Back To The Old Ballgame

It’s been a week of revisiting live sports events. Last Tuesday I went to my first Milwaukee Brewers game in probably five years, and yesterday I drove to Green Bay to watch an Indoor Football League playoff game between the Tulsa Oilers and the Green Bay Blizzard. Both were enjoyable, but I couldn’t help comparing them to the experiences I had attending games as a kid. I’m not sure if we’ve lost our way or if I’m a purist—a curmudgeon Boomer when it comes to seeing live sporting events. Probably the latter, but I think it’s worth talking about. Bear in mind that this post is more observational than critical. I love watching live sporting events as much as the next guy, but today things are just different.

Back in the 70s, my grandmother used to take me and my two younger brothers to Twins games at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington. She was an absolute Twins fanatic, and it was her way of treating us boys to a Major League Baseball game once a year. She always made it a point to bring us to a novelty game: Bat Day, Jacket Day, Helmet Day, etc. As kids who were fair-weather baseball fans, getting something free made the day even better.

But what strikes me when I look back is how different the experience was from modern baseball. While the ticket prices and vending prices were still expensive back then, the noticeable difference between then and now is the “entertainment overload” as I like to call it.

If memory serves me right, a baseball game at Met Stadium meant watching nine innings of baseball with nothing but an organist, an announcer, and a black and white scoreboard with a handful of burned-out bulbs. (Correct me if I’m wrong) The organist played little ditties as introductions for each player, and longer ones between innings. The closest thing we had to entertainment was the pitching change car bringing a reliever from the right field bullpen. Because apparently well paid athletes need a lift too. I’m not sure, but it was probably an advertisement for the make, model, and dealership of the highly polished luxury car.

But other than these simple distractions, people were forced to focus on the game. And as a kid, nine innings was a long time to sit still. Our poor grandma was bled dry on concession purchases by us kids despite having just had a lunch buffet at the Stadium Club courtesy of said grandma.

I had similar experiences at County Stadium after I moved to Milwaukee in 1986. They had a stadium of the same vintage, but they had a better sound system: a towering, huge, pillar-like speaker in center field. Like Met Stadium, County also had a scoreboard with several lights out, but a slightly more advanced technology allowed video snippets showing bloopers and replays occasionally. The best form of entertainment was watching the “Two-Fisted Slopper” warning about over-imbibing. The combined setup of the towering centerfield speaker and the low-tech video board was a nice balance of entertainment and sports.

But somewhere over the years, things changed.

Now when I go to a Brewer game, there is music in between almost every batter, video distractions like the kiss cam, the smile cam, and the dance cam. (Strangely enough, there’s no “I came for the game” cam showing people attentively sitting.) Throw into that the rolling ads for bratwurst, insurance, beer, indoor fireworks, etc., and it’s enough to make a person long for the solo organist of 1973. It’s not that I mind these things so much; it’s just that most of it is done at earsplitting volume. And the barrage is fairly constant.

What I’ve found is that the cheaper the tickets, the louder the music and the more constant the “entertainment.” When I went to the Tulsa Oilers game in Green Bay, it was music between every play, but also featured an announcer screaming for fans to get loud every time the opponents had a third down or extra point and every time the home team got a first down or drew a penalty.

I understand trying to rev up the crowd, but it’s the volume thing again. My friend, who’s been to more of these Indoor Football League games than me, said he actually thought about bringing earplugs to the game. Frankly, I wish I had. The volume was rock concert loud for most of the game. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good concert, but I also know what I’m getting into. At this game, I could barely hear my buddy sitting next to me. Between the music, the on-field recognitions of veterans, and the constant references to supporters and advertisers, it was like a three hour commercial sprinkled with moments of football.

It’s been a few years since I was at a Milwaukee Wave indoor soccer game, but that was more of the same. Cheap tickets, endless noise. What shocked me the most when I last saw them was the music playing during the game. I thought it was highly distracting. Music between timeouts, fouls, T-shirt tosses, and at halftime is fine, but during the game? I don’t know, man. Again, personal observation, not an old guy rant. Well, maybe a little.

I realize with all of it that these owners and promoters are catering to the current entertainment climate of overwhelm. Especially now, in the age of TikTok and other ADD scroll-media, they’re up against increasingly short attention spans. Also, I need to consider the demographic of fans who know nothing else, and it all makes sense. I guess I get it.

But I also think it’s a symptom of our culture’s endless need for entertainment, one that may not be the healthiest. My generation grew up with only four channels on TV, and if we had a good day fiddling with a VHF antenna, maybe a couple more. If nothing was on, we did other things. Now, something’s always on and, regardless of whether the game is a thriller or a blowout, we get dozens of mindless distractions to make it appear we’re getting more for our money. Or maybe we are, and I just don’t appreciate it, which is entirely possible.

So, there you have it. My honest take on a couple of sporting observations. I’m all for doing the Jump Around to start the fourth quarter; it’s just I don’t need an announcer shouting, “Let’s make some noise!” at 80 dB while background music is playing at 100 dB every six minutes over three hours. If that makes me a grumpy old guy, well, so be it.

Some days I just want to go back to look over and see my grandma scoring the game in her program using symbols that look like mandarin. I want to hear “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” with just an organist’s accompaniment. I want to watch the balls, strikes, outs and score change on the manual scoreboard like they do at Wrigley. I want Halsey Hall, Bob Uecker and Haray Caray announcing, and the simple roar of the crowd. I don’t need an announcer screaming at me and Guns and Roses playing at a volume of 11.

Then I can leave the earplugs at home and enjoy the game.

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