Not just a music snob, anymore

I was watching Friday night baseball recently in the cabin with Ian. When the game went to commercial I lamented not having DVR on the ship (#firstworldproblem) and flipped to ESPN2 and found a boxing match in progress. Now, I'm not a boxing fan in general. In fact, I'm not really a fan of any sport that you can't 'play." You can play golf, tennis, hockey, and even play football. You can't play boxing, play wrestling, or play MMA. It's just me.

In any case, I noticed something strange immediately with the boxing match. For one, it was not current. It was an "ESPN Classic" match of Ali vs. Frazier from 1975. However, that wasn't the characteristic about the broadcast that had me scratching a temple. I noticed that there was a significant lack of advertisements on the screen. No tattoos on the boxers. No air brushed messages suggesting purchase of Monster energy drink on the fighter's backs. No decals on the boxer's stickers hawking Tapout clothing wear. Not a single advertisement whatsoever save for the "Everlast" label on the ring posts. Everlast is a company that makes boxing rings and other equipment. Ian and I laughed about this and he remarked that he had watched a classic hockey game from the 80's before getting onboard and remembered it being bizarre that the ice was so white. The only marking on the ice (save the blue lines) was the logo of the home team.

Ah, my snobbery has reached a completely new level. Maybe it's a sign of getting older. I now yearn for the days where sports figures are not plastered with advertisements and sponsors at every possible place. From the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl to Fly Emerates stuck on soccer jerseys to the Ro Tel Halftime Show to the QB with the Nike Swoosh embedded into his eye black. I'm just saying that we've all become accustomed to these invasions of the game and to our collective sports spectating environment.

I soon tired of the boxing and flipped back to the present day baseball game where I immediately was greeted with the sight of six (!!!) ads in one camera angle from behind the pitchers mound. These were all physical signs in the stadium itself. I'm not even counting the promotions on the graphics used to display the score of the game. Probably not good for me to get started on that.