Tuesday 28 October 2008

Gearing Up For Election '08: Take Us Out To The Ball Game

Trying to get ourselves in the mood for next week's Live US Election 2008 Blogstravaganza, we're trying to watch the pivotal Game Five of the 2008 World Series on Five. Can the Phillies overcome the Rays to clinch the title? Or the other way around, we don't really care enough to check.

But hey. We really like baseball videogames, ever since first playing Accolade's Hardball on the Speccy. Since then, our infrequent incursions into RBI2 Baseball (Amiga) and MLB 200(x) (Various) have provided many an interesting hour, so we should at least be able to tolerate this, and really get into the stateside mindset for the middle of next week. Here goes...

[One hour of 'baseball' commences.]

By Christ, it's dull. So dull, right now the commentator is actually trotting out a legal disclaimer about how using any "accounts of this game without the express written consent of Major League Baseball, is prohibited!" Hey, Major League Baseball! We've got your account of the game without your express written consent right here! We're bored!

[A further twenty minutes of 'baseball' happens.]

Yeah, that's it. We're going to hotlink to an image from an American newspaper, just to try and exact some petty revenge.



At least when the rest of the entire world went to the trouble of putting on a World's Cup to try and entice God's America around to our sport, we livened it up for them by having a Frenchman chest-butt an Italian near the end. If there isn't a slightly camp 21-man brawl within the next three innings America, you're so going to owe us one.

[By now, about twenty-five minutes of non-baseball occurs.]

After an age of Not Being Able To Do Any Baseball Because Of Rain, on come the rain covers. It's probably telling that every time the US broadcaster cuts to adverts, Five can only cut to their two pundits trying to find something to talk about. Because no UK advertisers are bothered enough about this event to spend money on it. In what is supposed to be a HUGE global event.

Final update: We have elected to play a game of Xbox Live FIFA'09, and then go to bed.

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Steve Williams said...

What I always wonder about the World Series is that it's the best of seven, so it could be over in four games. That must piss you off if you're the broadcaster covering it or the advertiser who's booked ads in the last three games. I find it bizarre an American sport can have such a TV-unfriendly format.

Imagine if the Champions League group stages just stopped after four games when it was obvious who was going through. I'm not saying that would be a bad thing, I'm just saying it would never happen cos ITV would go mental.

Mark X said...

Especially so considering that the more games a World Series goes on for, the more viewers it's likely to get. Having advertising slots booked for Game Seven would be huge news for a company, so finding out that Game Six proved to be the clincher and your commercial is now going out in the middle of Fear Factor instead isn't really going to make up for the massive rebate you'd get (I presume you'd get some sort of rebate, anyway).

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