Since I have the MLB Extra Innings package, I was thinking of doing something on the blog where I'd watch a full game from every team and compare each team's local telecast - the broadcast team, the camera work, etc. Any thoughts on what specific things I should look at? I was thinking of breaking down things like quality level of play-by-play, analysts' knowledge, whether they work well together, whether they're too homer-ish for their team (will the White Sox rate poorly in this category? You can put it on the booooard...YES! ), different features such as trivia questions and "keys to the game," number of replays, quality of replays, graphics...any suggestions?

If I do this I won't start until after the hockey season is over.

The first thing I thought was "butt shots."

In general, I appreciate really deep, 'inside baseball' analysis that displays knowledge of the manager's role, swing and throwing mechanics, GM/front office decisions, etc., that can only come from someone who spent years doing that stuff for a living. Even if you don't understand 100% of what they are talking about, in the long run it helps the viewer learn more about the game. (This goes for all sports.) As for play-by-play, I grew up listening to Vin Scully on the radio with my dad. So the closer to him the better.

Several years ago our local television announcers were former Tigers, George Kell and Al Kaline and they were pretty good.They kept it simple without all the flash and they were both very knowledgable.
I know very little about the current local announcers Mario Impemba and Rod Allen except they are pretty boring.
As for radio NO ONE could ever compare to Mr.Ernie Harwell!!!

I have the extra innings package, and most of the announcers are pretty sucky.
Of course I'm biased because SNY has the best in the business with Gary Cohen (who still is better on radio), Keith Hernadez and Ron Darling.

The guys doing the Nats and the Marlins aren't so bad. The guys doing the D-backs this past weekend were brutal. They just kept talking about the dumbest shit it was awful.

Listening to Vin Scully past few nights has been OK, although I swear I think his entire broadcast is one long sentence.

I caught some of the Toronto/Chicago game on Monday---those guys were decent.

Tha'ts what I have so far this year.

Josh

I have MLB XTra too; this is my third year. Lots more games available this year than ever before, so you'll be able to access, often times, two broadcasts of the same game and compare ...I'd add to your list a category on the broadcasters' willingness to criticize their hometown players. I think the fact that braodcasters travel with the players makes them reluctant to call players out when they make mistakes, at least to some degree.

Yeah, absolutely, I would agree with Buccoman - one thing that is great about SNY's crew is that they're more than happy to criticize guys if its merited. For instance, when Carlos Beltran didn't run out a fly ball that ended up being dropped, Gary Cohen immediately ripped on him and called him out.

I think a lot of it has to go into the fanbases of the respective teams. Look at the White Sox broadcasters - clearly huge homers, but as one friend of mine at school says, "There are at most 50,000 White Sox fans in the entire country, so anyone watching on TV is going to want to be entertained." In other words, the White Sox just are not a well-viewed team. I think Hawk and DJ are hilarious, and I'll often watch just to hear the things they say.

The St. Louis Cardinals broadcasters (Dan McLaughlin and Al Hrabosky) are a mixed bunch. McLaughlin is one of the best play by play guys I've heard for his enthusiasm, voice, knowledge, and fairness. Hrabosky is almost universally believed to be a fool, and generally brings down the quality of the broadcast with his lame comments.

A big thing for me during televised games are unique camera angles, intriguing cut aways, and stories or viewpoints I might not have considered beforehand brought to my attention during the broadcast. As i've said, SNY is one of the better crews at this; and for all the crap he gets, Joe Buck does a good job of bringing new ideas in.

Joe Buck? "ideas"?

I really detest in-game interviews, now a staple of national games. Let the damn managers do their jobs instead of spouting cliches. The "roving reporter" in the stands is usually a gimmick too.

Also ever rarer with the proliferation of 3-man booth teams are broadcasters who know when to shut up.

I suspect the MLB Extra Innings package is likely not in HD - so this comment may be of no help to you Joe in terms of evaluating local telecasts - but having a game televised in HD makes a HUGE difference. Something like 150 of the Jays games are on local TV here - actually nationally across Canada on Rogers Sportsnet, TSN and the CBC - and all 150 of those are in HD.

The 12 games that is not being covered by one of the local stations get picked up on one of the digital sports preview channels - using the other team's feed - but not in HD. And the difference is unreal. After watching nothing but HD games it is tough to watch a game not in HD regardless of how good the announcers or camera work may be.

I don't have an HDTV anyway so I'm out of luck there. But at least on the channels I have, when they show the daily schedule one or two of the games usually have an HD next to them. (Tonight they have HD broadcasts of the Angels-Rays and Astros-Dodgers games.)



I don't know if there's a difference between what I get with digital cable or what people get from satellite providers or MLB.TV online, but I only get one team's telecast of each game.

