Covid Baseball 2020: Fake Crowds, a Buck-less Fox, and no Thuuh.

(I started this post early this morning shortly before Duque alerted everyone to the same thing.  I made some other observations about last night's game so even though I'm sorry for the repetition, I'll let these thoughts stand.)

I have friends visiting for the weekend.  The friend is a lifelong Yankee fan.

We watched the game last night on Fox.  It was the national MLB feed.  We clinked glasses when we realized there was no Joe Buck behind the mike.

We marveled at what Clint Frazier was doing.  It was very fun to see.

As the innings went by, we noticed a player's batting average was NOT displayed anywhere on Fox's on-screen graphics during each at bat.  Fox was showing just the batter's name and not something useful like "Urshela, .270".  The below is a screen shot taken during Frazier's home run.

I never realized how much the real-time BA adds to the enjoyment of the game.  A newly updated BA allows you to marvel at some players ("Frazier, .636") and rightfully gnash your teeth at others ("Sánchez, .111").  Not knowing the hitter's batting average when he's standing at the plate felt like the times where you're outside and lose track of the time of day and somehow don't even have a guess.  While Fox would display the BA at the start of some at bats, at least half the time they didn't.  My friend's wife opened up her smart phone and began calling out the average when each player stepped into the box.

We also had a good time laughing at the Fox fake crowd noise track.  Fox pumped in "boos" when the away pitcher tried to pick off the runner at first and cheers when the home team pitcher did the same.  I laughed at the CGI crowd that was painted into the stands ... but only after a big hit.  At other times, the stands were shown completely empty.  When Frazier hit his home run to right, the ball went through someone's face.  Then, for reasons unknown, Fox held the camera on the painted in crowd for a fairly long time as the "fans" deliriously "celebrated".  After about 10 seconds, you could see that the crowd scene was in a loop.  The faux fans looked like the quasi-real crowd they bus in to dance the pogo in front of the stage at the concert events during Super Bowl half-time.  

In the bottom of the ninth when there were two outs and two strikes on Devers, my friend turned on his iPhone's speakerphone and brought John Sterling into my living room.  My friend said, "We need to hear him say 'Thuuuh Yankees Win!'."

Devers made the last out and John spoke the words, devoid of any passion: "Ballgame over.  The Yankees win." He said this in a completely normal voice. No exclamations, no drawn out "Thuuuuh", no nothing.  He said the words like a court stenographer reading back some fiery bit of testimony in a flat professional voice: "Yes.  He beat me.  With a hammer.  I was distraught.  And scared.  For my life."  

I looked at the iPhone on the coffee table as though seeing the device might help me to better hear what wasn't coming out it.  We were shaken.

Maybe it was all the Sangria we had.  Maybe we were tired.  Maybe John was tired.  But we couldn't figure it out.

I'll turn it over to IIHIIFc's readers: Has Thuuh-less Yankee baseball been going on for a while and I've missed it?  Or did it just appear last night?  

What are we to make of this?