Monday, October 15, 2007

Not Peanuts And Crackerjacks

Now we have Midge Masks. Before there were Rally Monkeys, ThunderSticks and Rally Paddles. Now there's Midge Masks? I have respect for Indians fans. Good fans. Love the game. Are extremely passionate in that un-irritable sense. But Midge Masks? I now am no longer in fear of the Indians.

Why must sports franchises do this? Why must they bastardize a game I love? A game I know intimately and as profusely as the expression involving the back of one's hand. It's as bad as putting "Cheer Now" messages on the JumboTron. It was bad when the Red Sox introduced Wally The Wall Monster. Glorious when fans subsequently booed him. No JumboTron message needed then.

Give me peanuts and crackerjacks. Give me the home team in it's final at bat in a close game. Give me the chance to score a run or prevent a runner from scoring. Give me a great pitching performance, a base hit or a run-scoring grounder to short. I'm cheering. You don't need to tell me. Don't need to mask it with some prop. It is what it is. And it's great. If you can't get into that, well, then, baseball is not for you.

But alas it is. So we'll see fans with Midge Masks tonight. But I don't care if they ever come back. Give me a Red Sox win.

NOTE: I'm going to attempt to "live blog" during the game. I'm not sure why though. Seems like it could be fun. So tune in around game time.

EDIT: Semi-related to the post. It's pretty cool. A good Christmas present for Isaac grandparents!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah! I agree...STUPID
It would have been better to call them, 'Canadian Soldiers...' with some sort of Canadian battle song.

If baseball is pure...it's just the Indians.

Anonymous said...

Well, this game didn't need the home team in it's final at bat, but it did have chances to score and prevent runs. It had a pretty darn good pitching performance, though not for your side.

So, who cares if there are midge masks? They're better than the thundersticks and rally paddles because the masks don't make noise.

I think it's pretty funny myself. How often do you see those bugs during October baseball?

Of course, I am pulling for the Indians.