Sports broadcasters get special access to the players and coaches they cover. In the baseball playoffs, Yankees manager Joe Torre and Braves Game 2 starter John Smoltz even gave interviews while games were in progress, by wearing oversized headsets in the dugout. Yet I wonder why the baseball people tell the TV people as much as they do—and whether the TV people ought to believe what they hear.

Last night, Bernie Williams came up to bat in the second inning with Robinson Cano on first base and no one out. On a 1-1 count, Cano took off for second. Williams took the pitch, a ball, and Cano was thrown out at second. Cano's and his teammates' body language suggested to the announcers, Fox's Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, that the hit-and-run sign was on: Williams was supposed to swing at the pitch and try to make some kind of contact, to protect Cano from being thrown out. McCarver, surprised, mentioned off-handedly that Torre had told him Williams was the one guy in his lineup for whom he'd never call the hit-and-run. Williams later walked and two runs scored in the inning, but the Yankees could have scored at least one more run with another baserunner and one fewer out. In the end, they lost to the Angels, 5-3, and were eliminated from the playoffs.

Had Torre had a sudden change of heart? It seems to me more likely that he didn't mean what he said about Williams, but figured it couldn't hurt to feed the line to the broadcasters. If they thought it worthy of mention, word would surely get to the Angels, and that would add the element of surprise to any Williams hit-and-run attempt. Smart military planners similarly use what they tell the media to their advantage. And smart journalists don't just parrot what they're told. I'm going to give McCarver the benefit of the doubt and assume he didn't mention what Torre told him in advance so as not to play into the diabolical Yankees scheme, while also acknowledging the possibility that he'd forgotten that detail until after the surprising failed hit-and-run attempt. But here's a suggestion for sports broadcasters: keep a scorecard of what you're told and how it squares with reality, and call the sports world's bullshitters on their bullshit.