I'm Not Ready For That
Close-up!
by
Dick Prosapio © 2004
I couldn't be happier that all the post season
baseball is over. Understand that I was really pleasantly surprised
to see the Red Sox blast the Yankees four-in-a-row in that
spectacular series. That was a miracle many of us have been waiting
for for years and years.
And then there was the decidedly anti-climactic
World Series.
I admit to have been pulling for the Boston guys,
eighty-seven years is a long time to wait for a feast, but it would
have been a bit more delicious if they had gone the full route of
seven with all the drama that would have created. But the Cardinals,
though they were beautiful fielders, they seemed to be in a hypnotic
state when they picked up a bat.
But, it was just as well as far as I'm concerned.
One more inning of up-your-nose close-up camera work and clinical
exams of various styles of spitting, and I would have been switching
to PBS no matter who was on base.
What is it with the directors of these events? We
have at least survived beyond the MTV quick cutting era where you
couldn't get a handle on what you were seeing for all the myriad
images being flashed one after another until"What the hell was I
watching?" set in. So we have gone from that frenetic nonsense to,
"Let's examine the pores on this pitchers nose." school of sports
photography.
Personally, I don't really care how many zits the
batter has on his left cheek. I don't need to know that. And I
really didn't feel a need to measure, time after time, the
quantity, color, or trajectory of expectoration the Red Sox manager
or any one of his ball players produces under various and sundry
tense situations. I leave this kind of speculation and examination
to the grounds crew of the ballpark.
And then there's the "fan color", the seemingly
endless shots of fans reacting to every pitch and pause in the game.
I want to send this message to the camera directors at these events.
The GAME is good enough to hold our attention folks! We don't need
all these little "snacks" to keep us interested. After all, it's not
a hot June afternoon in the bleachers in a non-contenders ballpark.
Your viewers are tuned in to see how the GAME turns out, not how
much this guy is sweating or that fan is staring.
The people who are running the "boards" at
baseball games are not fans of the game, they are fans of what they
can do with their telephoto lenses.
I've got some suggestions, but this is a family
show so I'll just close by saying, I'm glad it's over.
Dick Prosapio ©2004, All Rights
Reserved
