I went to AT&T Park last month and a Giants ballgame broke out. Much of the time between innings - indeed, between plays - was spent pestering fans to make "more noise" or to ogle the flashing scoreboard for fun videos, or to take part in goofy contests. The actual game between the Giants and the Padres was terrific but almost an afterthought to the circus surrounding it.

I love the ballclub, but its maniacal marketing team drives me nuts. The steady barrage of hype leaves you exhausted. The marketeers never quit trying to persuade us, both at the game and over the air, what a super colossal experience we're all having. Real fans need no such persuading, and resent being pandered to, but Giants marketeers are really after the non-fan or pretend fan, for whom they fear the ballgame itself is not nearly enough entertainment.

The public address announcer, Renel Brooks-Moon, must be under orders to deliver every sentence as if it's the seventh game of the World Series ("... and here are your SAN! FRAN!-CIS!-CO! GI-ANTS ... Now batting, "Hector-r-r-r-r Sannnnnn-chez!"). It turns a big-league game into a bush-league event. Bring back the somber PA announcer who doesn't deliver the lineup as if auditioning for Broadway.

It's hard to imagine the Yankees, Cubs or Red Sox indulging in such hokey hoo-ha. The carnival atmosphere at AT&T - and the nonstop freaky fan shots during the TV broadcasts - would lead you to think that the Giants are in last place and desperately need to drum up excitement among the faithful. It spoils the game for real longtime baseball fans.

Are these the rantings of an aging purist? Absolutely, but someone in the crowd has to give a cheer for the sanctity of the game.

Of course, the team itself isn't helping much - presumably forced to take part in dumb promos, where even the dignified manager, Bruce Bochy, and catcher Buster Posey have become performing seals.

Baseball is a great game ("the only game," as Babe Ruth whispered hoarsely just before he died) and needs far less annoying hype than Giants management insists on. Nearly every play, gesture or moment has a commercial tie-in - the Nissan "keys to the game," the Coors "grab of the game" - perhaps soon "the Blue Cross concussion of the game" - not to mention AT&T fan photos and BBQ Apron Night.

Every play, every blink, sneeze and belch has a sponsor. The Giants' superb announcing team barely has time to call the actual game going on, interrupted every 10 seconds by upcoming promotional events or maddening on-field reports from the chirpy but otherwise charming Amy G, the roving reporter who cuts in each inning or so with this or that aimless item or an interview with the coach's grandma while the game is going on - but which we miss because the camera has cut away from the action on the field to Amy.

Half of the TV air time is devoted to zooming in on cute babies (and "gamer babes"), or on kids trotted out to perform for the camera - a blatant marketing appeal to the family audience.

We've tuned in to watch a ballgame, not zany fans in bizarre headgear and painted faces holding up placards for the camera, many of them fake fans who are busier texting than watching the game.

All of these shameless sideshow antics detract from the Giants' otherwise polished broadcasting team, about the best in the country. They, and surely we loyal fans, deserve better. The San Francisco Giants are a great baseball club, not the Mickey Mouse Club.

Gerald Nachman is a former San Francisco Chronicle entertainment critic.