Familiarity

We started a 3-game series at Pittsburgh with another rare exclusive feed. With the Pittsburgh Penguins playing the Philadelphia Flyers at home tonight in the fifth game of their first round Stanley Cup Playoffs the Pirates did not televise. Exclusives are usually a very nice change from the dual feed and the comfort level does go up. Things were a little different tonight however. The truck was super nice but the engineers had never worked out of PNC Park before. The regular Pittsburgh TV crew were all working the playoffs. Our substitution crew was very professional and did a great job despite the fact that many of them rarely worked baseball. The crew was from all over the country. One was from Buffalo, New York and another from Dalton, Georgia etc. Even during road telecasts there is a bit of familiarity between the visiting broadcasters and the local crew. Not tonight. We had never worked with this crew and they had never worked with us. The telestrator crapped out early and the Fox Box was nevere able to animate. We solved that issue by losing the bug at the third out and inserting it after the operator moved it to the lower third position. No big deal. All in all this was a nice telecast. The Cardinals won 4 - 1 in 2:38.