In one of my rare attacks of thought, I reached the conclusion that baseball broadcasters are terribly underappreciated. Many of those you are familiar with - Harry Kalas, Vin Scully, etc. - are well-compensated but regardless, the task of broadcasting is tremendously difficult, and I do not think many baseball fans realize it.
Every broadcaster differs in how he or she approaches the
game, but I attempted to come up with a general list of responsibilities to
help put it in perspective.
Research
Most play-by-play and color broadcasters do a ton of
pre-game research on players. They read biographies, look over injury histories
and reports, and scour tables of statistics. It’s not just relegated to the 50
players on the two teams that are being televised; this includes managers,
coaches, front office people, former players for the teams, potential trade
acquisitions, famous people from the cities, etc.
It’s a bit easier for the national broadcasts like ESPN and
FOX because they’re known well ahead of time and their schedules are “open”
(generally speaking) but for that one or two days of the week. Local
broadcasters have it tougher because they have to be familiar with a new team
and city (and everything that goes along with it) once every three to five
days.
They have note cards in front of them while they’re on the
air, but you can’t fit all of this information on 8x10 sheets of paper or 3x5
index cards, so there is some memorization involved.
Description
Obviously, the #1 job of a play-by-play broadcaster is to
describe what is going on. However, Harry Kalas can’t just monotonously rattle
off the events of the game; he must describe them in such a way that keeps the
listeners intrigued and eager to stick around. Additionally, he can’t vividly
describe each event in the same way; he must vary his word choices, requiring a strong grasp of the English language (or at least an ability to memorize
selections from a thesaurus).
The great television play-by-play broadcasters should be
able to tell you exactly what’s going on without the aid of the cameras
stationed throughout the ballpark. You should be able to lose your picture and
still know exactly what’s going on: the pitcher, the current hitter, the
runners on base, the inning, the count, the outs, who’s warming up in the
bullpen, who’s on deck, the location of the pitches, the batter’s approach in
the at-bat, etc.
There’s so much to describe in so little time, which is why
I am so enamored with Harry Kalas (that is also in part due to my being a
Phillies fan). He paints a picture like the brush of Vincent Van
Gogh (am I exaggerating? You decide!).
Partnership
The play-by-play guy and the color guy(s) don’t have to get
along with each other outside of the booth, but inside, they have to be able to
work well with one another. If they have differing philosophies on the game,
they should be able to discuss it on the air in a calm, mature, rational manner
that both informs and entertains the listeners/viewers.
The color commentator’s main job is to be entertaining and informative. If
he’s a former player, he’s also expected to shed that perspective on the events
in the game as they unfold. In this respect, the play-by-play guy’s job is to
set up the color analyst to expound.
There is nothing better than listening to a great duo in the
broadcast booth. WGN’s Len Kasper and Bob Brenly, in my opinion, are one such
duo.
And there is nothing worse than listening to a dull duo, as
well. The Phillies employ three chumps to tag alongside the legend that is
Harry the K: Chris Wheeler, Tom McCarthy, and Gary “Sarge” Matthews. Wheeler is
more enamored with himself and what he thinks are clever terms like
“dirtball-type guys” (hat tip to ChrisWheelerGlossary.com); McCarthy is
infatuated with meaningless and unrelated back-stories of baseball players;
Matthews (who sounds like he has a bunch of marbles in his mouth while he
talks) is obsessed with his
hat collection.
Taking Directions
One of the subtleties of a broadcast is getting the dialogue
to match up with what’s being shown on camera. Sometimes the broadcasters
will take cues from “the guys in the truck” to properly set up discussions,
ranging from players in the dugout, to fans in the stands, to the mascot, to
interesting aspects of the ballpark, etc.
Additionally, they need to set up discussions of replays and
it is in the same vein as above.
Statistics
Statistics, believe it or not, are one of the most integral
parts of any baseball broadcast. You see them non-stop, especially these days
(and that’s a good thing).
While a broadcaster isn’t required to know exactly how VORP
or Zone Rating is calculated, he or she needs to be familiar with the basic statistics
that they show, especially to foster a discussion with the color analyst.
Segues
Segues are another subtlety of your typical broadcast. It’s
irritating to listen to a game where the broadcaster doesn’t know how to segue;
he or she haphazardly bounces from one subject to the next with no hint at all.
The ESPN Sunday Night Baseball games are a great example of poor segues. Jon
Miller and Joe Morgan talk about the most irrelevant garbage and don’t even
attempt to connect it to the game. During an Angels-Mariners game, Morgan will
talk about he played golf with former Cincinnati Reds’ shortstop Dave
Concepcion (a facetious example), seemingly oblivious to the game he's supposed to be analyzing.
The FOX broadcast is similar, as Tim McCarver will go on
long, winding diatribes with no point in sight. Whoever he’s paired with will
sit back, dumbfounded at how off-track the conversation has become.
Self-Censorship
This is a multi-faceted responsibility. Self-censorship does
not just mean to prevent oneself from uttering an offensive word (one that
would make George Carlin proud); it involves not letting one’s personal
experiences and biases interfere with objectivity.
ESPN’s Jon Miller was born in San Francisco, and has been
doing local Giants broadcasts since 1997. During those local broadcasts, it’s
usually fine for Miller to root for the home team, but if he’s broadcasting a
Giants game for ESPN, he has to remain neutral for a national audience.
If one of the broadcasters has had a bad experience with a
member of one of the organizations they’re covering, they have to keep that on
the back burner and not let it interfere with the information they’re parlaying
to their listeners or viewers. This also goes for broadcasters not having had
any experiences: for instance, the recent Milton Bradley incident with a
broadcaster for the Kansas City Royals, Ryan Lefebvre.
Lefebvre made a lot of assumptions about Bradley without
ever having talked to him, saying
that Bradley “has no control over himself,” and contrasted him to teammate Josh
Hamilton, who recently fired his agent because Jesus told him to in a dream.
Interviews
As if they don’t have enough stuff to do, broadcasters are
also required to do interviews before, during, and after the game. I’m not sure
how many of the questions are written for them, and how many they come up with
on their own, but the questions have to be appropriate and intriguing
regardless.
Segues come into play here as well, because it would be
unfair to the interviewee to get caught off-guard. For instance, if they had
Josh Hamilton on air for an interview, they can’t go from a 5-for-5 night into the worst days
of his drug addiction. That’s a peak right into a valley.
Additionally, self-censorship also plays a role because
personal biases can (and do) affect which questions are asked and how they are
asked. If a broadcaster is on very poor terms with J.D. Drew, he can’t phrase
questions in a way that question Drew’s character or integrity, like implying
that he was the instigator when batteries were thrown at him by Phillies fans.
The goal of the interview is to obtain information and ascertain a player’s
perspective, not to play a game of “Gotcha!” This, obviously, applies to biases
like favoritism as well.
Advertisements
Regardless of his or her feelings on economics or the ethics of certain
businesses, the advertisements must be given as expected with the snarky
comments confined in one’s head. If I was a broadcaster for the Phillies and I
had to talk about Lukoil (whose signs around Citizens Bank Park had been
removed before this season started, if I recall correctly), I would be very
tempted to slide in a snarky comment, but that’s a no-no and part of the job
responsibility.
Interest
As mentioned, the goal of the broadcast team is to keep the
listeners or viewers interested enough in the game not to switch channels. Even
if the game is 14-0 after the first inning, they have to feign an interest
level in the game so that the audience will stick around.
I empathized with the broadcasters covering the 22-inning
Rockies-Padres game on April 17 (and 18). It was scoreless until the 14th
inning, where both teams scored one run. The broadcasters had to refrain from
slumping into that monotonous tone where it’s obvious that all they want to do
is go home and sleep. Their employers were praying that, as the game dragged
on, they were interesting enough to keep the audience tuned in and exposed to
their sponsors’ advertisements – money in the bank.
. . .
Hopefully, I’ve been able to get you to appreciate
broadcasters a bit more. I think I’ve touched on most of the important aspects
of the job, but if you think I failed to mention something, or covered
something incorrectly, let me know in the comments!
