Exhibition baseball games are more important than they’ve ever been for the players. Obviously, everyone needs to get back in game shape after a long absence, but most importantly, they’re needed for the acclimation of playing in an empty stadium with no atmosphere to speak of.
But the players and managers aren’t the only ones in the ballpark that needed the weekend and the early part of this week to get used to their new surroundings. Broadcasters need this time, too, as each one tries to figure out the right flow of doing a game with no fans or even via a monitor away from the actual game.
So how different will baseball play-by-play be in 2020? I reached out to three broadcasters to gauge both what they’ve already experienced as well as challenges they’re anticipating.
Tyler McComas: Your first broadcast was Saturday night between the Yankees and Mets. Were you able to be at Citi Field or did you have to do the game from Yankee Stadium?
Michael Kay – Yankees play-by-play announcer on YES: Yankee Stadium because we’re not allowed to travel, even to Citi Field. There’s just no room in the booths.
TM: With that being said, how was it broadcasting the game off a monitor for the first time?
MK: It was a little strange. Not as strange as I thought it was going to be. I usually don’t work off a monitor. I broadcast off the field. So that was odd, having to call everything off a monitor.
Also, you’re taking the home team’s feed. My director and producer usually follow what I say and give me shots as I’m going, but that’s not the way it’s going to be this year. So I almost had to follow the SNY cameras everywhere they were going. We had one camera to ourselves, so that was a little bit odd. I’m not complaining, everybody has to do it. As long as we have baseball, we suck it up and do it.
TM: The players need these games to get acclimated to the environment, or lack thereof, in the ballpark. Can the same be said for you?
MK: Absolutely. It can’t hurt. Practice makes perfect and this is stuff that we’ve never experienced before. It really is important, we’re doing all three of the exhibition games and I think it was a really good idea to do it, because it does give you a sense of what it’s going to be like. It’s not going to be that much different from the real game we do on Thursday, so it really was a great call to do it. It serves the fans, as well as us in the broadcast booth.
TM: You’re used to being around the players and managers, maybe at dinner or even on the field during batting practice. I’m sure you get nice nuggets of info during that time, which you can repeat on the broadcast. You’re not going to have that this year. Does that make prep more difficult?
MK: Well, you just have to prep in the best way that you can. Pretty much what baseball is doing, is what football has done its entire existence, which is kind of marginalizing what you know. They pick who’s going to go on the Zoom call, you can’t have any one-on-one time, and that’s one of the hallmarks of being a baseball broadcaster.
You walk up to somebody in the clubhouse or you see them behind the batting cage and you can pick stuff up. It’s going to be very different that way, because you’re not going to have those stories. If you’re someone who’s been watching baseball for a long time, then you might notice it. I know that I’ll notice those stories won’t be available, but it’s just the world we’re living in right now.
TM: The Yankees might have the best team on paper it’s had in a long time. Coupled with the fact everyone has to watch the games on YES, is the silver lining to all of this that the broadcast might get the highest ratings it’s ever gotten?
MK: I guess that would be a silver lining. We’re going to provide some kind of diversion and hopefully approach normalcy for people, so that’s a good thing. People are looking for live events to watch. The Last Dance got huge numbers on ESPN and that’s not even a live event. NASCAR has done well, golf has done well and I’m sure baseball is going to do great, as well. I’d rather the ratings be just a little bit lower and we have everything back to normal in the world.
TM: I’m sure you’ve watched and listened to various games over the weekend. Did you pick up on anything that you can use for this season?
Tom McCarthy – Phillies play-by-play television announcer: We did a game on Sunday night on TV. We did the Orioles and Phillies exhibition game. I had done some intrasquad games last week on the YouTube channel, so we kind a got a feeling of how it was going to be and that was really helpful. All of us broadcasters have done this before in a very minimal way.
I did the Caribbean World Series seven years ago for the MLB Network when they first launched. I’ve done a handful of tryouts for CBS and for NBC Sports Philadelphia. I kind of had a feeling of how it was going to work but I think the intrasquad games last week and last night’s game really helped us. Tonight is a test because it’s the first time that we’re doing a game off the monitor, with the Phillies playing at the Yankees.
McComas: How do you feel about the piped in crowd noise? Is it a blessing in that it provides a sense of normalcy to the broadcast or is it more of a hindrance, in that it drowns out the ambient noises the game still provides?
McCarthy: I didn’t find that it was at all cumbersome. I thought it was actually good. I even thought it was going to be a little bit louder and I think there’s a chance that’s going to happen as we move forward. I didn’t find it to be intrusive at all. Are there different ways you could do it? Sure, absolutely. I think we’ve all learned that we have to be open minded with everything during this because it’s so different and so weird.
TM: How important are these exhibition games for you, seeing as no fans will be in the stands?
Ken Korach – A’s play-by-play radio voice: I think it’s really important. I really do. It’s not so much that nobody will be in the stands, although that will be an adjustment, but they’re piping in crowd noise over the PA and that’s a whole story in and of itself. But the biggest things, number one, is that on Tuesday, the A’s are playing the Giants in San Francisco. That’ll be our first time doing the game from the Coliseum. We’ll be calling the game off the TV monitor, obviously that’s the biggest adjustment.
The other thing, there’s a certain trepidation of getting back into the groove and seeing how it all feels in the press box. Getting to get be back in the press box and seeing how it’s all going to feel for a couple of days before the regular season starts, I feel like that’s really important.
TM: From a technical standpoint, how are you approaching the positioning of your crowd mic?
KK: We have a mic that’s right next to or by the home plate screen. We do that for the crack of the bat. We also have the ability to pick up on the TV sound effects. I don’t think that’s going to change a whole lot. You’ll be able to hear the crowd noise coming in over the PA system, so I don’t think the mechanics from a technical standpoint is going to change a whole lot when the team is at home. Now on the road it’s a huge difference, because we are relying on getting the audio. Let’s say the A’s are playing in Houston and we’re in Oakland, we’re going to rely on the audio coming back from Houston. That’s going to be a different technical challenge.
TM: Are there any advantages to the unique situation that radio play-by-play broadcasters are presented with this year?
KK: Obviously I haven’t done a game yet, but I don’t see any advantages to it. I really don’t. I listened to a couple of the games over the weekend to get a feel for it and I feel like it’s necessary to have the crowd noise. Everyone knows there’s no fans in the stands, you’re not trying to fool anyone, but having that nice little hum in the background, it sounded pretty good to me when I heard the games that I heard on Saturday.
The biggest thing is that you live for those moments when the game is on the line in the ninth-inning and the crowd is really giving off a ton of energy, so you’re not going to have that. For us and the players, you rely on that energy and you’re not going to have it. But we all kind of know that going in.
Tyler McComas is a columnist for BSM and a sports radio talk show host in Norman, OK where he hosts afternoon drive for SportsTalk 1400. You can find him on Twitter @Tyler_McComas or you can email him at TylerMcComas08@yahoo.com.
