The evolution of baseball broadcasting

Because I've worked in both minor league baseball and television, I'm often asked to talk and/or write about these two things.

For those not in the know,  I grew up in St. Louis, but not long after college, I left there to take a job in Shreveport, Louisiana.     

As a sports fan, it's hard when you don't live in the city of your chosen team. Having grown up in St. Louis, my favorite team is the Cardinals. My family are die hard when it comes to the Redbirds. I was lucky enough when I lived in St. Louis to be invited into an exclusive group that purchased season tickets. The seats were premium and the package was divided well.



When I told my parents that I was moving out of town, they didn't ask about my job or where I would live, the first question they asked was, "Who's taking your season tickets?" Not to say my parents aren't concerned about me, but it's about priorities, you know.


When I lived in Shreveport, Louisiana, my day job was working at a television station as a show producer and my night (and weekend) job was working for the Shreveport Captains, the AA team for the San Francisco Giants.

For the first few weeks with the Captains, I worked in different areas: running audio, rolling replays, or assisting in the broadcast booth. Soon it became apparent that my calling was to run 'Camera1', the lower third base camera in the home team dugout.

The Captains home games were all broadcast on the local cable channel. The away games were on the radio. I love listening to baseball on the radio. There is something old-fashioned and kind of pure about listening to a baseball game on the radio.


The Captains play-by-play announcer was a man named Dave Nitz, and he is one of the best in the business. I listened to just about every away game on my small radio when I lived in Shreveport. More than once, knowing that I was listening, Dave gave me a shout out during a game. (Apparently, I am not the only one who thinks Dave is the greatest. In 2010, he was named the Louisiana Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. Way to go Dave!)


But, even though I was a Captains fan, my favorite team was still the Cardinals. When the Captains played the Cardinals AA team, the Arkansas Travelers, I wore the Cardinal shorts that my mom made for my whole family. I took a lot of flack from my Captains players over that, but I stuck to my loyalty to the Redbirds. (I know you want to know more about those shorts, but that's for another time.)

During my time in Shreveport, I got my Cardinals updates via "Baseball Tonight" or "SportsCenter" on ESPN. Since there was no tivo in those days, you pretty much had to sit and watch the whole show and wait for them to get to your team. Yes, you could use your VCR, but really I didn't do that. And, I can't confirm this, but I don't believe that there was a ticker on the bottom of the screen at that time, so "Baseball Tonight" and "SportsCenter" were the only way to get scores and highlights. It was great when the Cards played the Cubs, Braves or Astros because some of those games were broadcast in Shreveport, on WGN, SuperStation TBS or a Houston sports channel.

After I left Shreveport, I worked as a Producer for Fox Sports in Los Angeles for three years.


I was there in 1997 and 1998, during the Griffey, Sosa, McGwire homerun chase years. And yes, now that whole chase is tainted and all, but at that time, it was very exciting. But still, there weren't many games broadcast nationally. By now, the Headline News channel had added sports scores to their lower third graphics at night. And, not only would they show the scores, they would list who hit a home run that night. Plus, Headline News, at that time, was strictly on a half hour news schedule. So every half hour at 25 minutes past the hour, they had a three minute sports update. So, while ESPN led "Baseball Tonight" and "SportsCenter" with the homerun chase, they had to get to other news. Headline News was the go-to channel at that time to get a quick update on the homerun chase, and other national news.


Soon after that, CBS introduced an online service, called CBS Sportsline, that included a tracker for individual games. There was no audio, just slow loading graphics that updated pitch by pitch. I remember talking about it with my fellow producers and at the time, we thought it was revolutionary!! We loved it!!  (CBS Sportsline has ceased operation. Now it is CBS Sports and as far as I can tell, there is no MLB tracker on the site.)


Now we have the MLB Channel, the Direct TV baseball package and games broadcast over the internet.


Personally, I don't have the Direct TV baseball package. First, in my opinion the package a bit expensive. Secondly, I live in the Pacific time zone and my team is in the Central time zone so most home games start at 5pm in my time zone and most days I'm still working at 5pm. And, Direct TV does not have the rights to most weekend games. So in a cost analysis, for me it did make sense. In Direct TV's defense, they explain in their materials that the package is aimed at overall baseball fans as they carry all teams in all markets. So, when you buy the package, you get access to all teams. So, if you're a two team family the package might be a good buy for you. (Yes, I'm talking about you, the Bassett family, who live in North Carolina but are huge Dodger and Phillies fans.)


I do have the MLB internet radio feed package (very cheap, about $20 a year) so I can listen to every game on my computer. I love this package. No, it's not TV, but as I mentioned earlier, I like listening to baseball on the radio. And the Cardinals have two of the best calling the plays; Mike Shannon and John Rooney.


And God bless the MLB channel. I love it. It's now my go-to channel at all times. (ok, specifically during baseball season and even quite often during the off-season.) Their live look-ins every night are amazing.


And with the MLB channel comes more games on TV.


My mom visited me recently and she doesn't have the MLB channel on her cable system. But, since she lives in the city of her team, she gets every game. (and my season tickets as you'll recall.) 

I showed her my unique way of taking in a Cards game. I listen to the game on my computer while I have the MLB channel on, but on mute. Then when I hear the Cards have a big play, I turn to the TV to see if the MLB channel does an update in which they show the play.


I don't always do this. Many times, I just listen to the game. (Like that 20 inning humdinger back in April!)


I'm all for watching games on TV, but I'm so glad that technology has come so far that I can listen to my team on my computer. It feels like a meeting of the future with the past, using the technology of wifi to listen to a radio broadcast. But truthfully, that's just the way I like it.


So thank you ESPN and MLB channel. You do fine work. But, for me, there's something special about the radio feed, listening to two announcers describe the day and the play. In my opinion, there's not much better than that.