I woke up this morning, planning on busting out at least three articles to write.  That’s when the phone rang and drastically changed my plans. Instead, I got to spend three hundred miles and 11 hours behind my steering wheel, getting some work done.  What I came across at the end of my day, in the car, is the subject of this short article.

Let me preface this, by saying that I love baseball.  It’s a beautiful game.  The chess match that plays out on the field each game has always captivated me.  The way I consume baseball the most, is on the radio, and I actually prefer it that way.  The story telling of a good announcer between pitches, can be almost mesmerizing because they are such gifted orators. Hearing games called on the radio, reminds me of a simpler time, when men wore suits and women wore dresses to the games.  It almost makes the game feel more pure to me.  Its easier for me to focus on the pageantry of the game, when I don’t have to see the overly muscled, clearly juicing superstars of today.

There is one event in baseball that was never meant for radio however, and that is the home run derby.  I can’t even watch it on television, but hearing it on the radio is much, much worse.  I think hearing a checker game would be more exciting.  If nothing else, it would have the same pace and flow.  Listening to two guys have a conversation about nothing in particular, before one busts off in mid sentence, to spit out some cliche like, “kiss it goodbye” or “back, back, back, GONE”  just seems pointless to me.  There is no training to call a home run derby so no one is good at calling it.

I even understood having it on radio before the DVR was invented.  That way, the true die-hard could get their fix, without having to know how to work the VCR.  Now that we have amazing technology, that helps us record things with a click of a button, we don’t need it broadcast over the radio airwaves.  This is a made for TV event and it needs to stay that way.