Are the Olympics even going on?

This morning, after getting the paper and buying a latte for my wife and mother in law, I sat down on my couch, turned on the TV and decided to watch part of the Olympics.

This wasn't even out of any desire to watch it... it was more of an obligation.

For Christsake it's the damn Olympics! The biggest sporting event of the year. And yet it has become algebra homework to me now.

"Alright... I watch it and be proud of America... if I have to." I thought.

Of course the Olympics have lost their luster since it became every other year. When it was both winter and summer Olympics every four years, yeah it was more exciting. When this year's ceremony began, I found myself thinking "Didn't we just have the Olympics?"

And yeah we did. And guess what? The Beijing Olympics were less than 2 years ago.

And after that INSANE opening they had in Beijing, what's the point of trying to top it?

It's Olympic overload. It reminds me of an episode of The Simpsons where Marge and Homer go to a bar where every night they count down the New Year and celebrate.

Marge turns to one of the waiters and says "This must be the happiest place in the world to work."

The waiter says "Kill me."




Maybe the death on the luge track cast a pall on the Olympics before the opening ceremony took place.

Maybe having kids and a job means I have less time to get really hooked on curling or some Swedes riding a toboggan.

Either way, I felt this morning that I should watch a few minutes. Who knows? Maybe that Swede in the toboggan will catch my attention.

Besides, I get hooked on American Idol and I don't care about music. I get hooked on Project Runway and I don't care about fashion.

So this Sunday morning I flipped on NBC... and saw Chris Matthews talking with Bob Woodward about Harry Reid's seat.

MSNBC had some talking heads talking about politics. (And sadly the talking heads weren't Talking Heads.)

CNBC had "paid programming."

No Olympic coverage!
I know it is early Sunday, but it was 11 AM Eastern Time... and there were plenty of events that I am sure there were events on tape delay.

I wanted to see some sledding, or skating or at least a snowball fight.

You had your window of opportunity to get Sully's attention, NBC. You blew it.

But don't worry... 2012 and London are right around the corner.

1982 World Series animated opening... did we just have longer attention spans back then?

I stumbled across this on YouTube.
I love watching some of the cold opens and graphics of baseball telecasts. And ALL baseball fans should download old ballgames on iTunes.

But for the love of Roone Arledge how long is this opening sequence?

It opens well enough with the World Series trophy super imposed over Busch Stadium and Dick Enberg's great pipes introducing the game.

After that, it turns into a nightmare of 1980s graphics and disco music.
Now I first learned how to shoot and cut video in the 1980s and I remember when graphics, titles and images became easily accessible.

And there was the temptation to use graphics and images all the time.
But as Jeff Goldblum warned in Jurassic Park, they spent all the time wondering if they could use the technology but not enough thought if they SHOULD!

There's...

The light show around NBC Sports. (10 Seconds.)
Yes, we know it's NBC Sports. We've already tuned in. Start the game already.

The busts of great baseball players molded evidently in Butterscotch. (20 Seconds.)

You've got a random collection with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb (who never won a World Series), someone who was either Joe DiMaggio or Fred MacMurray, Ted Williams (who flopped in his only World Series), Jackie Robinson, Stan Musial (the lone Cardinal in the montage), Willie Mays and Hank Aaron (who of course starred in Milwaukee and finished with the Brewers.)

Of course none were shown in action... just their heads moving... very... slowly. 

Computer Baseball flies across the screen showing the 1982 World Series logo. (10 Seconds.)

45 seconds into this opening and we've established the event, the network and NONE of the players.

Meanwhile the words "World Series 1982" are evidently radioactive.

The Leagues swoosh across the screen along with the team names. (10 Seconds)

At least we are establishing who is playing... except that all of the info was effectively conveyed 10 seconds into this sequence. 

The credits. THE CREDITS! (13 seconds.)

You know most of the time now they don't even run credits at the end of the show. But NBC Sports decided to have a longer opening credit sequence than Superman the Movie.

And while we are finally treated to clips of past World Series... they are scrunched and distorted into a tiny diamond in the middle of the screen... all to make sure that Harry Coyle and company get their names read.

I'm sure Harry did a great job... I just hope it wasn't Harry's decision to spend more time on the laser light show than showing clips of past World Series!

FLYING BASEBALL CARDS! (25 seconds.)

Finally we get to see the participants of the World Series about 1 minute and 22 seconds into this opening... and we get a bunch of baseball card flying across the stargate from the end of 2001. 

No close ups and I think NBC can pull off some trades because there are some doubles in there!

And not only are the Brewers and Cardinals introduced with baseball cards that are too small to make out who the players are... they are using the 1982 Fleer series, which I have already declared as being one of the worst in baseball card history.

BACK TO THE LOGOS! (10 seconds.)

The ending is kind of appropriate. It is as if the graphics designer said "Yup, I just wasted 1 minute and 35 seconds of network air... and THIS IS THE NETWORK that I basically just F'ed around on."

And NOW a word from our sponsor? 

Really? It never occurred to you while having baseball cards floating, Willie Mays' catch obscured by Len Stucker's credit and flying logos to maybe have the sponsors mentioned THEN???

By 2 minutes and 7 seconds we FINALLY are getting back to the baseball broadcast.

Were we more patient back then?

Or were we all getting chips?

Oh and nice touch by Dick Enberg at the end.

Enberg is a great announcer... but it is Tony KUBEK...not KO-beck.