Hoopla

I watch a lot of sporting events on television, and many of them are preceded by hoopla.  Especially the "special" events, such as The All Star Game http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/all_star/y2013/, The Superbowl http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/47; the Daytona 500 http://www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com/Tickets-Events/Events/2013/Daytona-500/DAYTONA-500.aspx; the NBA Championship series http://www.nba.com/history/finals/champions.html.

Well, mostly, I try to avoid the hoopla.  For the Superbowl, I tune in for the game and not the pre-game show.  For NASCAR, I wrote to them, and I think many other fans wrote to them, and told them to stop announcing the race time as the "hoopla" time.  I like to watch the fly over, the singing of The Star Spangled Banner and the command: "Gentleman,start your engines."  When I first started watching NASCAR, the start time announced for TV coverage was just that. Well, they have done better, and break out the pre-race show from the race show.

Most National Football League http://www.nfl.com/ coverage is not bad. They basically have some fun but focus on the game. Of course, The Superbowl coverage is atrocious, but you just need to be discerning of the start time, which is widely and publicly announced.

I think Major League Baseball does very well: Most of their games start about 12 minutes after the hour, but they spend the first few minutes introducing the lines ups. So, that is good.

July 16, 2013 was the Major League Baseball All Star Game: I purposefully watched the pre-game hoopla. Because my experience with the pre-game hoopla is that it is meaningful, and tasteful. It was this year. It included presenting flags from various teams to American heroes. The songs were patriotic, and the introduction of teams, and the first pitch were appropriate.

I think there was a time when Major League Baseball did not "get it."  But honestly, I think for the most part Major League Baseball "gets it" that it is the "national sport" of the United States of America, and, especially since 9-11-2001 it has tried to represent what that means.

So, tonight, I watched the hoopla. It was appropriate. It was on target. Yeah, baseball.