From today's TIMES and NEWS-STAR
Another
way ESPN has changed the world:
Choreographed,
and sometimes forced, celebration.
Gag.
I
have not watched “The Price is Right” since I had the mumps and missed school
when I was 8. (What a bittersweet week THAT was.) If a lady from Tacoma cries
when she wins the Grand Prize Showcase, I respect that. I’ve got to believe she
really needed the washer and dryer and the trip to Tahiti.
But
if she starts crying for joy, then reaches behind her, grabs a bucket of
Gatorade and douses Bob Barker/Drew Carey, my gut tells me she’s not sincere.
Picture
Charles Nelson Reilly getting an answer right and then, “overcome with
excitement,” diving from the top corner of the Hollywood Squares onto the stage
and into either a wash tub or the arms of Rose Marie.
No
good. Too planned.
So
maybe this is a little scary to share because maybe it means I am getting as
old as Mt. Rushmore, but all these football and baseball celebrations and
gyrations in games that aren’t for the Big Enchilada seem overwrought with “look
at me!” instead of “look at what our team did!”
Sigh…
Baseball
now has wild card, one-game playoffs. Tampa Bay won a one-game playoff to
advance to the next series and their star pitcher pulled out Silly String and
stringed everyone. That is a bit premature as this sort of one-game playoff is
not quite like 1951 and Thomson hitting The Shot Heard ’Round the World to
decide who goes to the World Series. Besides, four games later, Tampa was out
of the race. That’s a lot of wasted Silly String.
The
Los Angeles Dodgers were tearing jerseys off each other after beating Atlanta
in a best-of-five series last week, but that only advanced them to the League
Championship Series. And then there will be the World Series. In other words,
the Dodgers still had EIGHT MORE GAMES TO WIN to become world champions.
So
why the goggles for the Beer and Champagne Baths when you still have games to
win?
The
answer is ESPN. These players grew up watching people celebrate. First it was
celebrating a title, but slowly it’s grown into celebrating their time on
television. Today’s players are conditioned to perform for television.
When
Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history, he WALKED OFF
THE MOUND. His catcher, Yogi Berra, Berra-hugged him. Sweet.
I
watched the 1965 World Series on a DVD recently and when Koufax shut out the
Twins in Game 7, he walked off the mound and his teammates hugged him as they hopped
toward their dugout. And that was GAME SEVEN!
Thomson
and the Giants went crazy in the Polo Grounds in 1951 because they came from
four runs down in the final inning to advance to the World Series. Mazeroski’s
homer in the 9th won the 1960 World Series and set off a wild
celebration at Forbes Field. Nothing scripted. You can watch the replays and
still feel authenticity.
Today,
with most postseason wins, athletes go overboard. But it’s all they’ve known. TV
orchestrates it. With so many sports televised, someone is always celebrating something
on sports television. And that’s led to choreographed first-down gyrations in
September, end zone dances, Gatorade baths (Make it stop!), and – this is the
worst – receivers pretending to whip flags out of their pants, demanding a
penalty whenever they don’t catch a pass in tight coverage. Tail wagging dog.
Sports
is still the only REAL reality television. Except, sadly, when it’s not.
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