From the Sidelines
Published 12:00 am Saturday, August 5, 2000
MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / August 5, 2000
There is a memorable line in the terrific “When It Was A Game III” being shown on HBO this month, with the narrator remembering when baseball was like a long-running television series. He compared the game to shows like “HillStreet Blues” and “Cheers,” where the characters remained the same year after year.
There was a time when the “Cheers” theme, “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” truly fit baseball. As they pointed out in the HBO special, when youmentioned the number 24 in the 1960s, baseball fans knew you were talking about Willie Mays. Say the number seven and images of Mickey Mantleswinging for the fences in Yankee Stadium immediately came to mind.
How times have changed. Now baseball is more like a soap opera wherecharacters changing shows is commonplace. Fans really do need programsnow to follow who is on their teams nearly every given week.
Sure, there are still players like Baltimore’s Cal Ripken Jr., Chicago’s MarkGrace, Atlanta’s Tom Glavine and Houston’s Craig Biggio, players who have spent their entire careers with the same team. But for every Ripken andGlavine, there are players like Ron Gant and Denny Neagle, good players who seem to switch teams every season. Even superstars like Mark McGwire, KenGriffey Jr., Greg Maddux and Barry Bonds have moved to a different addressat least once in their careers.
Watching those players from the 1960s in the special, you get an appreciation of how many baseball legends played during that era. Stars suchas Stan Musial, Hank Aaron, Mays, Mantle, Roberto Clemente, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale.
And you have to wonder, which players from this current generation will be legends? Ripken and McGwire, for sure. Maddux and Griffey, maybe. But evena player like Bonds, perhaps the best player in the game today, may not be considered a legend 40 years from now.
The funny thing about it is, the reason why those players may not be legends in the future is because they are so publicized now. We know almosteverything about them. With the stars of the past, there was a sense ofmystery surrounding them, a magical aura.
But like those shows that reveal a magician’s trick, something has been lost with modern technology. Watch any telecast and there are the announcersbreaking down the game to its minutest sense. It used to be you had to playthe game (or be one of its truest fans) to know the hidden gems of it. Now,announcers and graphics break them down for you, frame by frame.
Whatever happened to the days of the “Game of the Week” on NBC? Still the best broadcast was Vince Scully’s of Jack Morris’ no-hitter for Detroit against Chicago in 1984. While many announcers would be yelling at the topof their lungs, describing the scene, Scully let the sounds of the ballpark do that. After about a minute, he softly announced “And then there werenone.” The perfect words for a perfect moment.Announcers like Scully, Bob Costas and Mel Allen did not need graphics and statistics to describe the action. They did it (See SIDELINES, Page 9A) …from Page 7Afor you, making you feel you were at the ballpark, while not getting too technical. When Scully said “grab a seat and stay awhile,” that seat seemednot to be in your living room but in Wrigley Field or Comiskey Park or wherever.
Maybe we are too spoiled by the athletes of the day. We are so bombarded byhighlights of Jim Edmonds making a diving catch, Roberto Alomar going into the hole for a grounder or McGwire launching one into the third deck, perhaps we take them for granted. What used to be considered the spectacular isnow considered the commonplace.
You don’t have to appreciate the history of the game to appreciate watching or playing it. But it does add something to it, it does add perspective. When aplayer like Sammy Sosa remembers Joe DiMaggio as only the man who married Marilyn Monroe, it has to make you cringe. So do players who do notrealize the impact that Jackie Robinson had on the game for all races. Whatwas the saying by the award-winning scientist who said he could see as far as he did because he stood on the shoulders of giants? Beyond the graphics, the stats, the multi-million dollar salaries, the collective bargaining agreements and the luxury suites, baseball is still a simple game.
There are still nine innings to a game and three outs in an inning. Maybe we,too, need to stand on the shoulders of those giants who have played before in order to appreciate it more.
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