Oh the places you'll broadcast from
Tis been a good summer so far and the first one in a long time where I was busy nearly every day and it didn't involve camp. Over the past two months I was doing play by play on the radio for a baseball team. Again, I shall not be naming specific names and names so as to protect the innocent or some such shenanigans and what have you. Well I figured I would throw down some stuff I found interesting or amusing in a bullet point style thing, that way I don't have to worry about writing good transitions in between paragraphs.
Other Broadcasters: So one of things I was little leery about heading into this deal was working with other broadcasters. The way the league has things set up is as follows. Each team has a broadcaster that travels with it. At home game, the home broadcaster does play by play for the first and final three innings and color in the middle three, while the visiting broadcaster takes over on play by play. Now usually it's a plus to know the people who you're going to be working with. Also, working with a revolving door of people can be tricky in regards to developing chemistry learning strengths and weaknesses etc. Plus there's always the chance you could end up working with a complete dud or some overly pretentious jack ass. Well I had to say I was pleasantly surprised by the true great quality of broadcasters, for the most part. Lets just say when they were good, they were quite good and when they weren't well it was not so pretty. I'll digress on this more sometime, but onto something else right now
Obstructed View: Being able to see everything in the filed of play is kind of important to a broadcaster. Most places you were able to see most everything, but not everything entirely. Now don't get me wrong, you can wriggle and crane your neck and eventually see what you want, but trying to a view of what is going down shouldn't be an aerobic exercise. In most places there is a pretty good view of what's going on, but not always a great one. In a couple of places there were large posts covering up areas around bases or parts of the outfield. Again you can see things well enough, but if on had their druthers they would prefer to have a clear view. Yes the job can be done but it makes it that much harder. It'd kind of be like if a surgeon had to cut somebody open and there wasn't anybody to do the suction part (I watch a lot of ER and Scrubs). Will the surgeon still do the job? Most likely, but they might accidentally cut something clearly because they couldn't see everything quite clearly enough.
Just Plain Terrible View: In baseball announcing the best place to call a game from is behind home plate, preferably from an elevated position as well. That way everything happens in front of you and you can observe everything without having to whip your head from side to side. It's also very helpful in terms of identifying pitch location. Remember radio is like TV minus the pictures so the more detail of scene you can provide to the listener the better off everyone is. Also it gives you and idea of how the pitcher is throwing that day. Is he getting calls on the corners? Is he getting squeezed? Is he missing a lot on certain pitches or just by small margins. Well as luck would have it there are not one, but two parks in league where you don't get to call the game from behind the plate. Nope, in these parks on press box is on the first base side and the other is on the third base side. Neither place was a particularly fun one to call a game from, especially the one on the first base side and that's for several reason, which I shall now list.
1. The Giant set of bleachers in front of you - Yup there are a big mess of bleachers in front of you, we're talking they extend forwards about 100 feet or so at least. That's kind of a lengthy distance to be away from the action when you are facing the field sideways. Also the danger of work a game sideways is there's the risk that a corer of the park will be obscured from your view. Sure enough, it was hard to see down into the rightfield corner and there was a large tree that wasn't helping matters by covering up most of the part or the rightfield corner that one could see.
2. The Sun - Normally, when playing baseball the sun is a good thing. If it's out that means there's not much by way of clouds in the sky which means there's no chance of rain which is always bad for baseball (well not always, but that's for another day). Well this press box happens to be situated directly across from where the sun sets. Games in this league typically start around 6:30 or 7pm, so in other words, right around the time the sun goes down. So while already down with the bad angle to call games from you have to do it for a couple of innings while staring directly into Mother Nature's universal light bulb and and heat lamp. The sun was so intense coming down into the press box that even aviator shades that would make Maverick from Top Gun look ridiculous do little to quell the sun's effects.
3 The Wind Tunnel Effect - So the wind at this park usually blows from left to right which is no good while being in the press box. You see that's how the box runs, from let to right with open doors at both ends and the wind whips through there like it's running late for an important engagement. Even a gentle breeze causes things to blow around like a tornado is coming through. So you'd better have everything anchored down or it's going to blow out the door as I found out the hard way one evening. Right as I was preparing to come back on the air a gust of wind lifted three of my sheets filled with info right on out the door, which caused me to do the only rational thing I could. Throw down my head set and run after those papers like a kid chasing down the guy in the Good Humor truck. Thankfully it only took a few second to track down the papers and I was back lickety split. What's broadcasting with out some adventure anyway?
I Should Have Been Drunk: Now this place, while interesting and unique was a downright pain in the ass to broadcast from. First off the park is located at the corner of two streets in the downtown portion of the city it's located in. So when a foul ball leaves the yard, it's not kids who go chasing after it to get a souvenir, it's cars who try and dodge it, lest it land on the windshield and shatter it. Anyway, the park itself looks like it was designed by someone who was inebriated at the time. The fence runs 28 feet high in the outfield, except for a portion where a tree is growing behind it and there is a cutout that runs about 10 feet long by 8 feet high. That and the fence runs out to 280 feet down the righfield line then to 340 in right center then comes in to like 310 then shoots out to 395 in deep center and 370 or so in the ally in left and then to about 320ish down the line in left. It was either designed by a blind man or stolen from a piece of paper that a small child doodled upon. But that's not the hard part. In this park I was just to the left of home plate, trying to stare through a thick chain link fence. Then, from my vantage point there is another chain link fence that doubles over with the one in front of me and I can pretty much only see moving shapes through, awesome. It's like trying to announce a moving abstract piece of art. Then to top it all off, there's no real press box. There's a table in front of me in the bleachers behind home plate. Yup there are people in the crowd sitting in front of and directly next to me. In fact, at around the start of the 3rd inning and only woman plops herself down about six inches to my left, knocks into my arm and proceeds to give me a dirty look like I have taken her seat. Nothing like being surrounded by warm and lovely people while a doing a game. Plus whenever the people in front of me decide they want to stand, I stand with them, otherwise I can't see anything. Good times indeed.
It Truly Was a Box: Most press boxes weren't too bad, there was usually a decent amount of space, except for one local. Picture four people sitting on a slightly longer than average couch. Then imagine notebooks and computers and a CD player and other stuff all laid out in front of you and there's a person hovering right behind you. Then imagine a host of people coming in and out over the course of a game, telling loud jokes and basically making noise in your ear while you try and talk like a semi-intelligent and informed individual while trying to listen to your broadcast partner. Then imagine people sitting to your left swearing pretty loudly and consistently over the course of the game and you're praying to god that your microphone isn't picking up their verbal faux pas. Not to mention that so many people cramped into one place has it cooking like an oven. Well I got to live that experience, what a fun time that was. On the plus side they had great food it between the first and second game of the double header. Oh yes, I forgot to mention there were not one but two games call from this magnificent place. I have never been in a clown car, nor do I plan to be, but I figure this had to be pretty close to what it was like.
Well there you have it for today. A few of the unique experiences, in particular the places where I got to call games from this year. Sometime soon I'll dish on announcers and other personnel from other team, but until that time...
Other Broadcasters: So one of things I was little leery about heading into this deal was working with other broadcasters. The way the league has things set up is as follows. Each team has a broadcaster that travels with it. At home game, the home broadcaster does play by play for the first and final three innings and color in the middle three, while the visiting broadcaster takes over on play by play. Now usually it's a plus to know the people who you're going to be working with. Also, working with a revolving door of people can be tricky in regards to developing chemistry learning strengths and weaknesses etc. Plus there's always the chance you could end up working with a complete dud or some overly pretentious jack ass. Well I had to say I was pleasantly surprised by the true great quality of broadcasters, for the most part. Lets just say when they were good, they were quite good and when they weren't well it was not so pretty. I'll digress on this more sometime, but onto something else right now
Obstructed View: Being able to see everything in the filed of play is kind of important to a broadcaster. Most places you were able to see most everything, but not everything entirely. Now don't get me wrong, you can wriggle and crane your neck and eventually see what you want, but trying to a view of what is going down shouldn't be an aerobic exercise. In most places there is a pretty good view of what's going on, but not always a great one. In a couple of places there were large posts covering up areas around bases or parts of the outfield. Again you can see things well enough, but if on had their druthers they would prefer to have a clear view. Yes the job can be done but it makes it that much harder. It'd kind of be like if a surgeon had to cut somebody open and there wasn't anybody to do the suction part (I watch a lot of ER and Scrubs). Will the surgeon still do the job? Most likely, but they might accidentally cut something clearly because they couldn't see everything quite clearly enough.
Just Plain Terrible View: In baseball announcing the best place to call a game from is behind home plate, preferably from an elevated position as well. That way everything happens in front of you and you can observe everything without having to whip your head from side to side. It's also very helpful in terms of identifying pitch location. Remember radio is like TV minus the pictures so the more detail of scene you can provide to the listener the better off everyone is. Also it gives you and idea of how the pitcher is throwing that day. Is he getting calls on the corners? Is he getting squeezed? Is he missing a lot on certain pitches or just by small margins. Well as luck would have it there are not one, but two parks in league where you don't get to call the game from behind the plate. Nope, in these parks on press box is on the first base side and the other is on the third base side. Neither place was a particularly fun one to call a game from, especially the one on the first base side and that's for several reason, which I shall now list.
