Foxification

San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist Steve Tady, a.ka. "The Betting Fool" recently bemoaned what he described as the "Foxification" of sports broadcasts, using the example of the World Series. This process requires ridiculous camera shots, massive overuse of graphics and things like the "Right Now!' box, which tells you in big box print what you're already looking at. Read the sage wisdom at:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/10/25/fool385.DTL

This naturally required a thoughtful response:

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Dear Betting Fool,

The problem is that the "Foxification" of sports mirrors the Foxification of life. You see it everywhere.

I have a co-worker who watched the playoff day games over Mlb.Tv in one window on his computer while a stock ticker scrolled across the top of his screen and ESPNNews ticker ran across the bottom, while he worked in both Word and Explorer. Oh, and when a new e-mail message arrived, it popped a message in the middle of the mess. He thinks this is perfectly normal.

Then there's the bud who asked me by to watch a football with him. It was a good game, a game he spent reading and writing e-mail on his laptop while we watched. Great sports company, eh? "Don't worry, I can talk, watch and do e-mail at the same time," he said. He couldn't, of course, but he won't believe that.

Go to a kids Saturday soccer game and see all the soccer moms and dads spending as much time on their laptops and cell phones as they do cheering on Jr. and Jr. Miss. Can't waste time, y'know.

People complain about fans at SBC Park leaning into their the cell phone instead of watching the game. But everyone does this nowadays. The only "problem" at SBC is that everyone's doing it out in the open at the time at the same place.

Needless to say, I think this is all madness. The scientists tell us that we really can't "multitask." We're not wired for it. It gives us headaches and insomnia. But our machines are wired for it, and because they can, we think we have to as well. Based on current mass behavior, Fox logically assumes we're all attuned to this, and broadcasts accordingly, desperately afraid that we're going to "multitask" away to something else unless they keep our mind and eyeballs a' jiggling all game long.

Whine not at Fox Sports, who at least promotes the World Series. They ain't NBC, whose marketing chief publicly called for a four game sweep in 1997 when Miami and Cleveland went head to head in what turned out to be a riveting seven game down-the-last-out show. Weep for the masses, who can't put down their frickin' doodads long enough in Fall 2005 to really appreciate the most exciting four game sweep I've ever seen.