Memo to the guys who direct baseball games on TV
When I go to games, particularly big playoff games, I just wanted to let you know what I do:
When the game is really tight in the late innings, rather than look at where the outfielders are playing, or where infielders are stationed, or what sort of signs are being given by the manager, or what the players in the dugout are doing, or what the hitter or pitcher are doing in between pitches, what I try to do is look as closely as I can at fans in the stands.
I try to find a fan going through some sort of personal anguish, hand-wringing, praying or whatever. Bonus points for the ones who look really miserable. Then I try to spend as much time as I can staring as closely as I can at said fan. Yeah, that’s what I do.
At least that seems to be what YOU think I do. Because when I watch baseball on television these days that’s about all you want to show me. You seem to think that’s what people really want to see. Maybe they do, but I doubt it. Heck, I’d rather view one of those nose-hair closeups of a player scratching his private parts or spitting tobacco than another of those stupid shots of an idiot fan in the stands.
I mean, no offense — in the old days of TV the big deal was to zoom in on the wives of the players. But the players must have put a stop to that. Maybe that’s why it has become the norm to zero in on anonymous fans during tight moments in a game. A cardinal rule here, TV directors: ANYTHING happening on the field is better viewing than ANYTHING happening in the stands. Unless, of course, someone is taking off her clothes. But you wouldn’t show that, anyway.
Baseball, Media | Dwight Jaynes | October 3, 2008
Close ups of nervous fans are the equivalent of ABC “Up Close and Personal” horsepucky Olympics coverage… Vapid nothingness to attempt to hook utter non-fans to pay attention long enough to show up on the Nielsen scoreboard…
Sort of a Mariner Moose for slow grownups… Or so they think.
I think TBS has really dropped the ball on their coverage. Dick Stockton? Craig Sager? It’s like a reject All-Star team.