(…I also hate the Yankees, but that’s another thread).
We’re stuck with Fox for the duration of the LCS’s and the World Series, and I may not be able to take it.
For Fox, the mantra “less is more” has no meaning. They believe more is more. Why have two graphics on the screen when you can have 2, plus a crawl? Who cares if the crawl is repeating what the announcers are saying?
Why have just graphics, when you can play a song while showing your graphic? And make zoom-swoosh noises as you put them on & off the screen?
Why just have 10 cameras, when you can bury a camera in the freakin’ dirt in the basepath, and give us a gopher’s-eye-view of Johnny Damon swinging and missing. (that added a lot to my understanding… :rolleyes: )
And Tim McCarver is a moron. Forgot to mention that.
Former catchers usually make good commentators, but not Tim. His grasp of the rules is remarkably shaky, for one thing. During an LDS game (teams forgotten) there was controversy over whether or not a batter was hit by the ball he had just chopped in front of the plate. No call was made, and the batter reached first. While they repeatedly showed the replays, McCarver kept spouting that the runner should’ve been called out, since he was hit by the ball. He didn’t notice that it occured in the batter’s box, and the appropriate call should’ve been “foul ball”.
I like the buried cameras. Gives me a view no-one but worms have ever seen, and you can see different aspects of the batter’s swing. The announcers could be better, but Vin Scully doesn’t work the American League.
Oh, and I know there was a pit thread on it not long ago, but can we please quit it with God Bless America? I never thought I’d be pining for something like Cotton-Eye Joe or YMCA.
YES! I yearn for the day that they go to commercial for GBA, and come back live to show “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”. Then we will know that we, as a nation, have our priorities back where they should be.
I agree with all of the above, PLUS I hate all the goddam crowd shots they cram in between pitches. Have you noticed that after the pitcher gets the ball you see - a close up of the pitcher.
a closeup of some random schmo in the crowd.
a closeup of some other random schmo in the crowd.
a closeup of the batter
another fucking crowd guy
another one
another one
GAAAAH FUCK I WILL KILL YOU!!
and here’s the pitch. strike one.
Let’s see another fucking asshole in the crowd.
Each shot about 1 second in duration of course. It’s enough to induce cross-eyed gibbering rage, and it’s non-stop for the duration of the entire ballgame!
Also, I suspect that they don’t show random selections of people either. When it was tied last night, every crowd shot showed somebody looking sad, or worried, or depressed. Was there really not a single happy face in the crowd at that point?? The crowd sounded excited and enthusiastic, but the only ones they actually showed were glum and subdued. I think that they pick those shots to support whatever they decided the storyline of the game should be, and the theme for the night seemed to be “the discouraged Red Sox fan”. One of the local radio commentators (Brooke Ward) completely fell for it - he was talking today about how depressed everybody was in Fenway last night, as if the Fox crowd shots were a representative selection. I don’t believe it!
Seriously, though, those fucking 1-second shots drive me nuts. They should have 3/4s of the cameras taken away so that they would have to concentrate on the game on the field.
Another thing that bugs me is when the go to Jeanie Zelasko for a “game break”, and the “game break” isn’t any earth-shattering news or live update, but just a routing announcement that the next game will be on such-and-such a day and time on Fox blah blah blah. Why do we need a special “game break” for that? Everybody does that, though, not just Fox.
“The scoreboard out there is different tonight, they have different numbers up there than last night.”
“It’s like a shutout!” (It was 4-3 at the moment.)
God bless Kruk and Kuip, Miller and Flem. Us Giants fans are truly spoiled with our broadcast team (unlike Vin Scully who will wax poetic for half an hour about some girl eating cotton candy, never quite sounding like he knows where he is).
I don’t mind most of the graphics, except that ‘flame’ when they put up the speed of the last pitch! It harkens back to the glowing puck with the flame on the back of it when shot hard.
I’ve never understood why baseball producers think we want to see some ballplayers entire face taking up the whole screen. It’s disgusting.
Can you imagine if football was shown the same way baseball is?
During the huddle, the camera would zoom in on the face of the quarterback, then pan to a close up of a linebacker’s face while they stand at the line of scrimmage waiting for the offense. The two teams would line up, the camera would zoom in on the quarterbacks entire face while he does the cadence. It would then switch and zoom entirely on one of the defensive lineman’s face. Then it would pan the crowd, zooming in on a few fans, then return to an ultra closeup of the quarterback. Then at the snap, it would suddenly zoom out and track the ball in the air. Once the play is done, if it was a success for the offense, the camera would do an ultra-closeup of two players celebrating and then pan to a dejected defensive player’s face. If it was a failure for the offense, vice versa. The camera then pans the crowd, zooming in on a few people making interesting faces, then it would return back to an ultra closeup of the quarterback.
And immediately, the NFL’s numbers see a steady decrease.
I know this isn’t really Fox’s fault, but it’s about at the point where I swear the Yankees-Red Sox game will go completely past the Cardinals-Astros game. When the heck did this game start? Like 5 PM EDT, right?
