Observations of a former sports fan:
What happened to the games?
First, I should say I was never one of the obsessed fans.[1] However, I was certainly a sports fan. For about 25 years I had Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League season tickets. I watched those sports on TV as well along with college football and college basketball. Maybe I’m just getting older, but I am pretty sure that the games have changed. Not all of the changes are improvements. And part of it is due to the way the sports are covered. So, let me report what I have observed, and my conclusions based on those observations.
National Football League
The last NFL game I attended was definitely the last NFL game I will ever attend. And the biggest reason is not anything about the game itself. For some reason the powers that be in that business have decided that anything, up to and possibly including a strip search, is appropriate before spectators are allowed into the stadium. I am sure that someone could explain why this indignity is considered necessary. But reason or not, the ticket prices were hard to take but the pat down is more than I will put up with.
And I have pretty much quit watching NFL games on TV as well. The decline of my interest in watching the NFL is partially related to the players beginning to double as cheerleaders, each with their own dance. The sack dances and the end zone dances were not football and they were not entertainment, at least not for me. Recently, this has developed into choreographed multi-player dance routines. I really wonder why they want to put on these silly displays, but the good thing is that I don’t have to watch.
A second role taken on by the players is that of the officials. Receivers now call the first downs. Defensive backs call incompletions. And linemen call offsides or false starts.
I discovered that NFL Football is actually much ado about not too much. If I go to an NBA game, there are 48 minutes of playing basketball. If they aren’t playing basketball the clock stops. If I go to an NHL game, there are 60 minutes of guys playing hockey. When a whistle blows the clock stops. I sat with a stopwatch and watched an NFL game. Start the stopwatch at the snap of the ball, stop it when the whistle blows. The total elapsed time; 6 minutes and 19 seconds.
The NFL is tricking everyone into spending 3 plus hours to watch 6 minutes of action by showing the same play over and over and former players or former coaches draw lines on the screen to explain what happened in the previous 4 seconds. Why people continue to dedicate three or more hours to watch 6 minutes of action is a mystery. There may be a future for some enterprising individual to record the games then market 15-minute broadcasts with all the game activity, and time left for commercials.
National Basketball Association
Professional basketball at the NBA level is a pretty good spectator sport. But the basketball is in danger of the non-basketball antics of the players overshadowing the game.
At one time, a player on whom a foul was called identified himself to the official scorer by raising his hand. Players still signal when a foul has been assessed to them by a gesture. Rather than raising a hand, the motion is to turn both palms up and open the mouth as wide as possible.
There are still offensive fouls, sort of. But selected players have lifetime exemptions. LeBron James and James Hardin are examples of those whose ability to put butts in seats has resulted in an exemption from being called for offensive fouls. Anyone who watched a game in the last few years has seen Lebron deliver forearm shivers which would draw a penalty in a football game without a whistle being heard on the court. It is virtually impossible for opposition players to defend him with the way the games are officiated. At least one announcer called it like it is. His call, “foul on number 28, he breathed on LeBron.” Hardin just jumps into stationary defenders then goes to the free throw line.
NBA players can be easily spotted outside the arenas. For example, if you are in a department store and a 6’8” guy weighing 280 pounds is slightly bumped by a lady headed for the elevator, and the guy stumbles a few steps before flailing his arms and falling to the floor, he is probably an NBA player. Another sign is a guy walking down the street whose head snaps back sharply whenever anyone gets near him.
The acting detracts from the basketball. And I don’t watch as much basketball as I used to.
National Hockey League
I really like hockey, live. Hockey fans generally know the game and are very enthusiastic. It’s hard not to be. Live hockey, with the sound of the stick on the puck and the sound of the skates on the ice and mostly the speed of the game, make it the best live sport. Basketball is fast, but hockey players can go end to end in a couple seconds. And the rinks are larger than the 94’ by 40’ basketball floor. I was in Staples Center when the L.A. Kings won their first Stanley Cup and it was great and very memorable.
Unfortunately, hockey doesn’t translate well to television and on radio it is hard to follow. I remember listening to Bob Miller calling L.A. Kings games and he was very good, but it is hard to call a game that moves so fast. If I still lived in a city with an NHL team I would probably have season tickets again.
Soccer
MMA
I never was interested in this and I have rarely watched any. Reminds me of WWE.
