Missed The Shot of the Night

I blew it.

I flat out blew it.

Situation: Biggest pitch of the game.

The Cardinals were leading the Reds 4 - 1 in the bottom of the 8th inning. There were 2 outs and runners on second and third. Both of these runners reached on errors so, in essence, the Redbirds would have to get 5 outs to end the inning. There was a 3 and 2 count on the batter.

Camera iso: The Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter who everyone in the TV truck knew would show some great emotion with a strikeout.

The pitch came in and the batter checked his swing. Rather than cutting to Carpenter immediately after the pitch, I went to camera 2 which went to the first base umpire for the appeal call.

Only there was NO APPEAL!

I immediately took camera 1 which was isoing Carpenter and caught the last part of his emotional reaction.

I messed up big time.

There is only one chance to capture the moment correctly and succinctly.

I missed that chance.

We had a very nice, clean telecast but I ruined the show.

Sure, we had the shot in tape which provided a great replay but I made a huge mistake.

I missed the shot of the night.