IDT: New Format, Same Bushleague broadcast

Ceetar · July 13, 2015

ESPN And Berman are just awful.

awful.

called the Griffey's the best father-son HR hitting combo ever.

can't get the camera angle right.

Ceetar · July 13, 2015

didn't get the distance tracker up until the second batter.

didn't explain the rules.

this is pathetic.

i like the new format though.

July 13, 2015

I like the new format. The old format, where the batters would take pitch after pitch, was horrible.

I have very low expectations for ESPN and Berman.

I'm always amazed that none of the little kids shagging balls are not trampled or drilled by a line drive.

I think it's interesting that few of the batters are wearing their authentic Home Run Derby caps, available for sale at MLB.com. Someone at New Era is screaming at a television screen somewhere.

Edgy MD · July 13, 2015

Best father-and-son hitting combos:

Fman99 · July 13, 2015

I'll pass. I'd rather watch all you deviates eat each other's assholes than watch the home run derby.

July 13, 2015

The Boones --Pop Bob with Brett and Aaron.
Gus and Buddy Bell

Zvon · July 13, 2015

Can anyone explain the new format? I don't even have the sound up.

Zvon · July 13, 2015

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote:

I'm always amazed that none of the little kids shagging balls are not trampled or drilled by a line drive.

And I'm always bracing myself for a collision.

July 13, 2015

Zvon wrote:
Can anyone explain the new format? I don't even have the sound up.

Sure!

Brackets, so you compete against another player to get to the next round.

Instead of the homers/10 out format, each batter has 4 minutes. The get 30 seconds extra if they hit a long-distance bomb. So rather than take pitch after pitch, they might as well swing at everything.

No MYS, which is good for everybody.

Zvon · July 13, 2015

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote:

Zvon wrote:
Can anyone explain the new format? I don't even have the sound up.

Sure!

Brackets, so you compete against another player to get to the next round.

Instead of the homers/10 out format, each batter has 4 minutes. The get 30 seconds extra if they hit a long-distance bomb. So rather than take pitch after pitch, they might as well swing at everything.

No MYS, which is good for everybody.

It's certainly more interesting.
I don't recognize any of these guys w/o their baseball caps on. Well, Albert I knew.

Benjamin Grimm · July 13, 2015

Zvon wrote:
Can anyone explain the new format? I don't even have the sound up.

I thought that Fman's post, above, was the explanation of the new format.

Zvon · July 13, 2015

Benjamin Grimm wrote:

Zvon wrote:
Can anyone explain the new format? I don't even have the sound up.

I thought that Fman's post, above, was the explanation of the new format.

With the sound up there's not much difference. So it's over? Todd Frazier wins. yay! Good for him.
*yawn

That was just like watching a video game, and I'm sure MLB would be glad to hear that.

Gwreck · July 13, 2015

The only thing that matters to ESPN is ratings and money. If Berman is costing them viewers, he'll go away. Best bet is to turn off your TV.

This was the first home run derby I've missed in quite some time; I just can't take his buffoonery anymore.

Ceetar · July 14, 2015

Gwreck wrote:
The only thing that matters to ESPN is ratings and money. If Berman is costing them viewers, he'll go away. Best bet is to turn off your TV.

This was the first home run derby I've missed in quite some time; I just can't take his buffoonery anymore.

How exactly would they know Berman is costing them viewers? Can they measure who's muted the broadcast? They ask about the broadcast in MLB's FanAtBat surveys, and I presume the reviews are pretty bad.

Most of the people that won't watch because of Berman have long since decided not to watch. There's probably a growing hate-watch crowd now with social media mocking him.

But it wasn't just him. The entire broadcast was pathetic. With no hyperbole, a group of college kids that have only interned in the field could do better. I'm not sure a high school AV club couldn't top it.

MFS62 · July 14, 2015

Ceetar wrote:

But it wasn't just him. The entire broadcast was pathetic. With no hyperbole, a group of college kids that have only interned in the field could do better. I'm not sure a high school AV club couldn't top it.

