During semi-critical moments in baseball playoff games, it has become standard practice for the networks to zoom in for closeups of fans before every pitch.
The directors just love to show anxious fans with hands clasped in prayerful mode.
Especially middle-aged praying women.
I realize that people attending these games are often not the regular-season fans who support the club and know something about baseball, but still. ENOUGH with the damn praying!
Fenway Park is not a church. Dave Roberts is not the official Patron Saint of Lost Causes. Clap, cheer, chant, whistle, wave your arms, jump up and down or whatever, but don’t sit there praying.
Fox (and the other networks) - there’s a game out there. Focus on the players. You do not have to show the Anxious Praying Fans between every pitch.
Well Sox fans have to do something…right? I mean they have not been able to rely on the ability of their players alone for so long…I’m not surprised they are resorting to prayer.
Haven’t seen any of those, just the clasped-hand silent anxious types in the stands.
And this of course is not just a Fenway phenomenon, but occurs in other ballparks as well. There may not be that many of these people, but the TV cameras just love them.
They’re all part of Mary Katherine Gallagher’s family (you know how large some Irish Catholic families can get). When they get nervous, they put their hands under their armpits, then they smell their fingers.
If you’re talking about the game last night, those people weren’t praying - they were using their breath to keep their faces from freezing solid. The Fox producer sure was eating it up, though.