Thank You

On the final day of the regular season the Cardinals shutout the Cubs 4 - 0 in 2:34. I would like to take this time to thank all of you who read this blog. Now I will be able to watch on TV the postseason games from my recliner - something I enjoy almost as much as cutting the game. Again THANK YOU!!

No Clue

The Cards beat the Cubs 6 - 2 in 3:00 today at Busch Stadium. Quoting the great Jack Buck - "this game moved at an escargot pace. This Cubs team has a long way to go before being respectable again. Hey Cubs organization - teach your minor league pitchers to work fast and throw strikes. I can tell that this is not taught because the minor league pitchers you have on your big league roster don't have a clue on how to pitch. Sorry for venting but I love this game so much that it upsets me when I see pitchers in the big leagues not having a clue on how to play the game.

Clinchers

Clinching games are a blast to do. The Cardinals clinched the NL Central Division with a dominating 7 - 0 win over the lowly Cubs. This 2:54 affair was over after the first inning when the Redbirds took a 3 - 0 lead. After the first inning, we started planning our on the field coverage after the final out. Perhaps this was why we had a fairly mediocre telecast with some glaring mistakes. Even though this was one of our ugliest telecasts of the 2013 season, I am sure that for the most part our mistakes weren't noticed and if they were the mistakes were forgotten by our viewers during the celebration. Even though I was not proud of the product we presented tonight, I am proud to be a part of the St. Louis Cardinals organization. I am very blessed to be part of it.

Refreshing

The Cards beat the Nats today by the score of 4 - 1 in 2:28. There was a great flow to the show today as the game was well pitched and well played. With all the bad baseball that has been played this season a game such as today's contest is very refreshing. Who knows? With this game and tomorrow's off day I might not be totally fried when the regular season ends.

Great Great Fun!!!

Cardinals' rookie Michael Wacha threw a no-hitter for 8 2/3 innings tonight. The only hit wad a piddly infield single that just made it past Wacha's glove as he jumped for the ball. After a season of sub-quality baseball this was indeed a refreshing game/telecast. Great great fun!! Let me repeat - great great fun!!

Mush

The Cards beat the Nats at home tonight by the score of 4 - 3 in 2:43. After the first inning of this game, there was a real nice flow to the show. The game moved at a good pace and we were able to develop a nice rhythm on the telecast. I needed a game of this type. My brain is pretty much mush.

Four Favorite Words

Done on the road!! These could be my four favorite words right now. Don't get me wrong, I love directing Major League Baseball. However, the 2013 baseball season has been the most arduous season of my career. I have most certainly never been more fried than I am right now. This season displayed some of the worst quality of baseball ever. I believe that 15% of players in the big leagues don't belong there. Six local TV games remaining this season. All to be played at Busch Stadium! Done on the road! Home sweet home!

The Squishy Sound

I don't remember the score of tonight's Cardinal/Brewers game. I truly don't recall much about this contest. I do know that I have directed 9 hours and 5 minutes of Major League Baseball in the past two days. That does not include the two 30 minute pre-game shows of which I am involved with two segments. The squishy sound you hear is my brain.

Long Long Day

It is 12:43 AM and my luggage just arrived to my room here in Milwaukee. It is that late because today's game between the Cards and the Rockies took 5 hours and 9 minutes to play. 15 innings, 13 runs (Rockies 7 Cards 6) and 33 hits will do that. We were exclusive in Denver today as the home side didn't televise. Kudos to our crew. There were moments when each and everyone's focus strayed a bit, but for the most part the performance of the crew was fine. A long day indeed. Fortunately there is light at the end of the tunnel as 8 TV games remain on the schedule. Good night.

Finally

Finally some drama. Finally. The Cards beat the Rockies tonight at Coors Field in Denver by the score of 4 - 3 in 2:52. The game ended with the bases loaded and Todd Helton at the plate. Helton, arguably the greatest Rockies of all-time, had announced his retirement at the end of this season just two days ago. The remaining crowd was about 50/50 Cardinals/Rockies fans during the final at-bat and everyone was standing and cheering. The Pirates had lost earlier so if the Redbirds win they move to 2 games ahead of the Bucs with just 10 games to play. Helton struck out and the game was over. Great job by this talented Denver TV crew. Everyone was on top of their game and we captured the final at-bat in an exciting fashion. The final at-bat. Drama. Finally

Not Surprised

At Coors Field tonight in Denver, the Cardinals beat the Rockies 11 - 4 in 3:23. I'm trying to figure out how a bad game continually gets worse as the night drags on. I wonder if young pitchers who have been called up from the minor leagues where they have been successful (the reason why they have been called up) are not used to playing in blowout games on either side of the score. Both relief staffs for the most part in this game were brutal. Just another example of a poorly pitched game in the 2013 season. I'm not surprised.

Love Denver

It took 2:51 for the Rockies to beat the Redbirds 6 - 2 tonight at Coors Field in Denver. I like everything about Denver. Our hotel is my favorite hotel in all of baseball. The downtown area is comfortable in a Chicago kind of way. The TV crew for our visiting team is exceptional. They work hard and it is fun to be part of their TV team. It is only a 15 minute walk from the hotel room to the TV truck. The weather is wonderful. On and on I can list things I like about this great city but I will stop now because there is a bottle of wine with my name on it in the hotel bar.