Boxing
There was a time when boxing was near the top of the heap as sports go. Its decline has been the result of a number of factors. There is no longer an Ali, a figure who could make the sport front-page news. There are still really good fights from time to time. Too bad hardly anyone sees them.
Major League Baseball
I am a baseball fan. It’s too bad that the people that control baseball are trying their best to spoil it. They have apparently decided that the games are too long. They are missing the point. They may have polled people who are not baseball fans to find out why they are not baseball fans. Those non-fans gave the length of the game as a reason they don’t follow baseball. So, these decision makers try and mollify those non-fans by proposing changes intended to shorten the game. This is unlikely to make these non-fans into baseball fans and will likely discourage many long-time baseball aficionados. Not to mention changing the character of the game.
Limiting trips to the mound, limiting pitching changes, pitch clocks, these are changes to the game which has always had as one of its charms that it has no clock.[2] The most ridiculous potential change was one that was proposed for try-out in the minors; starting extra innings with a runner on second base. Maybe they should just do rock-paper-scissors, best three of five. These changes are not going to make many of those non-fans into baseball fans.
Of course, those attending Los Angeles Dodger games figured out how to shorten the game years ago. They arrive in the 3rd inning and leave in the 7th. I was at a Dodger game several years ago and Dennis Martinez of the Montreal Expos was pitching a perfect game. But in the 7th inning Dodger fans were streaming out of the stadium like it was on fire.
Curiously, while trying to shorten the duration of a baseball game the same persons have introduced instant replay. That ought to speed things up, right? First, it is not instant. The game stops while the umpires look at the challenged play from 28 different camera angles. And the decision apparently comes from somewhere else. More about instant replay later.
Someone, probably an agent, decided that more people were needed to handle the announcing. It appears that the minimum has been set at 3 in the booth and at least one somewhere else in the stadium. And since they have all these people, they all need to talk. Unfortunately, they don’t necessarily talk about the game they are supposed to be covering. In fact, they talk about everything but baseball. And they spend an inordinate amount of time on camera.
I was lucky enough to hear Vin Scully call games. On the Dodger games he worked alone. He explained what was going on, why and what may happen next in the game. You could learn a lot of baseball strategy listening to him call a game. If he told a story, it was told in such a way as not to interfere with the call of the game. And I don’t recall ever seeing his face on the screen except maybe between innings. Now the directors of the games spend an inordinate amount of time showing you the crowd in the announcers’ booth laughing at each other’s lines.
Another problem with the directors of televised baseball is the propensity to include “nose hair shots.” These are typically shots of the pitcher, closeups that show only parts of the face. It would be more helpful for following the game to show where the fielders are positioned, how the catcher is set up or a lot of other things. These “nose hair shots” are probably done “because we can.” That is usually a bad reason to do something.
American League Baseball
This is similar to Major League Baseball except that they have removed much of the strategy from the game. The designated hitter rule is akin to allowing an extra outfielder in girls high school softball. No offense to softball or girls intended. In fact, I enjoy watching the Womens’ College World Series. They are good athletes and the game is very watchable. But much of the intrigue of a close game is eliminated by the designated hitter.
I have a priority system for deciding whether to watch a baseball game. National League games are first. If I can watch a game between the Cubs and the Giants, that’s the choice. Second are American League games. As for Interleague games, unless they are played in October, I’ll pass if there is something else to do. Interleague play is not terrible for the game of baseball, it’s just not as much of a draw for me.
There is a largely unknown staff position in each league which is activated for all televised games; the Expectorator. The existence of the Expectorator was only a rumor for a long time. I have watched closely, and I am now prepared to reveal the existence and the function of the Expectorator. Each player and coach carries a small device in their hip pocket, similar to the beepers that pre-date cell phones. The Expectorator beeps a player or coach just before they are to be shown on camera in televised games. The beep is that player or coach’s cue to spit. I’ve watched enough to be fairly certain of the existence and function of the Expectorator.
Usually less than a second will pass between the camera being turned on the subject and the expulsion of some material from the mouth. Not a positive but it doesn’t appear to extend the game.
