Baseball Is (sort of) Back, Baby!

You know, kind of.
But I'll take it any way it's delivered.

Pitchers can't spit on the ball? WHY were they ever allowed to do that anyway? Gross!
No chewing sunflower seeds and spitting the shells all over the dugout floor? See above.
No high fives? They all happily (often without any clear reason) pat each others' butts, so I don't think that'll be a problem.
Can't throw the ball around the infield after an out? Bummer. But ok. Not a biggie.
No dugout-clearing brawls after a smack-talking player gets hit square in the ribs for a second time? Good luck with that.

I just wanna see the game get played. So Thursday night was on my calendar. Giants v. Dodgers in LA. One of the biggest rivalries in baseball. Fun stuff. And it was! Mostly.

The game itself was a bit of a train wreck for the Giants (that sentence typed itself!). But it was great to root for batters and cheer good plays and watch Pablo chase down home plate to score, in all of his beer-truck out of control glory.

The baseball was fun to watch. Listening to ESPN call the game (and I use the term loosely when referencing ESPN's work) is torture. And I'm a Giants fan. I know what torture is. ESPN nails it.

The thing is, they don't really call the game. They just chat. About whatever baseball-related topic is on their minds. There is a game on the screen. Things are happening. But they only call the game when they happen to remember there's a game going on.

Additionally (there's my well-placed transition, thank-you English teachers), the ESPN announcers are national people--they aren't affiliated with any team or market. So they know nothing about the players in the game. Somewhere between John Miller (who knows FAR TOO MUCH about every player who has EVER played the game and isn't afraid to assault you with his knowledge) and the ESPN guys is a happy medium. Their names are Kruk and Kuip.

I don't think it's too much to ask that whoever calls the game (1) actually watches the game as it's going on and (2) knows something about the stats and background of the players in the game being called.

My answer to all of this is to not have ESPN be the only available option for games. There should always be a local market carrying the game with announcers who know the team. If I were the MLB commissioner, I would work to make that happen. Because NO ONE CAN GO TO GAMES! At least give us the enjoyment of hearing the game called as if we were there.

Come on, MLB. If you can arrange for players to be in a bubble, you can arrange local markets. Do it for the fans. We're here. It's only 60 games.

As Nike (now on ALL uniforms in a visible manner, which is a whole other blog coming your way soon) would say, Just Do It!