August 11, 2010

In case you haven’t figured this out: I watch a lot of baseball and have for quite some time. And I read and talk about baseball as well. And I always thought – and The Bad News Bears (original movie, thank you very much, although I didn’t hate the completely unnecessary Billy Bob Thornton re-make as much as I expected to – which was also the case this week with “Mother of Tears,” Dario Argento’s far-too-long-awaited completion of this Mothers Trilogy, but that’s a whole other matter) cemented the fact that ALL ballplayers, and especially Major Leaguer’s ALWAYS wear protective cups. But a couple weeks back I spied a little piece about Carl Crawford, of the Rays (and probably, hopefully in Pinstripes next season) was day-to-day with a “testicular contusion.” More simply put, Mr. Crawford, playing sans cup, took a ball to the nuts. And yeah, I wouldn’t want to play for a few days after that.
And I thought that got the point made – hard – but no, not hardly. Watching yesterday’s Rays/Tigers contest (I often will scout the Yankees’ opposition) there’s another Rays outfielder, this time BJ Upton and he bunts and it comes back up and nails him squarely. And I KNOW exactly what happened as soon as it happened. And yes, Mr. Upton stayed down for a while as the home-plate ump futzed about and cleaned the plate three times and rubbed up a few extra balls as Upton worried about his balls and not the horsehide ones.
And that finally got the Tigers’ ex-player announcer (not sure who he is, I’ll get back to you on that one) who was also an outfielder saying that a lot of outfielders don’t wear cups. Hmmm. Really? I would think that you would at least want one when you were hitting or running the bases, but I guess I care more about my junk. Maybe the ballplayers nuts are so shriveled from steroid use that they think they’re safe, he said tongue in cheek.
When I tuned in to the beginning of yesterday’s Yankees vs. Rangers broadcast on My9 (via my MLB-TV package) there were no announcers. I could hear the stadium noise and the Texas public address announcer but no Michael Kay, et al. And although at first I thought someone died (there has been way too much of that around the Yankees this season, so it makes sense that’s the first place my brain goes) and that, to honor maybe the aforementioned Mr. Kay, the Yanks were going to go without broadcasters. And it was so much a better way for me to enjoy the game. I could hear my own thoughts on the game; I really don’t need the announcers to tell me what’s going on down on the field. And it was wonderful for three and a half batters and then – during the middle of A-Rod’s first inning at-bat whatever technical issue they were having was resolved. The voices came back and I sighed, but I enjoyed the quieter experience so much that I think I’ll write the MLB-TV people an email and suggest that option for next season’s package. Who knows? Maybe they’ll listen to me. I doubt I am alone with my sentiments about so many broadcasters. Shouldn’t we have that option in these technologically advanced days? I sure think so…
Oh, and in case you were wondering, in case you were holding your breath—let it out. Of course the CEO didn’t use any communication method known to man or producer to make either that offer or that official pass…