Justin/ 10/02

The idea that technology can give us more reality than reality can is really interesting when applied to sports. It's not rare for me to here someone say that they'd rather watch a baseball game on television than actually be at the game. If you're not interested in the atmosphere, the thought makes sense. Why use one pair of eyes from a crappy seat in left field when you could have a thousand eyes set up in perfect spots all around the field. They can slow things down, and with live recording you can watch the same play as many times as you want. Technology allows you to see things better than anyone. It allows you to make calls better than the umpires can. I went to a Mets game about a month ago. I had a seat behind the left field foul pole. When a right-handed hitter was at the plate, I never saw where the pitch ended up. On tv I can see every 90 mph pitch in slow motion. I can analyze the game and say exactly what went wrong before the coaches know. What do coaches say half the time they are asked what went wrong in a game? "We'll have to go back and watch the tape." I've already seen the tape, coach. I know what went wrong.
In the beginning, tv cameras covered sports so it could re-create for us the experience we might get being at the game. We get to see our favorite teams play live even if we can't be there. Now things have turned around. There are gigantic screens at all major stadiums that the crowd can look at to get a better view of the game. The rules have changed so that referees at a football game can watch the play in slow motion on a television screen to make sure they got the call right. It just makes sense. Technology is more capable of giving us an accurate reality than reality is. People have limited vision and memory. Even people with the best seats in the house don't get as good a view as somebody with a big screen HDTV. Not even close, really. What do you miss out on? Well, it's true that you can't yell anything at the players in hope of some sort of interaction. But on that note, you don't have to worry about an athlete jumping into the stands and hitting you in the face.