» Jerome Solomon: With MLB app, Astros will face virtual boos during their walk-of-shame season.
Haters can begin showering Astros with virtual boos, but no one will hear them
Had this Major League Baseball season gone as planned, by now the Astros would have played in nearly half the stadiums in the sport.
Fans from coast to coast would have been able to voice their displeasure at the mere sight of the jerseys belonging to the organization that an MLB investigation found stole signs during its championship run in 2017.
Imagine hundreds of Krazy Georges banging on trash cans, shouting, “Shame! Shame! Shame!” as George Springer, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa et al. trudged into stadiums like Cersei Lannister.
Part of the punishment for getting caught in a cheating scandal is public scorn, but the Astros’ “Walk of Atonement” has been put on hold by the novel coronavirus, which has rendered stadiums empty for the start of the 2020 season.
No worries, you haters. You can still boo your little hearts out. Sort of.
MLB is introducing a digital feature called Cheer at the Ballpark that will allow fans to unleash their wrath, or spread their
The short season will be long on intrigue. Can Aaron Judge stay healthy? What will happen when Mike Fiers and the Astros meet? And can Gerrit Cole live up to his deal?
joy, from wherever they are. Cheer, clap and boo will be available to fans who can share their sentiments and also see how others watching the game feel about what is happening.
In an interesting twist, sound engineers at stadiums will have a dashboard that shows fan reaction for the digital audience in real time, including the percentage of online fans cheering for each team.
The more virtual cheers get posted, the louder the crowd noise will be on the in-stadium speakers. You can indeed cheer on your team and affect the game.
Conversely, the more the Astros are booed, the quieter it’ll get.
Chris Marinak, MLB’s executive vice president for strategy, technology and innovation, said the league has given scoreboard operators some 75 sounds with which to work, but not one of them is a boo.
“They can adjust and adapt the sounds in the ballpark to reflect what they are seeing on the dashboard, but they don’t physically turn on the boo sound,” Marinak said. “We just felt like that wasn’t really necessary to supply them with that audio.”
Who is going to be the bold scoreboard op that cranks the boos up when the Astros are in town? That would be hilarious. (And probably a fireable offense.)
Give MLB credit for trying to improve the game-day experience for the millions who won’t be able to go to the ballpark. A fan can share unlimited cheers and boos from the comfort of their couch without raising their voice.
“Nothing can really replace having 45,000 people in the ballpark going crazy,” Marinak said. “I think we all have been in a ballpark where that happens, and it’s a truly special and electric feeling. But this is just one step for us to re-create that as best we can, knowing that it is impossible to make it exactly the same.”
Real baseball promises to be a boo-less experience this season. The lack of live booing doesn’t mean the Astros are getting off easy.
Let us not forget that the 2017 World Series champions, who won more games than any team in the previous four seasons, fired their manager and general manager in the aftermath of the sign-stealing controversy. Being heckled by hostile crowds is inconsequential compared with the removal of the two most important men in the organization.
More so, the fan-free baseball that will be played this season could actually take away an Astros advantage. A number of studies have shown booing actually hurts the home team more than the visiting one.
While home fans turning on a player can be disconcerting, such treatment on the road is expected.
A common response from athletes about being booed: “I love it.”
“You gotta love it,” Astros shortstop Carlos Correa said. “It’s extra motivation. And there is one way to shut ’em up.”
Astros players have been prepping for an “Us Against the World” tour since MLB announced its findings in January and the online harassment began. The disrespect and dismissiveness sent the Astros to spring training bent on quieting the noise.
Being disliked is such an easy cause to rally around that teams claim it is an issue when it isn’t. The hatred of the Astros was going to be real, not virtual.
Instead, the muted crowd noise after an Astros player hits a home run will be the same as it was before the pitch.
Unless, that is, the team is watching the game on a smartphone in the dugout and sees the digital boos disappear from the screen. Of course, that is against the rules.
As for those who just remarked sarcastically that the Astros have been known to watch games on a replay monitor, which was also against the rules …
Boo-hoo. (Press send.)