Saturday, April 05, 2008

KIDS CLUBHOUSE 2008.

The first episode of Kids Clubhouse debuted today. I know what you’re thinking - why on earth would I ever be watching Kids Clubhouse? Originally it was just because we were so happy that baseball had started again, and we wanted to watch anything about the Mets that was on television, and also some curiosity about SNY’s programming. But also, my thought was, If this show is going to explain baseball to kids, maybe there’s something I can learn from it.  But we genuinely enjoyed the interviews, the hands-on approach of the segments, and all the players tend to participate, even more than on Mets Weekly, so it just became part of our regular Saturday pregame routine.

As a commenter mentioned in my first Mets Weekly review, Amanda is no longer host of Kids Clubhouse, and they opened the first show of the year by showing footage from the open tryouts they had for hosts. They chose a boy and a girl (Gabe Cohen and Caitlin Fichtel) both of whom I think are great on camera. They may not be as polished as Amanda was, but they are also brand new at this job, and their enthusiasm and interest makes up for any beginner’s nerves displayed on camera.

Even as young newcomers, they are, however, more polished and interesting to watch on camera than Jocelyn Pierce, whose second Mets Weekly appearance was even less interesting than her first. (I’m not even going to bother to review it for that reason.)  Listen, I don’t know who’s doing the writing, but it’s the same freaking network, and there shouldn’t be such glaring disparity in quality between the two programs.

There was great, interesting footage from Port St. Lucie (again, more interesting that what MW got), with Gabe glowing as he talked to a wide range of players…

...and then we went back to New York where Caitlin was sent to buy a new jersey at the Clubhouse shop.

My enthusiasm for the program took a nosedive right about here.

You have open tryouts, you select male and female co-hosts, and then you send us back right into 1975 by sending the boy to do the man’s work down in Florida, while the girl tries on jerseys and hats and mugs for the camera. I mean, seriously, SNY, wtf? There were a ton of young girls in the line for tryouts and the message you want to send is, sure, you can have the ambition to be a sportscaster and someone MIGHT hire you, but let’s face it, you’re going to end up working for ESPN, dressed in some kind of ridiculous frilly top standing on the field in April freezing your ass off asking Pedro Martinez what he had for dinner. Forget about doing anything more interesting than that. If she wasn’t qualified and didn’t have an equal level of sports knowledge then why did you hire her? I guarantee you that there was a girl in that line who knew as much about baseball as the boys did, if the issue is that Caitlin doesn’t know as much as Gabe does, which I am not sure at all was the reason.

I understand there probably wasn’t a budget to send both of them to Florida, fine. But why have the segment of going to the Clubhouse store (which was stupid, because it’s not like it actually told me anything except that Cowbell Man carries his cowbell everywhere) when they can both go, and then actually go through the new merchandise for the season? I mean, there’s a whole line of Shea Stadium shirts, and of course 30,000 pieces of Santana merch. My point is that the segment was pointless and also disheartening. If Caitlin went to the store to interview the staff about the new merch, or explain about how many new Santana shirts there were, or what it’s like to work there, I would not have had this problem.

I’m kind of astonished, because they didn’t have this attitude when Amanda was hosting. She would go to the Clubhouse store and buy a new hat, and then in the next episode be on the field with David Wright working on short hops. I was fine with all of it because she was doing all of it and there was none of this 1950’s sexist stereotyping. Hopefully, this is something SNY can think about in future shows.

Gabe worked on fielding third base with David Wright, while back in New York, Caitlin was sent to the SNY studios and interviewed Matt Yalloff, who took her on a tour of the studio and explained how the programming is put together. It was an interesting segment and I felt a little bit better about the show. (I was, however, fascinated that Yalloff gets such a tiny desk.) Then, Gabe got to work with Damion Easley on how to field a double play. I know, I know you’re going to say something about how Caitlin probably hasn’t played baseball, but I gotta say, it’s not looking like Gabe is exactly Little League champion caliber, and Amanda always used to do everything, which I thought was fantastic in terms of the message sent to both boys and girls.

I love how the players never, ever condescend to the kids. They participate, they take it seriously (or do a good job of acting like they do), and as a result, SNY gets a quality program. Sure, there can be some segments that aren’t quite as successful, but at least they’ve never brought out a puppet. So if you don’t have kids and have never watched Kids Clubhouse, you might want to set the DVR and take a look some weekend. TBF usually enjoys it too, and a bigger baseball curmudgeon you will have to look hard to find. That’s the ultimate test, isn’t it?