runs in a career from 1968 to 1982.

• “John is making the call,” Fox’s Tim McCarver said. “‘Have you heard about John Jr.? He just popped one, a three-run shot.’”...

When Fox showed him again, McCarver said: “Mayberry clan all smiles.” (They were presumably smiling because the Phillies were ahead, not because John Jr. is kin.)

• Eventually, McCarver and Joe Buck were apprised of the error, confessed to it, laughed about it, but did not say why the misidentification occurred.

Ken Rosenthal, Fox’s on-site reporter, tracked down the real Mayberry, who was in the stadium, getting food for his wife, presumably at the same moment Fox gave his identity to someone else. Dan Bell, a Fox Sports spokesman, said, “The crew made a mistake and misidentified Mayberry Sr, who we later were informed by Rosenthal, was sitting in a different section.”

• Rosenthal interviewed the real Mayberry, also in a Phillies cap, who said that when his son hit the home run, “My heart just about jumped out of my chest.”"...'A Case of Mistaken Identity on Fox'

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