I sat and watched one of today's games in full, taking notes at times. I'll write it up in a day or so and start my little project. It wasn't a Phillies game, by the way. I'm going to do a number of other teams first, since I'm already pretty familiar with the Phils broadcasts. Plus, being here I get all of their broadcasts, while with the MLB Extra Innings games it depends on which team's broadcast is shown. One thing I've noticed is that the Padres' telecasts (Cox channel 4 in San Diego) are rarely picked up for some reason, so that might be a problem.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

Speaking of Phils broadcasts - last Friday night's Jays game in Philly was one of those games that we could only get up here with the Phils broadcast. Now admittedly I only caught the last couple of innings and by then the Phils had a big lead - but talk about a snoozefest! Good Lord - a monotone computerized voice just calling balls and stikes would not have been much different.

I even rewound the live broadcast just to make sure that I was not being unduly harsh - but literally for one 3 minute stretch the only words spoken were...

Ball One
That's 2 and 0
1 and 2 the count
fouled off - 2 and 2
(then nothing said for Ball 3)
Got him
Next up Rios
(nothing said for Ball 1)
That's Ball 2
One down nobody on - That's two down (when the Philly shotstop made a nice play on a ground ball in the hole)

There was never any emotion or excitement in the voice - very monotone. And there was never any real analysis or things I'm used to hearing on Jays telecasts such as 'They got him to chase a high fastball last time lets see if they go up there again.' or 'Great play by the Phillies short stop to get Rios!' There just seemed to be no analysis or even play by play. Somebody with no view of the play just watching the scoreboard change with each ball and strike could have almost done the same thing.

I'd doze off in no time if that is indicative of all Philly broadcasts.

That sounds extremely unusual. Even in the occasional stretch where, for some reason, the analysts aren't saying anything (I sometimes wonder if Chris Wheeler takes the occasional bathroom break mid-game) the play-by-play guys say more than that.

Preview and my first report are on the blog.

This is great stuff, Joe.

I hate all the in-game promos stations do for their other shows and wonder if you notice any difference between cities.

Hey Joe - I complete agree with you when you say - 'I don't need an overload of graphics that clutter the screen. I hate the sound effects, whooshing noises and bleeps and explosions, that often accompany said graphics.'

That is one of the reasons I have been so thankful that for the last two World Series that up here in Canada - Rogers Sportsnet has not picked up the Fox American network feed that we have all been subjected to for years - but rather the MLB International feed - which was much more a straight forward, limited bells and whistles broadcast.

So in fact we have had a choice - watch Fox and at times feel like you are watching a Video game if that is your preference, or watch the games on Rogers Sportsnet without all that extra stuff.

I didn't know there was an international feed. Is it an actual telecast with its own separate broadcasters, or is it just the video feed by itself, where each station or network adds its own broadcasters, graphics, etc.?



I'll try and take note as I go along. There weren't too many with the Mets. They did it more during commercial breaks (which I fast-forwarded through) than having the announcers read a promo or throwing up a graphic during the game.

Hey Joe
The MLB International feed of the World Series is an entirely different telecast with different (silent) graphics and at times different camera angles, with the English language play by play in 2007 at least being done by Dave O'Brien and Rick Sutcliffe. Rogers Sportsnet used their own personnel only for some pre/post game and between innings analysis with Jays catcher Greg Zaun doing a nice job in those segments.

Review number two is up.

Say, does anyone know if I can take the cost of MLB Extra Innings as a tax deduction next year since I'm doing this? Or do I actually have to be an Outsports employee or something?

Considering every game every day in my Extra Innings package is in HD, I look for the game with the hottest players, because you just can't beat David Wright in HD!




Yes they are, but only on DirecTV, which carries both the home team and visiting team feeds in HD of every game every night. Once in a while, one of the feeds might not be in HD, but for the most part, every game is.

Review number three is up. Joba! Joba! Joba!

Review number 4, or, Who Is Chief Quimby?

I actually put up that a few days ago. And just now I added Review number 5. Oh. My. God. I knew it wouldn't be good, but...

Hey Joe - your White Sox review is bang on. I've tried a few times to watch some of the White Sox games that we get occasionally on WGN up here - but their completely over the top homer announcers drive me away after an inning or two almost every time.

I find the "mute" button helpful in such situations. That or watch a different team's broadcast...perhaps a Seattle Mariners game? Review #6.

Review #7, brought to you by Piggly-Wiggly! Also, review #8 -- taking a shot at Barry Zito.

When you do a Blue Jays game, I would advise against a CBC game, as they usually only have one broadcast per week (usu. a Sat. or Sun. game). Rogers Sportsnet broadcasts the majority of the games (TSN has some, too), as the Jays are owned by Rogers. The normal team is Jamie Campbell doing play-by-play. The colour commentary may be Pat Tabler, Rance Mulliniks or Darren Fletcher (all ex-Jays), with Tabler being the best of that lot. Jays games are actually much better on radio, but that's another thing. With the team stuck in the doldrums I would suggest not reviewing their games for a while, at least until there is something more positive for the announcers to announce. Edit to add: Jim Hughson is much better on the play-by-play than Jamie Campbell, but he mostly does hockey.Broadcast team.

I like Jim Hughson's hockey work when I get a chance to hear it.

