This year certainly has been different for sporting events. Schedule changes, cancellations which were then uncancelled, and safety protocols (I’m pretty sure the word “bubble” has never been used as often as it has this year 😏).
But I think the strangest, from a viewer’s perspective, is the audience – or the lack of an audience. Quiet golf and tennis with only a coach and family members clapping has been strange. Virtual audiences for basketball games were a bit disconcerting. Cardboard cutouts in the baseball stadiums were creepy at first, until folks became creative with choosing what photos they displayed. I especially liked the grounds crew sitting among the cutouts – who was real??
In all though, I think the strangest experience was when a baseball player hit a home run. Not the muted applause; not the reduced amount of parading around the bases with no crowd to please. No – I think the strangest sight was to see no one chasing after the home run ball! No kids (or grown-up kids) fighting to recover the baseball! Strange, indeed.
How funny that you would comment on this. I made a post on FB recently about this very thing!
I said, “The worst part about 2020? The fake laugh tracks and cheering audiences (football games). For the love of God, just let us have silence.”
Laugh tracks on shows is borderline agitating, but soundtracks… for a football game… another dimension. It makes me wonder if we are incapable of dealing with our surroundings as they really are… and if we aren’t… is that our fault or “other people’s?”
Oh, you are so right, Camala, about the horrible fake audience noise at football games! I really didn’t like that the sound level stayed the same, whether the offense made a good play or the defense made a good play. With a real audience, those two sounds would be very different because of the home crowd!
At least now, the stadiums are allowing some home crowd attendance, resulting in more realistic audio reactions to the action on the field.
And some silence :).