There’s some pet peeves here, but it’s not really about pet peeves. I just wanted to use that headline.
I recently watched A League of Their Own, the television series. It had been on my radar for a while, and I’m not really sure why it took me two years to actually watch it. I had obviously seen the movie. I can’t quite remember how good the reviews were, but it was reasonably positive and I have this vague recollection that it did a good job of addressing certain things the movie didn’t.
I was disappointed by it. It was a good show by the objective I think the writers and producers had. To address things the movie missed. Some portion of the league were gay and the movie doesn’t really address that. Here’s what that might have looked like in the 1940s. Also, the show wanted to ask what it would be like if a black woman wanted to play baseball in that time period. The show is good by those standards, particularly the latter.
Ah but then there’s that pesky baseball. I would benefit tremendously by not knowing a single thing about baseball when it comes to the show. This must be like doctors who can’t watch House or lawyers who can’t watch Suits. And the accuracy isn’t really bad in the way those shows presumably are, it’s just one specific problem.
I don’t really think anybody involved in the production really cares about baseball. Ultimately, that’s fine, baseball is the vehicle by how they’re telling the story, it’s not the story. I get that. But man. The woman don’t even throw the ball in this. They CGI the ball. And it is SO BAD. However bad you think it could be, it’s actually worse. I think someone who has never watched baseball would notice how fake it looks.
And then there’s just little things, nothing specific I could point to, but a bunch of dialogue said by the characters to each other talking about baseball or a game or a play that feel… off. Like you can sort of sense that the writer knows the general gist of what is supposed to be said, but it doesn’t feel like people who have actually played baseball (or softball) would talk about it like that.
Like, for example, I feel like the show thinks the manager matters significantly more than they do. Like think back to the movie: Tom Hanks gets into it eventually, but the movie doesn’t suggest he’s more important than he is. Actually the manager in the TV show is way better than Hanks at the beginning. He just doesn’t think they need to practice.
And actually, this is where the timeline of the show is confusing, because I feel like I need to know more about their schedule for this complaint to make sense. Because professional baseball leagues wouldn’t run practices during the season. But this complaint makes sense if their schedule is like once a week. If it’s at all like a normal baseball season (but I’m assuming way shorter), it doesn’t make sense. And did they get a spring training? The show at least suggests that as soon as they made the team via tryouts, the season started immediately.
I’m nitpicking on this one for sure though, because these are TV things, like you don’t really explain the timeline of a sports season, you just assume people either know or don’t care. I would assume it works like a normal baseball season, but then that complaint doesn’t make sense because aside from some drills before a game, you don’t really “practice.” The best way I can describe this problem is that the show treats the manager like the sport is football, if that makes sense. Because it is hard to show a manager doing something, it had to frequently go to the “call for a steal in this important spot” well and yeah the steals were also not very convincing.)
Feel free to watch the show if you can ignore that it doesn’t seem to really get baseball. Because you’ll enjoy it. If that’s the kind of thing that bothers you, you may run into some trouble. And yeah I don’t know why this turned into a review of a show that last ran two years ago and has since been cancelled, except to tell you that I had nothing to write about and I happened to just finish it and had some thoughts.
Some pet peeves
The idea that I couldn’t quite embrace A League of Their Own, the Amazon Prime series, because of small baseball stuff that got in the way prompted me to think of little small baseball-related things that bother me. I have already done a pet peeves post, but I thought of some more.
Ambush
Need I say more?
Okay probably for some of you, but Chip Caray constantly says that a player ambushed that ball when they swing at the first pitch. Once you notice it, you can’t not notice it forever. He has no other word for swinging at the first pitch and making contact with said pitch.
And that gives me an idea: some sort of announcer drinking game. Like Jim Edmonds got a text, everybody take a shot. Chip just said ambush, shot. Brad Thompson put down his playing career, shot. Okay some of these can be “drinks” because we will not survive some of these games. Also, if you have any suggestions, it does not need to be Cardinals specific. Or even announcer specific. We got national games too!
Google thinks I’m a football fan still
As good as these mega corporations are knowing how to read your mind when it comes to selling products, if I just put Cardinals or 1994 draft, the first freaking result is always football. Oh I really can’t stand when I search for something and it assumes I’m looking for football-related information. Nothing about my online presences suggests I am googling about the NFL guys.
Not exactly related, but a similar thing with my Google Maps. Google Maps loooooves Kingshighway. Sends me there whenever it can. I hate driving on Kingshighway and would like to avoid it if possible. I’m actually confused. This happened yesterday. I put the address where I want to go and the first result in 32 minutes away. I click on the route and see Kingshighway, so I’m like “okay is there a better one.” And then next result was…. 31 minutes away. I’ll tell you, whoever is in charge of such things is paying Google Maps to send you to Kingshighway.
Also announcer related
This can go in the drinking game pile. An announcing is talking about a player who is past their prime but they act like they’re still in their prime. Specifically, hitters who slug or previously slugged anyway. “You don’t want to face (dude who is straight up a bad hitter now). So you got to pitch to (guy who is a good hitter).” That’s extreme, but you get the point.
That’s all I got. I stretched this article out as much it could be stretch.
