Fox gave us a Harry Caray appearance at the ‘Field of Dreams’ game, but fans weren’t feeling it
1. I don’t like being cynical, but I’ve been doing this a long time and I just can’t help it. You will never convince me that Fox didn’t use a hologram of legendary Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray on Thursday night’s Field of Dreams game between Chicago and Cincinnati just to get a reaction on social media.
I find it impossible to believe there was even one person at Fox who saw this during rehearsals and thought it was a good idea.
I fully believe this was a case of what dominates the media landscape today: “Let’s do something wacky to get attention, even if it’s bad attention.” Fox easily could’ve played Caray’s classic rendition of Take Me Out to the Ballgame without the hologram and fans would’ve eaten it up.
Fox, like Aaron Rodgers with his memorable “immunized vs. vaccinated” defense, is now trying to use semantics to explain what the hell appeared on everyone’s screens during the seventh-inning stretch.
Whatever you call the Harry Caray “appearance,” it was a huge flop with viewers.
As I said on Twitter Thursday night, it looked more like Larry Bud Melman from David Letterman’s show than Caray.
Here’s how other people reacted to Caray’s bizarre hologram/closer-to-augmented-reality cameo.
Here’s a very quick, easy, simple lesson for every single sports producer, director, executive, whatever out there: Don’t ever use any hologram ever. Just don’t.
2. Fox's John Smoltz revealed late in the Field of Dreams game last night that he lost his father earlier in the day. He explained why he decided to work the game in a very touching moment.
3. Loyal Traina Thoughts readers and SI Media Podcast listeners have heard me whine and complain about baseball's ridiculous streaming deals, so it warms my heart when people inside the sport also mock the fact that the sport has made it more difficult for local viewers to consume games. Let's start with Astros skipper Dusty Baker.
And here is Mets radio broadcaster Howie Rose on the team’s game being an AppleTV+ exclusive Friday night.
4. I actually reached out to a prominent play-by-play guy last night to see whether he’d record a dramatic reading of Antonio Brown’s statement that went viral Thursday for me to post in today's Traina Thoughts. He politely declined, and thank goodness he did, because it turns out Brown didn’t come up with this surreal piece of work. He merely reposted it from a satire website. The important lesson here: Attribution is important.
5. Doesn’t matter whether it’s the regular season, playoffs or preseason, Bill Belichick always brings the same energy he showed during his postgame press conference on Thursday after the Patriots’ exhibition game against the Giants.
6. This week's SI Media Podcast features two interviews plus our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment.
First up is Linda Cohn from ESPN. Cohn, who recently re-signed with the network, talks about being at ESPN for 30 years and anchoring more SportsCenters than any other host in the show’s history. Cohn discusses how she got started in the business, being given an ultimatum after her first two years at ESPN, her love of hockey and much more.
Following Cohn, former WWE head writer Brian Gewirtz joins the podcast. Gewirtz, who has a book coming up next week titled There's Just One Problem, shares inside stories from his time writing Monday Night Raw from 1999 to 2012 and talks about what it was like to collaborate with The Rock, Mick Foley, Chris Jericho and more.
The podcast closes with “Traina Thoughts.” This week, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY and I talk about Hard Knocks, a recent must-watch show from ESPN and why you can’t do back-to-back naps.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Will Ferrell as Harry Caray on Saturday Night Live in 1997. Enjoy.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.