Instant Replay
The now almost universal practice of reviewing calls on the field or the floor detracts seriously from watching the game. Everything stops while minutes pass, sometimes lots of minutes. Curiously, after the event is reviewed there is still no consensus. Announcers will watch 4 or 5 different cameral angles and announce their conclusion, confirm or reverse. The official result is frequently different than the conclusion of the announcers..
Use of instant replay to reverse calls is justified by its proponents by the claim that “it’s important to get it right.” In brain surgery, it’s important to get it right. When an airliner is being assembled, it’s important to get it right. Safe or out, complete or incomplete, which team touched it last before it went out of bounds, it’s not important to get it right. It’s important that the officials do their best, but that’s it.
Come on people, it’s a game. These days, the participants in the professional ranks are all millionaires and they get paid, win or lose. Unless you are a head coach, no one’s job is at stake. For 99.999% of persons, the call, or the outcome of the contest, will not make any difference in their lives. Lighten up. Regardless of the sport, instant replay definitely interrupts the flow of the game.
Coverage of Sports
As stated, coverage of sports is partially responsible for the changes in the games. Coverage of the event during the event is only one part of sports coverage. ESPN and those networks which followed have made sports coverage a 24/7 activity. The 6 minutes that make up an NFL game are discussed, argued about and rehashed for hours during the following week. And much of the discussion is at a high volume and a ferocity that is completely out of sync with the importance of the trivial points being discussed.
I’m not sure what accounts for the apparent interest of some people in watching adults yell at one another. But it’s clear from the amount of airtime devoted to this type of programming that a group of people must be. One ubiquitous personality has made a very successful career out of simply learning to vary volume, intonation and cadence. The best analogy I can think of is one to music. If you are partial to xylophones you enjoy listening to the tones and the rhythm. It doesn’t matter that there is no substance to the sounds. I figure those who chose to listen to this “commentator” are motivated by the same factors that motivate xylophone aficionados. They just kind of enjoy the sound.
Championships are, believe it or not, a factor that can harm sports. In the professional sports they are not really a problem, but championships are different in college sports, particularly in college football. One of the sports networks begins its coverage of the first college football games in the fall with the “Who’s In?” promo showing the 4-team bracket. There is sometimes talk in connection with the NBA about the playoffs diminishing the regular season. In college football the championship and the 4-team playoff has already diminished the regular season and one of my favorite times of year, the bowl games. I heard a national sports radio personality refer to the bowl games as “meaningless.” The same reasoning would conclude that all games by a team with more than two losses would be “meaningless” since they could not advance a team to the championship bracket.
An all too frequent aspect of coverage of sports is the report of the most recent athlete arrest. There have probably been athletes in trouble with the law for many years, but with so much air time to fill on so many outlets, coupled with the apparent hunger of a segment of the public to know everything about everyone, the coverage was never like what it is presently.
Another aspect of the coverage is the amount of time spent on athlete salaries. The average NFL salary is $1.9 million. The average NBA player salary is $6 million. The average MLB salary is 4.47 million.[3] This is a function of a simple rule of economics; supply and demand. The teams in the major sports make a lot of money. The winning teams often make more money. So, the problem is not the amount they make, it’s how public the negotiations become. It’s tough for the average man or woman to hear that a back-up guard on the local team is unhappy with his $3 million a year salary.[4] Baseball has the inside track on this. Rather than extended hold-outs or very public negotiations, baseball’s salary arbitration is largely under the radar.
CONCLUSIONS
Many readers may conclude this whole Observation is a ”get off my lawn” outburst. No, I don’t think so. There are changes in sports and many of them are negative. For the fanatical fan they may be acceptable or even welcome. But the emphasis on technology, the compulsion to review every play, the show within a show that takes place in the announcers’ booth all detract from the game.
Sports are best when they are a diversion from one’s routine. To a varying extent sports have become reality to some fans. And those fans will always be there to support the sport. However, I’m concerned that the person usually referred to as “the casual fan” will grow tired of the “improvements” in the game and the changes in the players. Meanwhile, I can watch baseball, at least until they finish “fixing” it.
[1] “Obsessed fan” can be best described as one who paints his/her body, tattoos the team name on his/her body or names children after team mascot.
[2] I am puzzled by the need of batters to leave the box and walk around for a while before stepping in for the next pitch.
[3] Salary information as reported in the Gazzette Review.
[4] Actually, it’s $3 million for eight months.
Thoughts From The Road 