A Simpler Time

The Yes Network was rerunning the Monday Night Baseball game the Yankees played against the Orioles in 1979, the same day Thurman Munson was buried in Ohio.

It was an emotional game that the Yankees won as Bobby Murcer drove in all five runs. Anyway, I watched that game as a kid and watching it again was a trip. There weren't two dozen replays of every pitch. The announcers didn't feel the need to fill every second with chatter, trivial statistical information that adds nothing to the coverage and keep in mind that one of the voices in that booth was Howard Cosell. The crew didn't feel the need to keep moving the camera every three seconds. Lord knows these days we can't be expected to gaze at the same image on the screen for more than three seconds without getting antsy.

Anyway, the game was just as compelling as it was 28 years ago. Now I'm not knocking better cameras, improved pictures, greater detail, all those advancements are good. What's not is filling the screen with clutter, crap, meaningless replays, stats, and other filler that adds nothing to the telecast. Just because one can do something, doesn't mean it needs to be done.