TV sports insulting viewers’ intelligence at rapid pace

Tuesday from ESPN’s on-site Stanley Cup Final, studio host Steve Levy delivered the news that Willie Mays had died:

“The Say Hey Kid, is gone. Too soon. Willie Mays has passed away tonight at the age of 93.”

Too soon? Perhaps Levy had the over 94 in a BetESPN parlay.

Not that I’ve ever been accused of brevity, but today’s broadcasters seem compelled to say far too much as opposed to just enough.

Same with rank dishonesty, as if the audience is too stupid to know better or undeserving of widely known truths.

The next night, the SNY telecast of Mets-Rangers opened to a show-and-tell hagiography of former Texas catcher Ivan Rodriguez. Gary Cohen swooned and swayed. Gee, that “Pudge” was special!

Yes, he was! Especially after he added Michelin Man muscle and quadrupled his power totals in the throes of the “Bottom Line” Bud Selig I-see-nothing Steroid Era. Jose Canseco, who came clean to name names — and got them right — claimed to have injected Rodriguez with steroids when they were teammates.

Rodriguez denies using PEDs. So why not sue Canseco for an outrageous libel?

Cohen didn’t know any of this? Then had to pretend that neither did we? Why did SNY even air, let alone produce, such an open? To insult us?

In the first inning Cohen, who now identifies the kinds of pitches the instant they reach the plate — often heard and seen bad-guess expertise — noted that Mets starter Sean Manea oddly enough throws “sinkers up in the zone.”

Huh? So his sinker sinks to where batters can hit it rather than sink to where they swing and miss? Fascinating!

But I suppose locals should be grateful they had any game to watch Wednesday. Orioles-Yankees, with Gerrit Cole returning, was sold to be hidden behind a paywall, thus the Yanks, on Rob Manfred’s watch, continue to minimize their TV audiences in the quest to maximize payment among those who they’ve not yet conditioned to live without Yankees’ telecasts.

Does it not dawn on MLB and its teams that diminished-by-design interest breeds diminished returns? The rotten viewership totals for the now-homogenized, thus meaningless All-Star Game, Where’s Waldo? playoffs and World Series — once can’t-miss events — don’t serve as wake-up slaps? They instead tell MLB to keep doing what you’re doing because you’re doing great?

But sports and TV have never been more reliant on us to be morons. This week, with the news media held in lower and lower regard among those who know when they’re being conned, NBC News anchor Lester Holt resumed his role as Olympics-on-NBC (and now Peacock pay streaming) shill, introducing Olympic come-ons as legit news.

This, while other network news operations pretend the Olympics don’t exist — unless there’s something ugly to report, in which case it’s NBC’s turn to play stupid.

By now we know the con. Why NBC selects its top news anchor to serve as a nightly magic elixir hustler when it should insist that he steer wide from again being seen and heard as a noxious home-shopping shill begs mistrust.

Last week’s U.S. Open golf NBC/Peacock coverage was dreadful, as co-anchors Dan Hicks and Mike Tirico made us wince from sudden sharp pain to the ears and dyspeptic distress.

Hicks parrots any golf banality to balls that “find the rough” to last week’s “Brooks Koepka has been betrayed by the short stick.” Hicks and Tirico provided updates on hopefuls to make Canada’s Olympic golf team, as if the Open is an Olympic qualifier.

And when fools — likely the drunken and/or betting kind — chanted “U-S-A!” in support of Bryson DeChambeau versus foreign-born leaders, the NBC crew bought in, as if DeChambeau was James Cagney hoofing it while singing “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

And as if we didn’t know that DeChambeau bolted the PGA Tour for Saudi government oil and blood money — in excess of $125 million to just show up with his clubs.

Then there was his infamous quote that infuriated the families and friends of the 3,000 murdered by Saudi terrorists on 9/11: “Nobody’s perfect.”

But none of that, plus runner-up Rory McIlroy’s pro-PGA stance in defiance to DeChambeau and others who took the mullah moola was even hinted at by the cowardly, play-pretend NBC voices.

There were so many obviously taped shots dishonestly shown as live — “plausibly live” to borrow NBC’s deceitful Olympics term — that the tired attempt to fool everyone fooled few. Or were we to believe that NBC had the clairvoyance to cut live to Francisco Molinari, unseen all telecast, just as he made a hole-in-one on 17?

And it was clear that the USGA ordered NBC to refer to the scrub, dirt and weeds that constituted the rough as the “native grass,” the kind that would force natives to flee.

But this is the same NBC that in January ordered all hands on corporate deck — NBC, MSNBC, USA, CNBC, the SciFi Channel, the breathless Tirico and even the “Today” show — to joyously celebrate — sell — the great news that the Dolphins-Chiefs playoff game would appear exclusively on paywalled Peacock, where it would be seen by many millions fewer than if it had appeared on NBC.

Another “It’s all about our fans” money grab engineered by PSL peddler Roger Goodell, with more to come.

Anyway, Braves-Yanks in another Friday night Yankees game sold to not be seen, this time to Apple TV+. As boxing refs instruct, “Protect yourselves at all times.” But by now, as residents of Palookaville, you know that.

Way past bedtime for NBA

The late-night (for — what else? — TV money) NBA Finals, at least here, were much like the old philosophical question: “If a tree falls in the forest and no one’s there, does it make a sound?”

ESPN continues to encourage us to watch “Sunday Night Baseball” then hides the games behind distractions it badly confuses with attractions. Reader Keith Marston: “It’s like watching interviews from “Fernwood 2 Night,” the satirical talk show spun from the old “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” series.

“Get your Connecticut sports here!” Though not available in most of New England, SNY, in view of its contracts and content, is preparing to rebrand itself the “Mets UConn Sports Network.”

Baseball stays up late too

Rob Manfred’s ”Kids are our top priority” declaration was on full display Sunday, as Yankees-Red Sox was played at night for ESPN money — on Father’s Day. MLB couldn’t have insisted on one of two West Coast games played, another in Arizona?

Small world: The vulgar, violent, N-worded artistry of Young Thug, now on trial for racketeering as leader of a Georgia street gang, was once a featured attraction on ESPN. The Atlanta D.A. who ordered Mr. Thug’s arrest was Fani Willis, of Donald Trump trial fame/infamy.

Best move of the local NFL offseason was the Giants allowing DE Jihad Ward to sign with the Vikings. Not gonna lie: I was hoping he’d do nothing of positive achievement here, as I’m disinclined to praise anyone named for what has become shorthand for an Islamic holy war.

Credit to ESPN for not crediting “ESPN’s Buster Olney” for “confirming” the passing of Willie Mays.