Back in middle school, one of my teachers decided to expose the class to Charlie Chaplin films.
In case you’re not familiar, Chaplin pioneered the silent film genre back in the early 1900s. I remember watching the movies and feeling puzzled; I just couldn’t see the appeal of a motion picture without sound. It was like eating cake without the frosting.
Ten years later I feel, well, about the same. I still haven’t had my silent film awakening and probably never will.
Yet, last Friday I had quite the experience. The setting was PK Park, where the Oregon baseball team was preparing to take the field in its home opener against St. Mary’s.
I had been up in the press box for about thirty minutes already, sipping a cup of coffee and trying to warm up after walking over in the sub-30-degree weather. Aside from the room being abnormally hot (which, of course, I had no problem with), nothing seemed astray. Indeed, it wasn’t until the national anthem began that I noticed what was missing — sound.
The windows in the press box were sealed shut, which rendered the room just about immune to outside noise. As such, when the national anthem began, some reporters didn’t even notice until partway through.
Things got even weirder once the game actually started. Watching the Ducks play through that glass was, in fact, a bit like watching a silent film. The ping from aluminum bats and subtle crowd reactions were noticeably absent. It was very strange, to say the least.
The whole experience got me thinking about the concept of sound in sports. What happens when we are robbed of the noises that have become such staples of our viewing life? Let’s break it down by sport.
Basketball
We’ll start this off with what is easily my favorite sport … and also happens to have the worst television announcers of all time. Sure, the staples like Marv Albert and Gus Johnson are fantastic. But have you ever tried to sit through a local NBA or NCAA broadcast? Let me rephrase that: Have you ever felt like your ears were going to start bleeding?
Point being, the announcers’ lack of competence actually makes basketball relatively enjoyable to watch on mute. The game is also heavily appealing to the eyes and really doesn’t rely on sound as much as baseball and football do. In all, watching basketball as a silent movie can be quite satisfying.
Besides, I’m all for anything that keeps me from hearing Los Angeles Clippers broadcaster Michael Smith repeatedly calling Blake Griffin the greatest basketball player ever.
Football
This is where things get interesting. When it comes to the viewer experience, the sounds of the game matter much more in football. We may cringe deep down whenever we hear the resounding crack of a bone-crushing hit, but no football fan can say with a straight face that they don’t enjoy it on some level. It is an almost primal instinct that has become a source of both pride and shame in America.
Whether it is ethical or not, we need sound in football. Plus, the broadcast teams don’t completely suck. So there’s that.
Baseball
Here we are, back at PK Park for Friday’s game. I’ve already touched on the strangeness of watching America’s Pastime sans sound, but you really need to experience the feeling to understand it.
Baseball, after all, is a game of subtleties. It is a game of checked swings, balks and pitching arm slots.
As such, the sounds that make it special are not readily apparent until they are taken away. The pop of the catcher’s mitt, the umpire’s unique take on calling balls and strikes, the slow build up of applause when the pitcher is close to getting out of a jam.
It’s part of what makes baseball special. Unlike basketball, or even football, you really can’t watch baseball without the sounds that accompany it.
Charlie Chaplin probably wouldn’t have done so well on the baseball diamond.
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Malee: Pushing the mute button on mainstream sports
Daily Emerald
February 28, 2011
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