Baseball’s back

So baseball’s back. Our local stations have been showing old A’s, Giants, and Warriors games, and they were occasionally fun to watch (or at least having on in the background when you were doing other things). But they didn’t pack a whole lot of suspense: when a station is showing a “classic” game, odds are pretty good the home team won. It’s nice to have the chance to watch games that actually have tension again.

The feel of the games is certainly different. I’m glad teams have opted for background crowd noise, even if it’s fake; it would just feel weird for games to be play in near silence. And while it would obviously be preferable to be in a situation where actual people could attend games, the cardboard cutouts teams have opted for do seem like an improvement over just having empty stands. If nothing else, they give you the opportunity to scan for funny images during “crowd” shots.

You can tell it’s been quite awhile since players have been in real games; most of them look rusty (both on offense and defense). It’ll be interesting to see how players in other sports look as they restart. Our daughter is looking forward to hockey starting again this weekend (although with the Sharks out, I personally won’t be paying that much attention).