Exploding Fastballs, Rising Tempers

Every year Fox comes up with some annoying gimmick that makes watching playoff baseball slightly less enjoyable. Last year it was Skippy the Talking Baseball. Previously they pioneered the blue-screen ad billboards behind home plate. This year it’s a needlessly distracting graphic pitch-speed indicator. In case you missed it—how could you have missed it?—with every toss, a small explosion erupts in the ticker line directly over the batter’s head, and—BOOM—we learn that the latest offering has come in at 89 or 91 or 95 mph. Fox: Can we please spare the fireworks?