Maginnes: That darn telestrator

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It's all John Madden's fault.

John Maginnes

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It all started when he began drawing lines on my television screen with all the dexterity of a second grader. As if slow motion instant replay wasn't enough, he had to draw a line to show us the pulling guard crushing the defensive end as the running back slashed through a hole and took it to the house. Sure, he increased the collective IQ of football fans -- and yes, I did say that about the master of the obvious -- but sometimes you have to wonder if the can of worms that he opened, not just in football but in all sports, is worth it.

Lest you think me an old curmudgeon, I will admit there have been some incredible advances in technology that have made watching sports more enjoyable. The yellow first down line that appears on my television during a football game is cool. Of course, my son did wonder aloud where it was when I took him to a Panthers' game a couple of years ago.

ShotLink is an invaluable tool, too -- not only to golf broadcasters but to many players who have admitted that the statistics compiled have helped them become better players. When you see a graphic that a certain player is hitting 80 percent of his fairways for the week, that stat is courtesy of ShotLink.

But there are many others that I don't trust. While watching the Australian Open on ESPN the other morning, I saw that tennis players can actually challenge a call and a video game tracks the ball to tell them if it was in or out. For people of my generation, half the fun of tennis was watching the biggest names in the game act like children arguing a call. Now that just doesn't happen. Computerized sensors that probably cause brain tumors track the ball within a millimeter of its life every second.

I did like the blue hockey puck that they used for a while. The streak across the ice helped people like me who aren't really fans follow the puck. The purists hated it, though, so it was removed from my television screen. Consequently, some novice fans drawn in by the novelty lost interest. I will go to a game but the idea of sitting on the couch and watching hockey has all the appeal for me of going curtain shopping.

Golf is as guilty of using video game graphics as any sport. Golf is more of a challenge for television producers than other sports because no two arenas are the same. Each golf course has it own subtleties and unique beauty. From mountain courses to seaside layouts, it is impossible for the images to capture all there is to see.

The job of television broadcasters has always been to describe what can't be seen on the screen. Wind, elevation changes and the line of a putt are just some of the things that have to be emphasized for the viewer to fill in the blanks where television leaves off. Now, though, GOLF CHANNEL has that blue line on the green to trace the putt. Occasionally, the line is perfect and the ball rolls along it and goes in the hole but to me that takes away some of the drama and creativity of the broadcast.

Think back to the 1986 Masters and Vern Lundquist's "Yes, sir" call. Had Jack's ball been tracking on a blue line, the drama and the scene would have been totally different. Perhaps that moment and the call would have been forgotten. What made moments like that great was watching the player react to the putt. Jack raising the putter as it tracks to the hole or Tiger balling up his fist for the knockout punch of celebration while the ball curls the last couple of feet to its inevitable destination.

How about Gary Koch's call for NBC on the 17th green on Saturday of THE PLAYERS Championship in 2001? Tiger's putt from the back of the green started down the hill on a line that Gary described as "better than most." He repeated the famous line again as the ball crested the hill and the split-second drama increased. The call and the putt have gone down together in both the lore and history of the tournament.

It's easy for all of us to succumb to the ever-growing desire for entertainment and information. Instant access to that data is available on our televisions, our computers and even our phones. When I was a kid, part of the fun of breakfast in the morning was checking the box scores to see how my favorite player played the night before, even after I had watched the game. I know those days are gone and that watching sports on television is better now than it has ever been. But I miss the old days a little. I miss the great voices and their spontaneous reactions to legends performing like legends.

And I blame it on another legend, John Madden, and his telestrator.