I don’t know who ESPN thinks their audience is but it can’t be baseball fans. The baseball fans I know want to watch baseball not personal interest stories about athletes. They want to know who’s batting, who’s pitching, and please, on the whole screen. I, for one and I’m not alone, can do without seeing which Joe Celebrity is in the stands. Or do we have to get an interview superimposed on the game, or watch the loonies in crazy costumes in the audience, or little kids eating ice scream. I didn’t get a big screen TV so that they can submerge the game into a small window. And the latest, give a mike to a player and feature him during the game in his own window. It’s bad enough the commercials take up so much of the broadcast. This isn’t broadway, it’s a damn baseball game. I earnestly wish we could bring back Red Barber or Mel Allen who knew how to broadcast a game. I find I’m happier listening to Howie Rose on CBS rather that watch a Mets game on ESPN. Even worse is ESPN2 with KAYROD in a permanent side window overlaid on the game. They are not worth the subscription. I have to admit that even though the guys on SNY are better than most. Gary Cohen is a good broadcaster. Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez do a great job analyzing things. But they, too, show us the crap in the stands that don’t interest me in the least. I find that watching the SNY Fast Forward summary is often better than the game itself.
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