It’s easy to poke holes in the idea of Major League Baseball launching their 2020 regular season in Arizona next month. The unconventional move has a lot of hurdles to overcome, but Mets announcer Gary Cohen could envision calling games from home.
Earlier this week, SNY’s award-winning announcers, Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling called a simulated Mets game from home. They treated it as a regular contest and for the first time. I can only speak for myself, but I certainly was much more tuned into a simulated game because Gary, Keith and Ron were involved, than I would have been if the announcers were also simulated.
Calling a simulated video game from separate locations also gave Cohen the idea that maybe the same would be possible for live sporting events, especially if they take place in Arizona.
“It struck me while we were doing the simulated game and taping it yesterday, is that if they want to play in Arizona, we’ll sit in our living room and call it from home,” Cohen told WFAN’s Marc Malusis and Maggie Gray.
Whenever pro sports leagues do return in the United States, it will be with concessions. If baseball is somehow able to secure enough coronavirus-free spaces and players are deemed healthy and safe to play baseball in a few weeks, it’s unlikely droves of announcers would hop on flights to Arizona. And beyond Arizona, when sports are eligible to return to their home cities, will all announcers be comfortable going to the stadium?
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
They do this with Soccer and have done it with auto racing and college basketball. although those are done in a controlled studio. I would hope if they do this that the whole on air team would be in the same studio not in their own home. I think fans will turn off these games if they feel that choppy. If they play without fans in a strange park the game is called from someones basement and another the analyst is in their garage. it will seem horrible.