Saturday, August 05, 2023

The Big Screen

 One recent midweek morning, people wearing various combinations of white, orange and black could be seen maneuvering their way from various points in the Bay Area to downtown San Francisco. They came on foot or by cycle, bus, train or cable car, in a Lyft, Uber, or private car or maybe a boat or even a scooter.

Many of them carried baseball gloves, most wore sunglasses (mostly pushed up for now), some carried backpacks, blankets, water bottles or cups of coffee or stronger beverages cleverly disguised, or so they thought.

It was a typical San Francisco summer’s day — a thick layer of fog blanketed the entire area and a soft breeze blew in from the west, where the Pacific Ocean sloshed ashore with its familiar rhythms. Somewhere a foghorn moaned.

In what is commonly known as McCovey Cove, just off right field at the San Francisco Giants’ baseball stadium, the usual array of kayaks, sailboats and other water craft were gathered, while inside the park vendors were preparing their daily stocks of hotdogs, popcorn, crab cakes, garlic fries, Ghirardelli hot fudge ice cream cups, and plenty of beer.

By the time the first pitch was thrown (12:45 p.m.), some 33,000 people had assembled and the home team had taken the field as their opponents, the Arizona Diamondbacks, prepared to hit.

Oracle Park, as it is currently called, is an intimate tiered venue tucked into a nook of the shoreline, with a variety of kitschy features beyond the outfield wall, including a giant replica of an old-fashioned baseball glove and an equally gaudy oversized Coke bottle.

Why are they so large? Well the home team is called the Giants, so big stuff is to be expected. But the main feature, the one that draws everyone’s attention, is a massive scoreboard that includes a huge video screen that captures virtually every aspect of the game for instant replay.

All eyes go out to the screen repeatedly as the crowd tries to figure out what just happened in real time. “Was that runner safe or out? Let’s watch the replay.” 

While there are still many in the seats who are current or former players and coaches of all ages, and therefore intimately familiar with the intricate mechanics of the game, others are just here for a good time, for the beer and hot dogs, and the relatively remote possibility that they might catch a foul ball. (Thus the gloves.)

On this particular day, it was a pitcher’s duel, and the home team ultimately prevailed 1-0, thanks to a solo home run hit out toward McCovey Cove by Giants first-baseman LaMonte Wade, Jr., a stellar pitching performance by a bevy of pitchers plus several very good defensive plays.

The visitors played well too, but just not well enough. One striking feature of the modern game is that all the players and umpires look up at the giant screen after each play just like the fans. It’s as if no one is entirely certain about what sctually happened until they see it on TV.

Baseball is a game of tradition — a century and a half of it — but it is also changing with modern technology.

Nowadays there is a “challenge” feature, whereby managers can demand a review of a close call. When this happens, all the camera footage is transmitted back to a set of umpires in New York and everybody in the park just sits and awaits their verdict. 

During this interregnum, tempers in the dugouts and on the field have a chance to recede and as a result very few coaches or players fight or get thrown out of games any longer — outbursts that were part of the standard fare in years past.

And so onward it goes. After the game, the boisterous home crowd happily packs up its gear, which on this day includes a promotional pack of trading cards, to stream out of the brick-walled stadium back onto the sidewalks, bikes, motorcycles, buses, trains, cable cars, Lyfts, Ubers, private autos, boats and scooters to head back homeward.

By now it is mid-afternoon. The sun is starting to break through the fog above San Francisco Bay, and it’s finally time to push those sunglasses down into place. The winds are kicking up, too; in response the locals just add another layer of orange, black or white.

Tony Bennett’s voice comes on the loudspeaker. It was a very good day for the home team.

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