The Beginning of the Season

The two spring training telecasts that I was involved with went better than expected. The crews were both very good for the Jupiter game and the road game in Vireo against the Nationals. The opening homestand went less than expected as far as the telecast was concerned. However, this season's start was a bit different from any other season start that I can remember. The opener was on Thursday, there was an off day on Friday and a game of the week on Saturday. Our second regular season telecast was on Sunday. Usually the rustiness will wear off during the second telecast but that was not the case this season. Our home opening telecast was good except for the fact that members of the media don't understand the importance of TIMING when it comes to the television network. We dumped out of our pre-game telecast at 3:00 to insure the huge St. Louis Cardinals television network could join our coverage for the season opener. Unfortunately, this just so happened during the Cardinals players introductions and the coverage was interupted for the St. Louis viewer. The last player introduced before we went to our 3:00 telecast was Albert Pujols so the damage was limited. I don't get too riled up by negative reactions to our telecasts because I know that; #1 - we do our best to present Cardinals baseball in the best possible light. And # 2 - I know that the majority (99%) of the people that comment on a telecast are negative. Our presentation of Cardinals baseball is top notch. We cover the game as good as anyone. It's proven. Look at our numbers.