FRANKLY, who cared about the baseball game last night: Giants vs. Dodgers in an empty stadium --a truly bizarre, almost scary-looking scene out of a horror movie, at least from my standpoint.
I wanted to both watch and listen to the game. I watched on ESPN and also tuned into KNBR to hear Jon Miller and Dave Flemming. It was interesting and at times, hilarious. I'll explain later.
Miller and Flemm were broadcasting the game from Oracle Park in SF --not LA because of the virus. They were using TV monitors and video provided by Dodgers' broadcast personnel and the whole thing was awful as Miller said several times on the KNBR broadcast; Miller on several occasions was left to wonder where a ball was hit because he couldn't see on the monitor. Flemming too sounded out of whack and on-air lamented that this broadcast set-up was lousy. You could hear his exasperation and anger countless times. It actually made the broadcast sound interesting and again, funny at the same time.
Miller and Flemming worked the game with weird, taped ballpark noise in the background. It was ambient sound and it was irritating --I have no idea why it was inserted in both the radio and ESPN broadcast complete with the fake cardboard cutouts in the stands. That wasn't the Giants' fault but it looked and sounded goofy. So did an empty Dodger Stadium. But that's another story.
Miller was clearly frustrated at times and you could hear his angst --and guess what? I loved it. In an unintentional twist, his pissed-off-ness was great radio. Seriously, I thought Miller, a HOF-broadcaster was his mighty best. Flemming did well too but his constant chirping about the broadcast conditions were beginning to become tedious. Flemming is good but he's not Miller. All in all thought they did a terrific job under the circumstances.
I'm sure ESPN will get huge numbers on this game even as the TV side was difficult to watch. All the three broadcasters routinely talked over each other and that made for a bad look and sound. The fake noise didn't help matters. The F-Bomb heard from a Dodgers' player was cool. I loved it. That made the broadcast memorable if not interesting because the game was a bore.
Miller and Flemming will be on the radio again tonight from LA and Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper will work the NBC Bay Area TV broadcast. I can hardly wait.
What a disaster...just shut sports down until we're back to normal. Let's push for 2025...
ReplyDeleteI'm a big baseball fan--been following MLB since 1970--and moved to the Bay Area about eleven months ago. Despite avidly following the game--and since I'm not a Giants fan--I had to ask myself, "Damn...who the hell ARE these guys??" I think only four or five names rang a bell with me. The others? I guess only die-hard Giants fans know who they are.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with 7:53, that sporting events should be shut down during this crisis. I've been a huge fan of all of the major sports in this country, for 53+ years, and I can't watch the current charade. The "product" is just awful, I don't believe that it's a good idea to put the participants (and the people with whom they will eventually come into contact) at such unnecessary risk.
ReplyDeleteWe're stuck with this format for awhile, so why not dump the crowd noise and mic the dugouts. Put the broadcast on a delay to bleep the bleepables. Dugout chatter should be quite entertaining.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for trumpy to throw out first pitch at Yankee Stadium, AFTER all the Yankees (and prolly opponents) ALL kneel down on grass during National Anthem.
ReplyDeleteLet Fauci throw another strike.
DeleteThat's it, I'm done, it's true what they say about jocks, dumber than poop; I will always remember about that lone ranger who will not KNEEL, blm isn't what you think and kapperdink isn't what you think, it's all about appeasing black people, why?????? don't ALL lives matter???????
ReplyDeleteThe way the Giants played their first two games, at least with a 60-game season they won't lose 100 games. The pipe-in crowd noise and paper cut-outs in the stands were . . . unusual.
ReplyDeleteI disagree about shutting down baseball. Yes, it's very strange to not be able to go to the games and when you're watching them on TV to see the cardboard cut outs of fans and hear the weird pre-produced background noise. And it's true, several players such as Buster Posey have opted out for perfectly understandable reasons. But unlike the NFL, NBA and NHL which cannot social distance safely during competition, generally speaking, baseball does not have that problem. I also think that people need a diversion and something positive to check out during what is a very difficult time. We are all realizing now what it is like to not be able to live the full life that we that we might have taken for granted before, and even though baseball is only available on TV or the radio for the fans, (well, NO radio for A's fans,) the game is still being played and you can see it live. Whether or not MLB can pull off a 60 game regular season and playoffs, given all of the logistical challenges remains to be seen. But the NBA and NHL feature even more daunting challenges while the NFL and college football have to be kidding themselves about playing this fall. It's an easy call to predict that we'll not see Pro or College football, probably until the fall of 2021.
ReplyDeleteI guess this is the equivalent of working from home!
ReplyDeleteWe're back to the days of the telegraphic recreation. Ronald Reagan used to do them in the 30s.
ReplyDelete