I don't know if any of you were watching the SF Giants vs NY Mets today (Sat 5/17), but there was a very odd change in the FOX broadcast. They played selected musical pieces behind the game, nothing to do with anything being played in the ballpark.

It was incredibly annoying because it added absolutely nothing to the broadcast, in fact it irritated me to hell. It got even worse when one of the broadcast announcer team said something like "I bet Barry Bonds emotions are like the woodwinds passage in the piece we're listening to". And it was a really strange mixture of classical and pop music, no sense at all.

How weird is that? What does this have to do with baseball? I'm an educated musician, although it's not what I do for a living, and this really bothers me. What about you guys?

Since I often (including today) listen to music instead, it would only bother me if they played music I didn't like. Did they do it when play was going on, or during replays? I've never heard music in the background during a live broadcast (other than when they break for commercial). There was no such music during the Phils-Astros game, which was seen here instead, at least during the times I had the sound on.

I guess this is another Fox "innovation" like their stupid glowing hockey puck.

During the Phils-Astros they interrupted the telecast to show a Barry Bonds at-bat. I have no idea why. He wasn't going for a record or anything, was he? Yet they broke in to show him fly out to center. What a joke.

The music, in the later stages of the game (can't remember the exact inning), was playing behind the live action of the game - and the announcers were speaking over the music.

I kept asking my partner if I was going crazy or are they playing music... He said yes the music was from the broadcast. It just made no sense at all!

It was so strange that I had to check all of my home theater, preamplifier and CD player settings to make sure I wasn't the culprit. Nope, it was FOX.

I hope somebody else heard this, or I'm going to commit myself!

Since it was FAUX, who knows, it could have been something subliminal urging you to vote GOP in 2004!

Just like Steve Lyons.

Another monumentally dumb Fox gimmick. I usually mute the sound during all baseball telecasts, whether there's local radio or not (Jon Miller on ESPN being one exception; he even makes Joe Morgan bearable).

Whew. Like Bill W, I turn the sound off during all sporting events except English League footie matches and listen to CD's, so I'll be spared this "innovation". Another example of the networks not trusting the games to be interesting enough to hold people's attention. Sheesh.

I haven't heard the FOX music (I rarely watch the Mets), but most anything would be preferable to not hearing the game called while watching it. If it were possible, I'd listen to the radio broadcast while watching the game, but the action on TV is always a beat behind the radio, which is distracting. I dunno, but I'd rather even listen to Tim McCarver than anything from my CD collection; the lack of ambient background noise (the crack of the bat, the crowd, the endless stats thrown out there) would make the entertainment on TV feel incomplete.