Last week someone commented that they couldn’t see The Franchise being of interest to anyone other than the most die-hard Giants fans. I think this week’s episode of the series may have just been one for the die-hards.
The producers of the show take a risk that they might not have enough material every week to put together an interesting or entertaining episode. However, while I understand why not every episode might be a nail-biter ( unlike the team’s style of playing), it feels like the directors miss some opportunities to make the show interesting even if the week hasn’t been.
For instance, I wouldn’t have minded learning more about the trade process tonight. The Giants front office decided to acquire Jeff Keppinger from Houston in order to fill in a second-base hole (due to Freddy Sanchez’s dislocated shoulder.) The actual process of selecting Keppinger and acquiring him was glossed over, however. I watch a lot of baseball but I know very little about how trades work, so just the basics, like how the front office receives the information of who is available and how they make the bids would be of interest. I don’t know if the producers simply don’t have access to footage of this or think that that’s boring but I’m the type of person who found the clip of Keppinger’s number being stitched on his new uniform more interesting than the endless footage of Sanchez rehabbing at home (you know how we girls are, always sewing, never rehabbing.) Sanchez does have a bitching pool, though.
Another lost opportunity was not asking the players about the downtime involved when you play professional baseball. You have to be pretty bored to put in that much time and effort into tricking Aubrey Huff with a half-baked prank. Based on the amount of footage dedicated to his teammates making him think his credit card got stolen, it was clear that it was prime entertainment to them. Not so much to us. So at the very least, let us hear about other ways the players pass the time in the locker room, or why they chose to prank Huff and not someone else.
I was interested though in hearing about Huff’s upbringing by a single mother after his father was killed, and his perspective on what it’s like to experience a hitting slump. I didn’t like him because he got punked by his teammates, but because he let the viewers watch him when he was upset.
So, not such a fascinating episode this week, but next week the team heads to the White House, which should provide some fun footage. And, hey, maybe they’ll, like, score 40 runs in a game.
—You could tell even the directors of the episode were bored tonight by the
close-up shot of the manager’s Sharpie pen during the trade talks.
—”One good thing is that you’re rich.”