I agree with SD Steve (again... how irritating!), Publius' post goes to the salient points. Americans' attention spans, averaging the duration of a lit match, are not up to the task of appreciating baseball's subtleties. And the netjerks don't help the situation; coverage consists largely of closeups of players' zits and little kids covering themselves with cotton candy. Seldom if ever do you see a wide shot between pitches (or during a live ball), showing the minor adjustments in fielding positions that reflect the chess game. I love being at the park and seeing, for instance, a shift toward right field against a right handed batter, convincing the batter that they're going to pitch him away, then a last second adjustment to straight away as the front-door slider freezes him on the inside. That stuff goes on constantly, but someone who considers him/herself a better judge of what "we" want has decided that it's too much brain damage for yer average viewer. I'd like to see interactive coverage where the viewer gets to choose the camera (s)he's watching.
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