Sundays right now are no good because I'm either playing softball or watching the Phillies, and at some point I need to to a TBS game of the week if I do the national networks in addition to the locals. So more than likely a Rogers Sportsnet game would be the one I see.

I've noticed, when changing channels to peek at various games the last two nights, that the Reds' feed was used for the games between the Reds and Blue Jays in Toronto. Usually with the cable version of MLB Extra Innings, they use the home telecast if it's available. It's not a hard and fast rule, though. Sometimes a game is on an over-the-air station so they may show the other team's telecast if that one's on a cable outlet like FSN.

The Blue Jays' website says tonight's game was on TSN. Was it on TSN last night? I wonder if they couldn't use the TSN feed for some reason? (This isn't an issue with the NHL Center Ice package -- they use TSN feeds of games on a regular basis, even if the game involves US-based teams who are broadcasting the game.)

Sometimes they'll use a feed that's generally not available -- this seems to be the situation with San Diego, which is why I got them out of the way in my writeups as soon as I found a Padres telecast on the schedule at the Extra Innings website.

Anyway, two more reviews are done: Red Sox (We'll go dancing in the dark/Walking through the park and Remyniscing) and Nationals (hire Reiner!)

Last night's Jays-Reds game was on TSN with Rod Black (play-by-play) and Pat Tabler (colour).

Sorry, but I decided not to wait. But hey, as it happens the Blue Jays were the opponent for 4 of my other reviews so far, and they're now 3-2 in this series. Read this and find out what nearly caused my head to explode.

Next up: the Fox network and the Cincinnati Reds.

A review of the Dodgers' broadcast...nearly a perfect game but does that mean nearly a perfect broadcast?

Not an official review, obviously, but whoever the play-by-play guy for the Texas Rangers is, he is just brutal. Bru. Tal.

Tonight they're starting a free preview of MLB Extra Innings for a few days; what's interesting is that, since there are so few games tonight, they're apparently offering the home and road teams' broadcasts for 3 of the 4 games.

More reviews: Indians, ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, Tigers and a doubleheader: Cubs and Astros.

Joe Morgan must've had a fairly good night; usually a ridiculous bit of analysis or blatant historical untruth escapes his lips every 5 minutes or so...

Jon Miller is clearly familiar with Spanish and relishes pronouncing names correctly (with a trill), because Bel-TRAHN is indeed how you properly pronounce Carlos' name. The rest of the sports media simply chooses to be wrong, sorta like 80% of their MVP and Cy Young votes.

Usually, if there's a name with a non-standard pronunciation, the media guide includes the pronunciation (or the player at some point corrects people) and at least some of the media talking heads try to pronounce it correctly. I've never heard anyone but Miller say Beltran's name that way, not even the Mets' own broadcasters. Then again, I've never heard Beltran say his own name either, so...

It's either good or bad that I'm not taking notes on the Phillies broadcast for a review (I was going to do one of their games right after the All-Star break but Harry Kalas had surgery for a detached retina and is taking a few games off) -- Chris Wheeler just referred to Gary Matthews Sr. as "what's that word they use now? A metrosexual."

Next up: St. Louis. Just 12 more teams and TBS to go...

My review of the Giants. Not a mention of Barry Bonds, by the way. Odd, yet refreshing.

My review of the Braves' telecast.

Next up (as soon as I write it up): the Phillies! Will it be a or a or a ? Hmmmmm....

This is a great idea! Thanks!

Glad you like it.

Do the Phillies make the grade?

Meanwhile, I have a related complaint. Many teams need to update their websites. From time to time I've gone to the team sites to look up some info about the broadcasters only to find out-of-date info. The Phillies' page says that Harry Kalas has been with the Phils for the past 34 years. That means the bio hasn't been updated for a few years. And Tom McCarthy, who rejoined the team this year, isn't even listed. Other teams have similarly out-of-date info.

I saw the last three (including two extra) innings of the Bucs/Phillies game last night, my first taste of Harry Kallas this year. He's just got a great broadcasting voice, even though it's not as rich of tone as it was when he was younger. Maybe it's because I grew up in central PA (and got local coverage of both Pirates and Phillies games), but how can't you enjoy a game when Harry is broadcasting?

When Harry's talking, sure...but when he's not...

MLB on TBS: Chip Caray strikes a pose!

Okay, here are the latest. Only five left!

D-backs and Rays and Rangers, oh my! Oh, and the Marlins.

Writeups on Oakland and Baltimore -- the latter features photo embellishment of a player in his underwear! Is it sweeps month?

Here's the Twins report. Just two left.

Pirates and Angels and I'm pretty much out of words. But I found a few for a summary.

Joe... you would have died during tonight's Rays broadcast. Apparently they did it last night, too, but I being the bad fan that I am had fallen asleep before the comeback. They showed a close-up on the Rays Radio pregame and postgame host - Rich - and then flashed the words "RALLY TIME" on the screen. I really don't know why or how it started last night... but they did it several times tonight while the Rays were down.

Curiously enough, it worked!

So they've got the Rally Monkey in Anaheim and we've got.... Rally Rich.