For the latest installment of Let's Go to the Videotape, we take a slight step backwards into 1988. These clips come from the same TWIB-produced spring training preview excerpted in this post. But whereas that one referenced the upcoming NL East race, this one takes a look at The Lighter Side of Baseball.
Baseball broadcasts once abounded with this sort of thing, players gabbing about goofy nonsense, before personality enhancing drugs were banned by the game. I can't imagine too many ballplayers today engaging in the hijinks (mild though they are) found in these clips.
In this first clip, players are asked who they would pay to see. The overwhelming favorites: Don Mattingly and Eric Davis. Remember when they seemed like sure-fire Hall of Famers? A few other possibilities are thrown out by quick wits like Orel Hershiser and Andy Van Slyke.This is followed by a brief discussion of the newly defined strike zone. No one seems to think it's a big deal; Mike Schmidt seems particularly annoyed by the question, for some reason. Harold Reynolds attempts to explain it to his Mariner teammates and is soundly ignored.
In this second clip, Mel Allen introduces a montage of players being annoyed by the media. It's meant to be lighthearted and all in good fun, but it's obvious that all parties involved are seriously pissed. Particularly Whitey Herzog, who simply walks off camera mumbling expletives.