Baseball: Show or Game?

We went to the Reds game on Friday, and when we left our senses were numb. Sometime over the past 25 years baseball changed from a slow paced game in which the sounds were the crack of the bat and the cheering of the crowd to one of sound systems, jumbotrons and fireworks. I really don't think it is necessary to have fireworks every time the Reds score. And I think the kids enjoy the video in which you have to guess which dish of chili hides the baseball, but do we need a kiss-cam, dance-cam and a muscle cam? Are we all little kids, needing constant circus entertainment? Is not baseball an adult game?

a packed house
 

And then to top it all off Friday, they had MC Hammer there to put on an act. Now this is a guy who has absolutely no talent, and who sang the most pathetic interpretation of "Take me out to the ballgame", but when he sang his 3 hit songs after the game, he had all the middle aged mothers and their kids dancing in the aisles. What does a farmer from Indiana, in his plaid shirt think of this spectacle? Well, they seemed to be enjoying it too. Sometimes I don't feel like I am part of this society. I just could not relate. I just saw a bunch of lumpy Midwesterners trying to copy the dance moves of Hammer's dancers, and instead of enjoying it, I thought it felt like the end-times. The whole experience was too excessive. When I go to a ballgame, I want to sit with my son and watch the game, maybe keep score, and have some peanuts and a beer while son has that ice-cream in a cup with the wooden spoon.

If you could focus on the game, though, it was good. It was close, but the Reds won. Bronson Arroyo was excellent for seven or so innings, then the backup guy closed it. The Rockies put up a good fight, even having the bases loaded with no outs at one point in the 8th.

UPDATE:
This would be better than the MC Hammer version, at least he has the tune right: