An All-Star Game in Los Angeles called for it to look like a “Hollywood production”. Bells, whistles, sky cams and microphones galore. This production won’t be coming soon to a theater near you, it came your way, live in HD or 4K if you were streaming, a couple of nights ago on FOX. It wasn’t Top Gun: Maverick but then again it wasn’t Lightyear either. It fell somewhere in-between. There were more things about the telecast on FOX that I liked than ones that I didn’t enjoy all that much.
The All-Star Game used to be appointment TV back in the day. It was a competitive game, even when it didn’t mean anything, just flashback to the 1970 game, when Pete Rose bowled over the late Ray Fosse to win the game for the National League. That day isn’t here anymore. After the nonsense of the game determining homefield advantage for the World Series, it’s returned to what it should be, an exhibition game. A chance for baseball to showcase its stars and future stars in unique ways.
It was the first time Joe Davis sat behind the mic as the main man for MLB on FOX coverage of the All-Star Game. He and John Smoltz did a nice job, allowing the game and the players to be the star. I enjoy the easy-going manner in which Davis calls a game. He’s not over the top, or without emotion, Davis is pretty spot-on for what a national call should sound like.
There is a built-in chemistry between Davis and Smoltz, having worked together in the past on baseball broadcasts. Davis sounded comfortable, prepared and in control of the broadcast. He and Smoltz were having fun, as they should, in an All-Star game. They handled the in-game and on-field interviews very well.
FOX pulled out all the stops to make the broadcast look spectacular. They added a second FLYCAM. The second ‘camera on a wire’ showed us the L.A. skyline and views of Dodger Stadium. All in all, FOX used 45 cameras and over 75 microphones in the broadcast.
It was shot well, considering the ‘twilight’ situation at that hour in Los Angeles. Shadows over home plate but bright sunshine in the outfield can be tricky to televise at times, but I think FOX handled it well. It wasn’t so much about the visual for me, it was more about the audio that intrigued me and glued me to the television for a lot of the game.
Before the game broadcast, Joe Carpenter, the A1 for FOX Sports told SVG News, the goal was, bring fans closer to the action.
“We’re trying to get more players to wear microphones, but we still encounter resistance,” says Carpenter. “I get it; they (players) can be a bit superstitious. But there’s tremendous entertainment value in hearing an outfielder talking with Joe Davis or John Smoltz in the booth. We will get some of that, but how much we never know until game time. The players’ union does not give any kind of blanket permission to mike up players.”
That last statement was interesting to me. I did a little research and found that the NFLPA has a clause in the collective bargaining agreement that basically requires players to wear a mic if NFL Films requests them to wear one. MLB’s CBA only states “miking a catcher, first baseman, and one or more outfielders playing in the All-Star Game will be encouraged by the Players Association”. The players FOX did mic up, didn’t disappoint.
It wasn’t the fact that FOX was able to convince players to wear the mic, it was that they were talking to them as they were pitching, hitting or fielding. To me it shows that the players who let the audience ‘behind the curtain’ are truly All-Stars, for not being hesitant or distracted by the moment.
Many exchanges were simply terrific. I’ll highlight a few, but the best one to me was Blue Jays’ pitcher Alek Manoah, who struck out the side in the bottom of the 2nd inning, while wearing a mic. He was conversing with Joe Davis and John Smoltz the entire inning. He simply seemed like he was having the time of his life.
It started with a strikeout of the Cubs’ Willson Contreras on a 94-mph sinker, he yelled, “Here we go! There’s one.”
Next up was Joc Pedersen, who couldn’t catch up to a 93-mph sinker at the top of the zone, with Manoah to screaming: “Here we go! There’s two.”
When Jeff McNeil, the third batter, swung through a 95-mph fastball on his hands, Manoah said: “By you! Here we go!” When Manoah feathered a sinker over the inside corner for strike two: “Yeah, baby. Front door. Don’t flinch!” He hit McNeil on a nasty 0-2 slider, thus was unable to sit down his National League opponents in order due to a miscall from Smoltz, who told him to throw that backfoot slider to McNeil.
But Manoah recovered while facing Ronald Acuna Jr, with a 1-2 count he asked for more advice from Smoltz.
“John,” Davis said, “what have you got for him on 1-2?”
“Make this slider look like a strike on the outside corner and make it disappear off the corner,” Smoltz said.
“I’m thinking a slider, too,” Manoah said, “but I think if I execute a good heater up, because he’s seen the sinker twice, something that stays true, might throw him off a bit. Think we’re gonna go with that.”
The fastball was straight at 94 mph. It wasn’t high. And that was fine. Acuna whiffed for Manoah’s third punchout of the inning. “Right down the middle, but we’ll take it,” Manoah said. “Three punchies. Let’s goooo. Wooooo! That’s a hell of a bullpen right there. Let’s go win a ballgame.”
GOLD! Absolute gold. Sometimes it’s not about featuring the ‘star’ players, but the ones that have the personality to carry it off. Many folks probably didn’t know about Manoah before Tuesday Night’s game, but they do now. That whole inning was amazing television.
The pitcher/catcher relationship is often talked about on baseball broadcasts and Tuesday night it was on display for all to see. FOX mic’d up both Yankees’ pitcher Nestor Cortes Jr and catcher Jose Trevino. They called pitches verbally via a two-way conversation in the sixth inning. The battery faced Mets’ slugger Pete Alonso in the inning and Cortes gave an inside look about what pitchers think of ‘the polar bear’.
“He can hit it a long way if you don’t hit your spot,” (Joe)Davis warned Cortes after Alonso fouled off a 2-2 fastball.
“That’s for sure,” Cortez replied. “You gotta be careful. He’s up there in power. Top five (in MLB) for sure.”
The whole idea of being able to hear the thinking between the pitcher and catcher with Alonso in the box was awesome.
“Heater away,” Cortes said at one point, only to miss his spot but make a tough pitch inside that Alonso fouled off.
“Or up and in,” he said with a laugh. “Good spot to miss, though.”
When the count went to 3-2, in fact, the Yankee lefty clearly wasn’t going to throw one down the middle and give up a game-tying home run. “Let’s go sidearm fastball,” he said to Trevino. And then he dropped down and threw a crossfire fastball that was low, walking Alonso in his only plate appearance on the night.
Trevino was still mic’d up when he came to bat the next inning. “Wow, I can’t believe I’m an All-Star, man. This is unreal.” was all he could say. How real is that? Extremely. Then he collected a base hit. He asked for the ball and was able to get it. We heard it all too, that was fantastic.
There were a bunch of other great mic’d up moments as well, Liam Hendriks asking Julio Rodriguez to give him the ball from the only out he’d record. “JULIO!!” you could hear Hendriks scream. Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge were wearing microphones at the same time in the outfield too.
One moment I could have done without, was David Ortiz taking over the AL dugout in the 5th. It was way too frenetic to me. He was loud and sometimes hard to pick up. Ortiz talked to Miguel Cabrera, Manoah and then to manager Dusty Baker. Big Papi asked: “Hey Dusty … can you put me in, man? I can go deep for you.”
“I’m gonna save you ’til the ninth, just in case we’re behind,” Baker responded. It was just a little too much for me.
On a scale of strikeout to homer, I’d give the FOX broadcast of the All-Star game a solid double to the gap.
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
