Mid-Game Interruption
I’m watching a Giants-Braves game. The game is relatively tedious, Braves up 7-1 in the top of the sixth inning, in Atlanta. Nothing about this game or experience is noteworthy.
Except…
Giants Manager Felipe Alou is being interviewed live. In the top of the sixth. On TV.
In the middle of the freaking game! At what point did fans become so interconnected to the games they love that roto leagues, glowing pucks, instant stats on your cell phone, pre- and post- game shows and 24 hour sports networks weren’t sufficient?
During the actual game? Doesn’t Alou have anything better to do? Like, for example, manage his team? Shouldn’t he be trying to figure out how to overcome a six run deficit before John Smoltz gets into the game? What about his roster, maybe a pinch-hitter would smell good right about now. At a minimum he should get after the umpire for a bad call last inning, spit some sunflower seeds and scratch himself thirty different ways.
I know this is a new concept and it’s one that has already seen its day. In fact, it never had a day. No day. Day…nada. They must stop it now or I shall become angry.
Nowadays, television networks place cameras inside helmets, microphones on the jerseys, snap photo replays from underground first base…it can’t be many months until the mobile sideline interview crew goes under the stadium to watch the CAT scan of the recently-unconscious-ified quarterback. This is worse than watching home surgery on The Learning Channel; at least the people there know that their splayed organs will be displayed.
This isn’t ‘1984’, where Big Brother is watching you. This is far scarier. This is Big Brother watching you for no good reason. I don’t think people recognize the magnitude of this problem.
The only thing worse than having cameras follow you around 24 hours a day is cameras following completely unimportant people for around the same amount of time.
California calls them paparazzi, a pretentious word if there ever was one. Only to movie stars and overblown Hollywood egos would the word ‘photographer’ be insufficient to describe the sheer agony they feel when the poor huddled masses that pay their salaries actually want to see a picture or interview before the new movie sequel hits the theater. Hollywood has decided that they, collectively, don’t want their picture taken. Hollywood wants us to pay $11 for the new film, wants us to wear the T-shirt and buy the toy in the fast food lunch meal, but god forbid they descend from mountain Olympus and pose in front of one.
I don’t watch those voyeuristic reality shows; knowing that you’re being filmed dispenses with any pretense of reality. No one shoplifts when they see the security camera in front of them – it’s what you do when you know the camera is unplugged that tells all. What fun is it to be a Peeping Tom when Godiva waves at you as she conducts her ride? That takes all the dirty pleasure out of it. That’s kinda like your girlfriend offering to pay your Playboy subscription. If you aren’t going to sneak around and be coy, where’s the fun in being naughty?
Returning to the current problem invading baseball…how will Alou manage his team knowing that he knows we’re watching? You can bet he won’t be cussing up a storm at the outfielder in the midst of his 0-for-37 streak and he won’t chew out the pitcher who just walked six straight batters. There’s no reality there. His managing will be influenced, curtailed, and inhibited. It will be watered down.
The only thing watered down in baseball is the talent and that’s the way it should be. As if anyone could change that.
