Tuesday's all-star game was an exercise in tedium. Once upon a time, I believe, the receipts from the game went to the fund for verteran's pensions but I have been unable so far to determine whether that is still true, if it ever was. And the league that won the game received home field advantage in the World Series, which is no longer the case. Some players are fortunate enough to get a bonus if they make the all-star team but that is a small number. And before there was interleague play we might not always be able to see the players from the other league than the one in which one's favorite team was from. Yes, it was fun to see Shohei Ohtani pitch a 1-2-3 inning and then lead off for the American League team (0 for 2) but beyond that it was home runs and strikeouts as usual. There were no attempts to steal bases, no bunts (sacrifice or otherwise), no hit-and-run plays; basically little of the strategy that makes the game beautiful.
Added to the tedium of the game itself was the poor televising and poor announcing. Fox claimed they had fifty or more cameras at work but few of those were actually trained on the field: we seldom saw the fielding shifts or even the entire field. And Fox trivialized the game by having players talk on mikes even while the game was going on! The play-by-play was often absent while Joe Buck and the practically mute John Smoltz repeated the same cliches endlessly: "he can do it all" "he takes it to the next level" "he's a hitting machine" "he has a world of talent" and even the gramatically dubious "he plates a run," with little or no insight into the game or the players.
No comments:
Post a Comment