MLB post-season coverage on TBS

From MLB.com and AwfulAnnouncing.com

Analysis by Steve Dombrowski in SRM 334 (section 1)

America is always intrigued by an underdog story. This year that story is the rise and sudden success of the Pittsburgh Pirates, a team who has not made the playoffs in 21 years. Every year for the past seven, TBS has had the rights to broadcast all of Major League Baseball’s Divisional Series along with one of the Championship Series. This year, while watching the Pirates take on the Reds at PNC Park along the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh I was absolutely shocked by the lack of coverage of the pregame ceremony. The Buccos have been waiting over two decades for this and the emotions were extremely high. As a baseball fan, I was extremely intrigued by what they would do to celebrate and all TBS did was talk in the studio about how emotional it actually was. So we did a little research on the subject and we discovered that I was not the only one let down by TBS’s coverage as a whole.

With the popular demand in our society for coverage of sporting events, it is now essential to have top of the line analysis of the game. Especially now that it is playoff time, every pitch is critical. During October, baseball is competing with the NFL, college football, NHL, and the NBA preseason. All four major sports are playing at some part of their season so it is crucial that TBS gets the game perfectly. However, they have not. Fans and other analysts within the profession have been complaining about the ridiculous camera shots and at times lack to a quality audio. Another issue TBS is having is lack of experience in the booth. Cal Ripken, former Orioles great, was taken out of the studio and put in the booth for the first time in these playoffs. He replaced former Braves pitcher John Smoltz, who was demoted to the “B game” announcer. Smoltz had a generally good reputation for his commentary and it was a bit curious why he was replaced. Luckily Ripken has not been doing anything too bad to get noticed. However, when an announcer is poor or biased to a part in the game, many fans will change to some other game or at best mute their television. This is not what you want if you are paying millions, possibly billions of dollars for the rights to air the game.

This topic is relevant from a media standpoint because these issues are all about the production and success and blunders that go in to trying to make a game as pleasurable as possible. For example, the Truss Cam that was implemented at a couple of stadiums for these games is a cool new way to see different angles and get you up close and personal from a outfielders perspective. An example was Carl Crawford falling in to the stands to make a catch. The Truss Cam followed his whole route to the ball and showed us what it took to make such a spectacular play. However, an important lesson I have learned from our class is that you need to listen to your audience. Learn what they want to see from a game and give it to them. Announcers and analysts are trying to steal the spotlight and it takes away from the pleasure of simply viewing the game. Personally, with all of the technology, there is sometimes nothing better than curling up to watch a great game in the comforts of your home. However, if TBS wants to compete on Sundays with the NFL and get majority ratings, they need to adjust to the wants of their audience. There is nothing better than October baseball. From the first pitch to the last, there is constant focus and intensity from every single player on that field. The game itself is great. That alone can draw viewers in to see what is going in a game out in Los Angeles, or Boston, or even Pittsburgh. However, the analysis makes or breaks the ratings and unfortunately TBS just cannot catch up.