Used to be a time when listening to our American pastime on the radio was a delicious escape. No matter what was dragging you down in your daily life, turn on that ballgame and there you were! You actually became the roar of the crowd, the crack of the bat, the 'steeeRike' of the ump, and all this while the smell of popcorn seemed to be actually wafting out of your car radio as you'd listen! Then, about a year or two ago, Major League Baseball went 'big time' corporate----in the most obnoxious, vulgar and pathetic of ways. Suddenly, instead of hearing an inning of uninterrupted baseball, we now have obnoxious interruptions assaulting our consciousness throughout the actual inning itself----not just between innings.
We are now assaulted by MLB game broadcasters (except for Vin Scully, thank God) who, throughout any given inning, interrupt the flow of the ball game, to tell us such wonderful tidbits such as: 'The 7th inning stretch is brought to you by Coca-Cola', today's attendance announcement is brought to you by Ford, today's 1st home-run of the game is brought to you by United Airlines, today's first double-play of the game is brought to you by KFC, this inning's pitching change is brought to you by Wells Fargo, today's first scratch of the pitcher's crotch is brought to you by Las Vegas Casinos, today's first spit out of the left-fielders mouth is brought to you 'MLB Sucks'..........yes folks, if that's bad. For those of you who are baseball fans, you already know. For those of you who aren't baseball fans but are curious as to what I'm talking about, turn on ANY MLB game and listen for half-an-inning----you'll quickly see for yourself. What can we do about it? As for me, I immediately hit the mute button on the radio until the ad is over, and I make a point to not support any of the advertisers I hear mentioned during the actual inning. I have no problem with the normal ads BETWEEN innings, but when corporate America starts taking over the actual innings themselves, well that's the day we can say America's pastime is actually on it's way to literally becoming a 'past time'.
(Would love to hear from you....leave your comments below :)
We are now assaulted by MLB game broadcasters (except for Vin Scully, thank God) who, throughout any given inning, interrupt the flow of the ball game, to tell us such wonderful tidbits such as: 'The 7th inning stretch is brought to you by Coca-Cola', today's attendance announcement is brought to you by Ford, today's 1st home-run of the game is brought to you by United Airlines, today's first double-play of the game is brought to you by KFC, this inning's pitching change is brought to you by Wells Fargo, today's first scratch of the pitcher's crotch is brought to you by Las Vegas Casinos, today's first spit out of the left-fielders mouth is brought to you 'MLB Sucks'..........yes folks, if that's bad. For those of you who are baseball fans, you already know. For those of you who aren't baseball fans but are curious as to what I'm talking about, turn on ANY MLB game and listen for half-an-inning----you'll quickly see for yourself. What can we do about it? As for me, I immediately hit the mute button on the radio until the ad is over, and I make a point to not support any of the advertisers I hear mentioned during the actual inning. I have no problem with the normal ads BETWEEN innings, but when corporate America starts taking over the actual innings themselves, well that's the day we can say America's pastime is actually on it's way to literally becoming a 'past time'.
(Would love to hear from you....leave your comments below :)
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