Classic Games Give Us New Perspective
March 31, 2020 at 4:53 p.m.
Classic Games Give Us New Perspective
By Roger Grossman-
There is nothing happening.
In the summer, we have Major League Baseball’s All-Star Break, which (after the home run derby and the game itself on Monday and Tuesday, respectively) gives two days of nothing but speculation about who will be buyers and who will be sellers and who the buyers will be shopping for before the July 31 deadline.
It was actually exciting news that baseball had put together a plan for games and reached a deal with players on things like how players would be paid for the season and how service time for players on contracts that include that language will be handled.
But here we are, in a prolonged intermission from all sporting events at all levels in every country on the globe. It’s only been two-and-a-half-weeks, but it feels like years.
A virus did that to us.
Sports networks have been scrambling to fill airtime that would have been consumed with games and pregame shows and postgame shows and shows to preview the pregame shows and…you get the point.
Some of them have cracked open the vaults to show us “previously aired games,” and they are fabulous. They have given us a glimpse into the past and offered younger viewers some perspective on what “was”. It’s given someone like me a second chance to look at things, this time from a 52-year-old’s point of view.
For example, my all-time favorite national broadcast crew is NBC’s Dick Enberg and Merlin Olson. Enberg was gifted with the ability to capture “the moment” in every game in just the right tone and with total context. Olson played 15 seasons in the NFL and then acted on successful shows like Father Murphy and Little House on the Prairie. He took his knowledge of football and coupled it with the art of telling a story to give us a portal into how the game was supposed to look in a way we understood and trusted.
Something else I noticed is how different the players of the 1970’s and 80’s looked compared to the stars of today.
The big, powerful sluggers that pitchers feared were guys like Jim Rice and Andre Dawson. Rice was 6’2” and weighed 205 pounds. Dawson was 6’3” tall and, at his biggest, weighed 195.
DJ LeMahieu now plays second base for the Yankees, and he tips the scales at 215 pounds.
Mike Moustakas, who was signed in the offseason and is projected to start at second base for the Reds, plays at 225 pounds.
Baseball players then were, well, baseball players. Now, more and more baseball players are athletes — gifted not only with the hand-eye coordination to hit and catch a baseball or the mechanics to throw one so batters struggled to hit it, but to slow down the game in their minds to play it at a higher level.
Something else I was reminded of is how much basketball has changed. Yes, the players are bigger/stronger/faster like we see in baseball. But the way the game is played has changed, and the three-point shot is the biggest reason why.
When I was young, and there was no three-point arc, the emphasis on offense was to work the ball inside to your big, back-to-the basket “center” and then get a high-percentage shot from there.
Today, it’s more of a game (at all levels) of high-pick-and-roll with the option to drive to the basket, feed the screener rolling to the basket or drop it back to the screener for a three pointer. That last option is one that would never have been considered 30 years ago. Big guys just didn’t shoot from the outside — guards and forwards did.
Very few players today shoot that 12-18-foot jump shot now. It really is a lost art.
Of course, other things have changed too.
I remember when Fox started covering sports and they added the time and score box at the top of the screen. We all were indignant at the “gimmick” because it was taking up space on the screen. It was invasive. It was annoying. It made real games look like video games.
But it worked, and not only is the concept here to stay, but networks have added time outs, team fouls, the possession arrow, down and distance and all sorts of information to them to enhance our experience of watching sports.
Watching these classic games of yesteryear leaves you wondering “what’s the score and how much time is left?”
We now have a line of scrimmage line and a first down line on our screens as reference points as we watch football.
Announcers now give us stats on how far a home run ball traveled and how fast it was moving when it left the bat.
I hope we look back and appreciate was sports was and how it was delivered to us, because you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you have been.
There is nothing happening.
In the summer, we have Major League Baseball’s All-Star Break, which (after the home run derby and the game itself on Monday and Tuesday, respectively) gives two days of nothing but speculation about who will be buyers and who will be sellers and who the buyers will be shopping for before the July 31 deadline.
It was actually exciting news that baseball had put together a plan for games and reached a deal with players on things like how players would be paid for the season and how service time for players on contracts that include that language will be handled.
But here we are, in a prolonged intermission from all sporting events at all levels in every country on the globe. It’s only been two-and-a-half-weeks, but it feels like years.
A virus did that to us.
Sports networks have been scrambling to fill airtime that would have been consumed with games and pregame shows and postgame shows and shows to preview the pregame shows and…you get the point.
Some of them have cracked open the vaults to show us “previously aired games,” and they are fabulous. They have given us a glimpse into the past and offered younger viewers some perspective on what “was”. It’s given someone like me a second chance to look at things, this time from a 52-year-old’s point of view.
For example, my all-time favorite national broadcast crew is NBC’s Dick Enberg and Merlin Olson. Enberg was gifted with the ability to capture “the moment” in every game in just the right tone and with total context. Olson played 15 seasons in the NFL and then acted on successful shows like Father Murphy and Little House on the Prairie. He took his knowledge of football and coupled it with the art of telling a story to give us a portal into how the game was supposed to look in a way we understood and trusted.
Something else I noticed is how different the players of the 1970’s and 80’s looked compared to the stars of today.
The big, powerful sluggers that pitchers feared were guys like Jim Rice and Andre Dawson. Rice was 6’2” and weighed 205 pounds. Dawson was 6’3” tall and, at his biggest, weighed 195.
DJ LeMahieu now plays second base for the Yankees, and he tips the scales at 215 pounds.
Mike Moustakas, who was signed in the offseason and is projected to start at second base for the Reds, plays at 225 pounds.
Baseball players then were, well, baseball players. Now, more and more baseball players are athletes — gifted not only with the hand-eye coordination to hit and catch a baseball or the mechanics to throw one so batters struggled to hit it, but to slow down the game in their minds to play it at a higher level.
Something else I was reminded of is how much basketball has changed. Yes, the players are bigger/stronger/faster like we see in baseball. But the way the game is played has changed, and the three-point shot is the biggest reason why.
When I was young, and there was no three-point arc, the emphasis on offense was to work the ball inside to your big, back-to-the basket “center” and then get a high-percentage shot from there.
Today, it’s more of a game (at all levels) of high-pick-and-roll with the option to drive to the basket, feed the screener rolling to the basket or drop it back to the screener for a three pointer. That last option is one that would never have been considered 30 years ago. Big guys just didn’t shoot from the outside — guards and forwards did.
Very few players today shoot that 12-18-foot jump shot now. It really is a lost art.
Of course, other things have changed too.
I remember when Fox started covering sports and they added the time and score box at the top of the screen. We all were indignant at the “gimmick” because it was taking up space on the screen. It was invasive. It was annoying. It made real games look like video games.
But it worked, and not only is the concept here to stay, but networks have added time outs, team fouls, the possession arrow, down and distance and all sorts of information to them to enhance our experience of watching sports.
Watching these classic games of yesteryear leaves you wondering “what’s the score and how much time is left?”
We now have a line of scrimmage line and a first down line on our screens as reference points as we watch football.
Announcers now give us stats on how far a home run ball traveled and how fast it was moving when it left the bat.
I hope we look back and appreciate was sports was and how it was delivered to us, because you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you have been.
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