I really don’t have the slightest idea how any of this works…but if you can steal bases in baseball, shouldn’t you logically be able to steal wickets in cricket? That likely happens when…uh, the wickets aren’t sticky enough. So Snuka’s taken that strange three-posts-thing and made a run for it, as soon as he realized that Injun was dead-serious with his pitch and there was nothing that could have stopped that curveball.
Yogi, of course, knew that Snuka was going to steal. Seeking out information on an unknown batter naturally involves checking his criminal record. So Yogi sent the file to the printer…and was quite surprised that the printer was still going when he came back from lunch an hour later. 828 pages. Stole his first wallet aged three, and lead the police on a wild chase through the streets of Cairo…on a tricycle. And from there on…all downhill. So, yeah, for Yogi it was obvious he was going to steal, he just didn’t want to reveal it too soon. And of course that wasn’t really about giving him a 103rd chance at turning his life around…it was about preserving the surprise for the audience. A good announcer knows he has to balance making correct predictions with leaving enough space for a swerve or two to keep the audience engaged.
Or enraged, of course. Enraged also works well for audience engagement. An enraged audience is an engaged audience. And the All Star Team probably has a lot of fans, considering it’s…well, all stars. On the other hand, there are probably also quite a few people rooting for Snuka. Underdogs are always popular, and the Yuri Shinkai team is definitely in the underdog position. Plus, Snuka’s earlier wardrobe malfunction has likely not only inspired laughter, but also quite a bit of pity which is now counting in his favor…
More on Monday.
“The judge qualified it as a catch, so I scored a touchdown. The rules were changed next day.”