Comfort Levels

There is always a different feeling between home and road telecasts.

Obviously, there is a certain comfort level when televising at home.

But, as I discovered tonight, there are three different comfort levels where road telecasts are concerned.

The highest comfort level for road telecasts occurs with games between teams in our division - the NL Central. We televise more games at these venues than other National League cities so, naturally, we know the crew members and recognize their abilities better than the TV crews from other National League cities.

The comfort level in other National League cities when we are televising is fairly high as well because even though we are only televising in those towns once a season, we go there every year and are somewhat familiar with the crew.

Certainly, there are crew changes occasionally in every city, but the comfort level when televising is just a little less than our telecasts with our divisional rivals.

The lowest comfort level for visiting TV baseball crews occurs when we televise from an unfamiliar American League city during Interleague play.

This is not because these crews are not talented because they are. Some of the crews in these towns are very talented.

Take Baltimore for instance.

But, I believe, a huge factor in developing a comfort level with visiting TV crews is personality.

Some crews, while respecting the abilities of visiting TV baseball production teams, have a difficult time understanding the personalities of each individual involved in the production.

We have some very unique personalities on our St. Louis Cardinals TV baseball travelling production team.

Sometimes our personalities affect the comfort level with the TV baseball production team in the city we are televising from.

I know this is the case here in Tampa/St. Petersburg.