Dear Mr. Araton,
I liked your piece [T$] analyzing the declining television audience for baseball's post-season. I think you're probably right that baseball itself deserves some of the blame for our lessening interest. You're also correct in saying that there are many other things competing for our viewing attention.
However, I think you omitted a major reason when listing your explanations.
I myself no longer watch much baseball on TV, in large part because the production itself has become unbearable. The intrusive advertising during the game, the pompous and right-wing tone of announcers like Joe Buck, the painfully vapid and cliché-strewn sideline interviews and back stories, a screen so cluttered with non-stop animations and banners that it looks like the computer of a teenager gone off his Ritalin, ... I could go on and on.
It's a disconcerting thing to contemplate that I might have become an old fogey, merely grumpy because things aren't as nice as when I was a boy. But I don't think I have gone completely around the bend. I can certainly remember White-Messer-Rizzuto and Nelson-Kiner-Murphy mentioning beer sponsors between at-bats, and it must also be admitted that my best baseball friend and I practically fetishized the "Polly-O Gamer Award" at the conclusion of every Yankee win.
But baseball, as broadcast when I was younger, seemed less in-your-face. It used to be comfortable differing from music videos and football games. It didn't self-consciously try to fill every open space, to present like every other form of "non-stop entertainment." It didn't feel the need to hype "smackdowns" and "wars." It would wait for drama to occur, rather than inflating every .250 hitter facing every 5.50 pitcher into a battle for the very survival of civilization. And occasionally, hard as it may be to believe, the talking heads would actually shut their mouths.
I once read that one of the nicest sounding words in the English language is "murmur." Clearly, none of baseball producers shares my taste in books, either.
2 comments:
I do two things (not only baseball, but foot and basket...when I'm watching a game on TV. 1) If it is an ordinary game I read and let my subconscious ear alert me when somethng watchable (on replay)has happened, and 2) If it is a game I want to watch, I turn off the sound.
I'd give a fairly substantial chunk of money to be able to turn off just the announcers' voices. As that's not an option, I put up with them, because I really don't enjoy the game nearly as much if I can't hear the game and crowd noises.
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