I’ve tried to avoid it. You know you have. But it’s there and it has to be addressed.
The Giants have spent much of the offseason showing off their newly earned World Series trophy. Two weeks ago it was at the Silicon Valley International Car Show. It’s been all over the Bay for fans to come up and take pictures with it. As A’s fans we just have to grin and bear it. The Giants have earned the right, and parading around with the trophy is a smart, smart move.
Now they might have taken it too far by hooking up with Showtime for a reality series, scheduled to air this summer. They’ll be mimicking HBO’s Hard Knocks and 24/7 series, in which cameras follow a single team or event throughout training camp. Production has already started on the series, which will chronicle the team’s attempt to repeat from hot stove and spring training to the dog days of August and the pennant chase.
24/7 has worked for years as a promotional tool in part because of the nature of boxing. With two combatants, it’s easy to pick sides among the different camps, and the zero sum result of a boxing match wraps things up neatly. The action within (training, sparring) always films great. HBO has gotten so good at promoting and filming fight action that the producers of The Fighter chose to have HBO Sports film the fight scenes. In the last year, HBO also extended 24/7 to non-boxing events such NHL’s Winter Classic and NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson’ preparation for the Daytona 500.
Covering a team throughout a season, as MLB/Showtime are doing with the Giants, is much different. Not only do you have to worry about the level of distraction that comes with cameras following players and coaches around day and night, there’s also the worry about the level of drama. The Giants should be competitive in the NL West and may even be leading by the time the first episode airs, given that the Rockies present the only real competition for them at this point. The serial nature of the baseball season should provide plenty of footage, but is it going to be any good? Will they be reduced to off-field looks at how unique Brian Wilson and Tim Lincecum are?
If there’s something that the Giants should be worried about, it’s the filming of a meltdown. As much as the Giants’ marketing machine is building up the team, they are absolutely ripe for a fall. As “compelling” as the worst MTV reality show is when a trainwreck occurs, the Giants could be setting themselves up for weekly lampooning throughout the summer. Chemistry is fragile and a constant distraction won’t help maintain it. A meltdown not something I’d wish upon fans of any team. When a team gets filmed in this manner things haven’t turned out all that well. Hard Knocks has been around for 6 seasons. None of the teams profiled won the Super Bowl following the show’s airing (The Jets may find this out today next week).
Good luck with your reality experiment, Giants. You’re gonna need it.
newballpark.org 
I’m surprised MLB is allowing this. What a total distraction for the players. I’m not into reality shows at all. Idiots hamming it up to the cameras, and some stuff may be scripted to add much needed drama. These shows are taking over the air waves and it’s sad. Bring back the good variety shows of my youth like Laugh-In, Carol Burnett and Flip Wilson.
Personally, I don’t think the show will be a success. One reason is the World Series television ratings were the worse in since the A’s won the series in 89. The baseball world really don’t care about the Giants outside the Bay Area.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2010/10/world-series-tv-ratings-down-/1
Seems like a win-win-win situation for everyone. MLB & the Giants get more exposure, baseball fans get some possibly entertaining TV, and the rest of the league/fans may reap the benefits if the Giants slip into a funk from having all their business put on display for the world. Though personally, I’m tired of talking about the Giants. All of my baseball fan friends are Giants fans. I’ll chop it up with them, but if the A’s ever come up in conversation, it’s like eating vegetables them. Ultimately I don’t care but a show like this will give them so much more fodder to discuss.
“As A’s fans we just have to grin and bear it”
Bear it? perhaps.
Grin!? No freakin’ way.
Let the meltdown happen, while the A’s quietly become the only Bay Area baseball team in the 2011 post season.
Oh man, can’t you just wait for the baby momma drama… I remember when the whole Tiger Woods thing was going down and how TMZ was going to be launching a sports version of its site… Wow, does this have a lot of entertainment potential. I say this as an oakland fan through and through of course.
IMHO this is the bomb that destroys team chemistry for 2011. Unfortunately for them, I’d guess 2nd (maybe 3rd) place.
FWIW, A’s look good to compete for the division crown with Texas.
Rick
(A’s and G’s ticketholder)
@Rick–you’re both an A’s and G’s ticket holder? Wow! I couldn’t do that on a regular basis. I’ve been to Pacbell about 10 times, but most of those games against the A’s. Where do you want to A’s to wind up? Oak, SJ, Fremont, Sac, San Antonio, Portland, Vegas?
Frankly I’m glad the Giants will be on their own show. Just more fodder for why they don’t need San Jose as part of their exclusive territory the more popular they get in their real home market up in SF.
@Dan–i look at it as completely opposite as you do. They’ll strengthen their popularity in the south bay even more through this stupid reality show. Even the trophy is making a stop in SJ and not the “O” (thank goodness). I’ll take my 4 A’s trophies with much stronger and more colorful teams than the one the G’s lucked out in getting.
The Giants have plenty of fans in the east bay, even if not Oakland proper (though I do know some).
The fact the trophy is going to SJ has no bearing whatsoever on the SJ fanbase. If you note the tour stops, even Sacramento is on the list as well as Modesto, Pleasanton, NY, Oregon, Arizona, and even Reno. And speaking of the big, er little “O”, even Quan has admitted that Oakland isn’t comparable to say a “big city” like SJ in regards to recent reports that OPD Chief is leaving to SJ:
But, “people need to want to be in a job,” she said. Because Oakland is a mid-size city, many career-oriented people have used work here as a launchpad before moving to a big city, she said, and Batts’ contract “is very loose.
Even if they “strengthen” their SJ fanbase, it has little bearing on if the A’s move there because frankly the Giants are strengthening their fanbase nationwide if they get on a TV show including in the east bay and Oakland. So in the end they’ll be stronger all over and will have less ammo to claim they “need” San Jose anymore.