In other words, it was a broadcast on ESPN that was about (a stretch) baseball - a subject they don't seem to care about. 'Nuff said.
Later

seawolf17 · July 14, 2015

Screw that. I love the Derby; always have. This was much more fast-paced than in previous years. Loved it.

Benjamin Grimm · July 14, 2015

When did Home Run Derby start? I haven't watched an All-Star Game since the early 90's, and I've never seen a Home Run Derby.

seawolf17 · July 14, 2015

Benjamin Grimm wrote:
When did Home Run Derby start? I haven't watched an All-Star Game since the early 90's, and I've never seen a Home Run Derby.

If I had to guess, I would say mid-80s. Straw won one year, didn't he?

Edgy MD · July 14, 2015

Started in 1985 at the Metrodome. Ken Griffey is the only three-time champ.

More history from the Wikipedia.

July 14, 2015

Benjamin Grimm wrote:
When did Home Run Derby start? I haven't watched an All-Star Game since the early 90's, and I've never seen a Home Run Derby.

This is so strange to me. NEVER interested in it, even in just a general-baseball-curiosity way?

I'm with Wolf. I didn't even catch it live, and I still found the timer/knockout thing thrilling (and a lot less contrived-feeling than the this-time-it-counts business).

Frayed Knot · July 14, 2015

Edgy MD wrote:
Started in 1985 at the Metrodome. Ken Griffey is the only three-time champ.

More history from the Wikipedia.

Although they didn't televise them from the beginning so, outside of attending the thing, it was a few years after that before you could view one from your living room.
That it wasn't televised I'm sure sounds strange to many folks to hear today but there certainly was a time when the idea of 'non-event' sports events -- drafts, 'Selection Sunday', bowl game assignments, 'National Signing Day', pre-game shows that last longer than the games themselves, etc. -- being worthwhile as stand-alone TV shows was considered the much odder thought.

Benjamin Grimm · July 14, 2015

Nope, never. My general baseball curiosity completely evaporated in 1994, and it hasn't come back. I haven't even seen a single pitch of a post-season game, live or on replay, since Carlos Beltran took that called strike three in 2006.

batmagadanleadoff · July 14, 2015

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote:

Benjamin Grimm wrote:
When did Home Run Derby start? I haven't watched an All-Star Game since the early 90's, and I've never seen a Home Run Derby.

This is so strange to me. NEVER interested in it, even in just a general-baseball-curiosity way?

I'm with Wolf. I didn't even catch it live, and I still found the timer/knockout thing thrilling (and a lot less contrived-feeling than the this-time-it-counts business).

I paid close attention to one, maybe two Home Run Derbies. I remember the one with Lo Duca pitching to Wright. I have zero interest in the Derby. I think it's for kids. I used to love the MLB all-star game. All the different uniforms lined up. It was a beautiful spectacle - a kaleidoscope of all the baseball colors on the same field. It no longer holds that magic for me. I dunno why. Maybe 'cause I'm getting older. Maybe interleague play dulled what was once, for me anyway, the special occasion of seeing AL and NL players together on a ball field that isn't used for Spring Training. Maybe it was Selig, ruining the game with those stupid contrivances tied to the WS home advantage. Maybe it's the newfangled custom that everybody's gotta get into the game, which was what led to the fiasco in, guess where?, Milwaukee. Or that relievers seem to pitch most of the innings. Yesterday, I was watching old footage of the '72 ASG. Don't ask me why. Bill Stoneman pitched two of the late innings in a very tight game and even took his at bat.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Guest

Frayed Knot · July 14, 2015

Ceetar wrote:

Gwreck wrote:
The only thing that matters to ESPN is ratings and money. If Berman is costing them viewers, he'll go away. Best bet is to turn off your TV.

This was the first home run derby I've missed in quite some time; I just can't take his buffoonery anymore.

How exactly would they know Berman is costing them viewers? Can they measure who's muted the broadcast? They ask about the broadcast in MLB's FanAtBat surveys, and I presume the reviews are pretty bad.

