Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The President's Pitch

I'm watching the All-Star Game (which will no doubt be ruined by Fox's terrible sports coverage), and have a lingering thought about President Obama's ceremonial first pitch.

What's up with the weird camera angles used to show us the pitch? The live shot was taken from third base, isolated Obama, and didn't pan over to home plate to follow the pitch. The replay was simply an isolation shot from another angle.

Why didn't we see one of the more traditional views of a pitch, either from center field or from behind home plate? Please tell me that Fox Sports wasn't complicit in some effort to spare Obama from the possibility of a national Mallory moment. Were there some sort of security concern? Is the President simply so important that he can't be shot with Albert Pujols? Were there some fans behind home plate that Fox didn't want to show because they were being disrespectful to Obama in some way?

I've no doubt the right-wingers will pick up on this and hatch some wild conspiracy theory. I'd just like a simple explanation.

UPDATE: Just as I was about to publish this post, I rewound the DVR to look again (thanks, Time Warner!). I think the two traditional views were unavailable. The giant American flag was still in center field, so the mounted camera out there wouldn't have worked. And the old guys Cardinals Hall of Famers were standing behind home plate, blocking that view. Still, it's weird that the live shot, taken by a camera operator who was on the field and probably just a few steps behind the pitcher's mound, didn't follow the flight of the pitch to Pujol's glove.

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