What Are We Supposed to be Watching?

On June 7^th, in a game against the New York Yankees, Kike Hernandez of the Los Angeles Dodgers committed an error on a ground ball hit by Gleyber Torres.  Then on June 28^th, shortstop Jeremy Pena of the Houston Astros allowed a pop fly off the bat of Jeff McNeil of the New York Mets to drop between himself and 3^rd baseman Alex Bregman, which was ultimately ruled a base hit.

What do those two seemingly mundane incidents in the baseball season have in common?  Both players were wearing microphones and essentially doing interviews while out in the field, just prior to committing their errors. Evidently, baseball games do not provide enough entertainment for the average fan, instead as part of the collective bargaining agreement MLB allows broadcasters to mike up players for one half inning per game.  We are not sure MLB has fully thought out this practice, but did they seemingly weigh the costs of such in game and on field interviews against the benefits.  That is a rhetorical question, this is MLB, they are either getting additional payments to allow this practice and/or simply do not care about what effect this might have on the actual on field product.  As a point of fact, the mic’d up players receive $10,000 to wear these microphones for one half inning in a regular season game.  In the post season that figure rises to $15,000.

If you have ever watched one of these on field interviews, the announcers in the booth are sometimes asking the player’s questions right when the pitch is being thrown.  Amazing!  Is there any sanctity of the game left, when ballplayers who are paid in most cases tens of thousands of dollars per game should simply be concentrating on their craft rather than answering a number of inane questions while performing their jobs. Sadly, many but not all fans are okay with this practice as anecdotally seen on this reddit link.

In the big picture of what is terribly wrong in baseball, this practice is just another example of how MLB feels they must dress up the game to sell it to the masses, rather than simply honoring the rules and traditions to provide the viewer with the natural drama and athleticism of the game’s greatest players.  Last we checked we thought we were all supposed to be watching a serious athletic contest of MLB’s best players.  These types of on field and in game interviews is an unnecessary distraction and cheapens the game needlessly.