ESPN, as the biggest promoter if not the outright inventor of the 'non-event' sporting event (see my last post) LOVES the HR Derby and so I'm sure the bosses in Bristol see it and Berman as a perfect match, a contrived and hyped non-game lorded over by the king of hype and contrivance. I also suspect that Berman has enough pull that he can pretty much assign himself to the broadcast without fear of being shot down in his "request". The only event that I know he'd like to do but doesn't is The Masters (ESPN has the Thursday & Friday rights before CBS takes over on the weekend) and that's not because the honchos at Bristol say no but rather because the ones at Augusta do and they've always had enough guts and are willing to take less money in exchange for retaining the right to call all the shots.

Edgy MD · July 14, 2015

I've said so before, but I'm a proponent of taking the whole week off from league play (with exceptions below). Switch the All-Star Game to a three-game series. That way everybody can get in without farcical baseball being played. Starting pitchers can go at least five, if their performance warrants it, and managers can make moves that don't shame them as baseball strategists. Fans won't have to wait 30 years for the game to come to their town. That week could also contain the Hall of Fame Game, the Civil Rights Game (both of which would be games that count in the standings), the Futures Game, the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, the Cracker Jack Oldtimers Classic.

Call it Baseball Week. Revel in the irony that Baseball Week would have more symbolic baseball than competitive league play. There would be primetime national baseball programming every night. Some baseball fans would build pilgrimages around it. Others would ignore it entirely. But news outlets would cover the shit out of it and baseball would expand its cultural footprint. We'd all get plenty of distractions, while yearning for the Mets to return to their schedule, but some would say, "Hey, great time to schedule my vacation and actually pay attention to my family for a week in the middle of the summer."

And all of our teams would return fresh and healthier with a second (modestly ceremonious) opening day.

Anyhow, this is part of my broader marketing plan, which also includes all post-season awards to be presented in a November primetime awards ceremony, possibly broadcast from the hometown of the previous year's champion.

Frayed Knot · July 14, 2015

Call it Baseball Week ... etc.

Hey, if nothing else so far, Manfred has made it quite clear that he's willing to listen to and talk about just about anything.
Write up these suggestions and send them to him.

Edgy MD · July 14, 2015

I'll either get hired or killed.

Benjamin Grimm · July 14, 2015

I lost interest in the All-Star game around the time I stopped caring about opposing players. When I was a kid, I was definitely interested in seeing a game that had Hank Aaron and Willie Mays and Johnny Bench and Willie Stargell playing on the same team with one or two of my own Mets.

Now, the All-Stars are mostly guys who I'm barely familiar with. I'm looking at the rosters now. I have no idea who Jose Altuve is. Or Salvador Perez. Or Lorenzo Cain. Or Jason Kipnis. Or Manny Machado. I don't even recognize their names as the names of baseball players.

There are even guys in the National League who I don't know. If you asked me what team Brandon Crawford was on, I couldn't tell you. Or Nolan Arenado. or Yasmani Grandal. At least in the NL I'm familiar with all of the starters, but there are very few players on either team whose faces I'd recognize. I know who Madison Bumgarner is, and Clayton Kershaw, and Max Scherzer, but if you showed me three mugshots, with them not wearing their caps, I wouldn't be able to tell you which one was which.

Given how disaffected I've become from everything other than the Mets, (and even from the Mets, to a degree) the All-Star game has no interest to me at all. A bunch of strangers (and Jacob deGrom) playing an exhibition game. Tonight I'm going to watch Falling Skies and The Emperor's New Groove. And I probably won't even be conscious that I'm not watching the All-Star game.

Edgy MD · July 14, 2015

C'mon, we've played the shit out of the Giants the last few weeks. Surely you got a taste of Brandon Crawford.

Only shortstop I was hoping the Mets would target this offseason. Now he's a top asset and little more than a slice of pie-in-the-sky. Probably was this offseason too.

Benjamin Grimm · July 14, 2015

Edgy MD wrote:
C'mon, we've played the shit out of the Giants the last few weeks. Surely you got a taste of Brandon Crawford.

Nope. You'd be surprised at how little attention I pay to the opposing team. I honestly don't know who Brandon Crawford is. (If he ever becomes a Met, I'll start paying attention to him.)

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