A few days ago, I had spoken about my excitement for a sandlot-style baseball game that Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer had put together.
After watching the Sandlot Game on Bauer’s YouTube page, the final product was sadly underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, the idea is very cool and has potential if they chose to play another game like this, but it became boring quite fast.
Twelve ballplayers showed up to a little league field in Arizona, along with a few social media reporters, and a garbage can full of whiffle balls. After choosing teams and setting forth some of the rules, the game began; but it was anti-climatic.
It was, at its core, a group of grown men playing whiffle ball on camera and never became much more than that truthfully.
The cameras were very shaky, the audio was a constant problem and because of that, it was hard to follow what was actually going on in the game. The players were mostly just talking among themselves in the field but a lot of the conversation was not picked up on the microphone.
In my opinion, the lack of audio was the No. 1 problem with the event.
If these players decided to do another game, I think putting a mic on every player would make this a lot more exciting and entertaining. The reason people want to watch this type of game is to see these world-class athletes have some fun, and listen to what they have to say so I think giving them microphones or putting cameras on players more often would really give this a different energy.
Also, having somebody with a good personality there to maybe comment on the game for the internet to hear would’ve been awesome.
The Sandlot Game, with a few tweaks, could be a very fun opportunity for fans to get some sort of sports content to watch with all major sports league’s shut down for the foreseeable future. Also, the event was set up to raise $1 million for stadium workers who have nothing to do while the league is postponed, which is very awesome. Let’s hope these players are on a real field very soon so we can watch some meaningful ball.
