FOX is looking to get more people watching their baseball broadcasts. My advice: cover the game more and the big stories less. This is true for ESPN Sunday night broadcasts as well. The big game of the week is not a soap box on which to pontificate about the state of the game, or the latest scandal, or anything else. That remains the province of studio shows, newspaper columns, and today, the internet. Talk about the game. Don’t spend an inning talking about steroids, with the pitches incidental to the discussion. Don’t interview a guest while a rally is underway. Leave that to Baseball Tonight and Ken Rosenthal’s columns. I don’t want to hear from the managers, I don’t want a special guest in the booth, I want the game covered. I want to know the pitch, the count, the result of the play.
I like all the analysis, what pitch to throw in what counts, why the shortstop covered second on a steal, why the defense failed to execute a cutoff play. Teach me something about the game, that’s why a former player is in the booth.
FOX is based in Los Angeles. Listen to Vin Scully call a Dodger game. Ask why he’s so good. If nothing else, Vin loves the game. Bring that out in the booth and people will want to listen.
Update: Rob Neyer’s take on the situation:
The “problem” for Fox is that baseball has become more parochial with each passing season. Twenty or 30 years ago, you watched games between teams you didn’t love because those games were often all you had. So you followed the Cubs on WGN and the Braves on WTBS. But with the proliferation of the local team’s games on cable and satellite and the Web, you can now watch almost every single game your favorite team plays, if you like. So why bother with some Saturday afternoon game between the Giants and the Phillies?
The problem with that thinking is that FOX tends not to put on random games, but games in big markets with big fan bases. So lots of games from New York and Boston and Chicago and St. Louis and Los Angeles, places where fans like to watch their teams. If FOX isn’t pulling viewers for an over the air game when all the Red Sox games are on cable, something’s wrong.
Posted by David Pinto at 4:57 pm | Broadcasts | Permalink | 13 Comments
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May 26th, 2009 @ 5:01 pm
Spot on. I completely agree.
May 26th, 2009 @ 5:25 pm
I think a huge problem is with the national announcers. No matter who I’ve talked to, everyone has a dislike for at least one if not both (or all three!) of the announcers. Why not do it where they take an announcer from each team? Get some insight into the players from those who know them best.
Also, as a red sox fan, their coverage would be best if they covered less of the big-market games and worked some of the more interesting matchups. It would require more of a flexible schedule, but seeing a Greinke-pitched game would be better than a 5 hour redsox/yankees or cubs/cards snooze-fest.
And yes, give up the peripheral stories. Nobody wants to hear about them at the expense of what’s actually going on on the field.
May 26th, 2009 @ 5:36 pm
My (partial) namesake has stolen my thunder. I’d watch FOX more if they had broadcasters I could stand.
The other stuff is peripheral, as far as I’m concerned.
May 26th, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
It should be technically feasible to set up a broadcast so that the same game is available with different announcers–kind of like having different audio commentaries on a DVD.
I’d love to be able to tune in a broadcast and flip to the announcer pair I prefer(the networks could offer home team, away team, analysis-oriented, or rambling wind-bag versions of each game).
May 26th, 2009 @ 6:44 pm
AMEN! Talk about the freaking game! You don’t hear other sports going on and on about everything but the game like you do in baseball. Has anyone else heard any discussion about Kobe Bryant’s salary or the payroll of the Lakers during playoff games? Have they droned on and on about Lebron’s upcoming free agent status? It’s one thing to touch on these things or bring up issues relevant to the game at hand. It’s quite another to, as you rightly put it, pontificate.
May 26th, 2009 @ 7:00 pm
@SamW: I’ve thought of this, but I believe it would be violating the MLB copyright. You can uses images or accounts of the game without expresss written consent.
May 26th, 2009 @ 7:01 pm
Sam W, that is awesome. Of course it’s feasible. That’s brilliant.
They could get much lower-profile announcers than Buck and Morgan, pay them a quarter of what those bozos are getting, and have four pairs of them. I swear I would listen to Remy if he did Fox (I’m a Yankee fan). I’d listen to the Texas announcers, or the Toronto guys. Anything. No more Buck.
David, I thought Sam meant that Fox should do this, or mlb network, or whatever. No copyright infringement.
May 26th, 2009 @ 7:17 pm
Vin Scully is legendary. “I Saw It On the Radio” is a new book filled with stories about Vin told by Hall-of-Famers, former Dodgers, friends and fans.
I Saw It On the Radio – http://www.vinscullybook.com
May 26th, 2009 @ 7:34 pm
It doesn’t help that Joe Buck sounds so unenthusiastic about the game and Tim McCarver says some of the most ridiculous things and sounds like the typical crazy grandfather.
May 26th, 2009 @ 8:57 pm
Sometimes it comes down to the time of the game, too. Why not revisit that, too, like the post season?
4 PM is like the monkey in the middle. You can’t delay plans until after the game. And too often, you get swept up in enjoying life away from the TV that you miss the game.
Like it has been said, even if you live out of market for your favorite team, you can see enough games that the Game of the Week isn’t “appointment TV” anymore. You move on with your life.
If it was still too hard to catch your team, Buck and McCarver wouldn’t be story.
Oh, and Vin Scully is sublime.
May 27th, 2009 @ 8:41 am
Buck and McCarver talk about all that peripheral stuff because, it seems, the games themselves don’t interest them (especially Buck).
May 27th, 2009 @ 12:08 pm
The beauty of Scully’s work isn’t just that he calls the game–he’ll tell you quirky stories about bus rides in the minors, or Prom dates or pets–but these tidbits never crowd out the game.
And there are times when I’ll listen to Vin in spite of the game, especially when he’s telling stories about racing Jackie Robinson on ice skates, but I’m always kept within the game–count, score, baserunners, etc.
May 28th, 2009 @ 7:00 pm
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