1. The Giant set of bleachers in front of you - Yup there are a big mess of bleachers in front of you, we're talking they extend forwards about 100 feet or so at least. That's kind of a lengthy distance to be away from the action when you are facing the field sideways. Also the danger of work a game sideways is there's the risk that a corer of the park will be obscured from your view. Sure enough, it was hard to see down into the rightfield corner and there was a large tree that wasn't helping matters by covering up most of the part or the rightfield corner that one could see.
2. The Sun - Normally, when playing baseball the sun is a good thing. If it's out that means there's not much by way of clouds in the sky which means there's no chance of rain which is always bad for baseball (well not always, but that's for another day). Well this press box happens to be situated directly across from where the sun sets. Games in this league typically start around 6:30 or 7pm, so in other words, right around the time the sun goes down. So while already down with the bad angle to call games from you have to do it for a couple of innings while staring directly into Mother Nature's universal light bulb and and heat lamp. The sun was so intense coming down into the press box that even aviator shades that would make Maverick from Top Gun look ridiculous do little to quell the sun's effects.
3 The Wind Tunnel Effect - So the wind at this park usually blows from left to right which is no good while being in the press box. You see that's how the box runs, from let to right with open doors at both ends and the wind whips through there like it's running late for an important engagement. Even a gentle breeze causes things to blow around like a tornado is coming through. So you'd better have everything anchored down or it's going to blow out the door as I found out the hard way one evening. Right as I was preparing to come back on the air a gust of wind lifted three of my sheets filled with info right on out the door, which caused me to do the only rational thing I could. Throw down my head set and run after those papers like a kid chasing down the guy in the Good Humor truck. Thankfully it only took a few second to track down the papers and I was back lickety split. What's broadcasting with out some adventure anyway?
I Should Have Been Drunk: Now this place, while interesting and unique was a downright pain in the ass to broadcast from. First off the park is located at the corner of two streets in the downtown portion of the city it's located in. So when a foul ball leaves the yard, it's not kids who go chasing after it to get a souvenir, it's cars who try and dodge it, lest it land on the windshield and shatter it. Anyway, the park itself looks like it was designed by someone who was inebriated at the time. The fence runs 28 feet high in the outfield, except for a portion where a tree is growing behind it and there is a cutout that runs about 10 feet long by 8 feet high. That and the fence runs out to 280 feet down the righfield line then to 340 in right center then comes in to like 310 then shoots out to 395 in deep center and 370 or so in the ally in left and then to about 320ish down the line in left. It was either designed by a blind man or stolen from a piece of paper that a small child doodled upon. But that's not the hard part. In this park I was just to the left of home plate, trying to stare through a thick chain link fence. Then, from my vantage point there is another chain link fence that doubles over with the one in front of me and I can pretty much only see moving shapes through, awesome. It's like trying to announce a moving abstract piece of art. Then to top it all off, there's no real press box. There's a table in front of me in the bleachers behind home plate. Yup there are people in the crowd sitting in front of and directly next to me. In fact, at around the start of the 3rd inning and only woman plops herself down about six inches to my left, knocks into my arm and proceeds to give me a dirty look like I have taken her seat. Nothing like being surrounded by warm and lovely people while a doing a game. Plus whenever the people in front of me decide they want to stand, I stand with them, otherwise I can't see anything. Good times indeed.
It Truly Was a Box: Most press boxes weren't too bad, there was usually a decent amount of space, except for one local. Picture four people sitting on a slightly longer than average couch. Then imagine notebooks and computers and a CD player and other stuff all laid out in front of you and there's a person hovering right behind you. Then imagine a host of people coming in and out over the course of a game, telling loud jokes and basically making noise in your ear while you try and talk like a semi-intelligent and informed individual while trying to listen to your broadcast partner. Then imagine people sitting to your left swearing pretty loudly and consistently over the course of the game and you're praying to god that your microphone isn't picking up their verbal faux pas. Not to mention that so many people cramped into one place has it cooking like an oven. Well I got to live that experience, what a fun time that was. On the plus side they had great food it between the first and second game of the double header. Oh yes, I forgot to mention there were not one but two games call from this magnificent place. I have never been in a clown car, nor do I plan to be, but I figure this had to be pretty close to what it was like.
Well there you have it for today. A few of the unique experiences, in particular the places where I got to call games from this year. Sometime soon I'll dish on announcers and other personnel from other team, but until that time...
posted by MC at 11:54 AM
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