Not You

The Cards beat the Mariners 12 - 2 in 3:09 today at Busch Stadium. That's right - 3 hours and 9 minutes in eight and a half innings. I know this was a nice Cardinals victory. I just wish the pace of games would improve. Get in the box!!!! Get on the mound!!! Fans want to watch the game - NOT YOU!!

Zip Zero Nada

During each telecast and on my drive home, I try and figure out the subject of this blog. Most days the subject is obvious. Some days the subject of the blog is murky. And some days absolutely nothing comes to me about the theme of this blog. This is one of those days. For the life of me I can't think of one second of the game/telecast that was interesting from a Cardinals perspective. So that's what I got - zip, zero, nada.

Memorable

The Cardinals beat the Mariners 2 - 1 in 10 innings in a game that took 3:15 to play. This was a very entertaining ballgame! Some of the best defensive plays a baseball fan could ever see occurred in this game. The quality of a baseball game and a baseball telecast can be evaluated by the number of memorable moments that occur during the contest. This game was rife with memorable moments. Each team made many great defensive plays and each starting pitcher came up with huge pitches throughout the game. It is too bad that this game ended on a bad play. The Redbirds loaded the bases on a single and two walks after the first two batters of the 10th inning made outs. The winning run scored on a passed ball. Our 4-replay sequence of the passed ball was priceless. This was one of the most memorable replay sequences I have ever been a part of in my thirty year career of directing baseball. Just wonderful and certainly memorable.

Just Going Through The Motions

The Brewers beat the Cardinals 5 - 3 in 3:02 tonight at Busch Stadium. The Brew Crew jumped out to a 4 - 0 lead and held on for the victory. It was during the 4 - 0 lead that our color analyst remarked the Cardinals looked like they were playing "in slow motion" that was exactly what I was thinking as he said it. There is a difference between playing in slow motion and just going through the motions. When a baseball team or a TV crew member is just "going through the motions" that means that the individual doesn't care. This certainly is not the case with the Cardinals or the St. Louis TV crew. Describing the Redbirds as playing "in slow motion" was accurate because they were just missing at the plate, just a bit too slow for a grounder and just being thrown out by a step on the bases. Sometimes the TV crew can be just a beat behind the pace of the game. And sometimes we will run into a crew member on the road who is just going through the motions. I can assure you the St. Louis TV crew members who "go through the motions" don't last long on the crew.

Good Start Better Finish

The main theme of our telecast tonight focused on the Cardinals starting pitcher. He had some pretty bad performances in his past 5 starts and there was real concern about his "body language" on the mound when things started going bad. We iso'd him throughout the game and captured only a few moments which showed some negativity on the mound. He pitched good, certainly better than his previous stints on the mound. The offense, which for the second game in a row was hitless and scoreless after 5 innings, tied the game in the seventh and put it away with a 5-run eighth. The 5 -run eighth was highlighted by a 3-run homerun. As you know from my book "Cutting The Game, Inside Television Baseball From The Director's Chair", cutting a homerun is the most fun a TV baseball director has during a game/telecast. (By the way, my book is now available on the Kindle and the Nook for $1.99) This game/telecast started good and just got better.

2 Different Teams

A hot Cardinals team beat a disinterested Brewers club 4 - 2 in 3:02 tonight at Busch Stadium. There was no way the Cards were going to lose to the Brew Crew tonight. You could tell that after the top of the first inning. The Brewers were totally not interested in being on the field tonight at Busch. Maybe it was the 90 plus degree temperature. Maybe it was the fact that the Brewers have no chance at post season. Whatever the reason, their body language showed a total lack of interest in the game.

I Cursed

The Cards clobbered the Pirates today 9 - 2 in 3:06 at Busch Stadium. During blowouts, especially late in the season, it can be a tad bit difficult maintaining focus throughout the game/telecast. I found myself starting to drift at times during today's contest. I understand that when the game is in the 8th inning and the score is 9 - 0, one's attention may stray from the task at hand, but you have to fight this and get back on track. Today's game was one of those games where it became difficult to maintain focus especially in the top of the ninth inning when the batter leading off the inning walked with the score 9 - 0. I believe I cursed at that point.

Teamwork

The Redbirds defeated the Pirates tonight at Busch Stadium by the score of 5 - 0 in 2:56. This was a well-played game which led to a very nice telecast. Three moments stand out from this telecast. The first moment occurred early in the game. The Cardinals felt that starter Adam Wainwright had two consecutive bad outings because he was tipping pitches. In the camera well on the home plate side of the first base dugout was Cards pitcher Chris Carpenter who was using that vantage point to see if Wainwright was tipping pitches. Carpenter was right below our robotic camera. We started with a shot of Wainwright on the mound, pulled back and tilted down to show Carpenter and his vantage point. The second memorable moment happened after Redbirds David Freese hit a long home run to centerfield. The ball landed in almost the exact spot as his dramatic homerun in game 6 of the 2011 World Series. We replayed each homerun back to back and it was quite effective. The third moment happened after the homerun. Earlier in the telecast, I noticed a lone Pirates fan looking dejected as I panned a fairly wide shot after the Cards had scored a run showing the fans going crazy. After the Freese homer, I took a tight shot of the Pirates fan and his girlfriend or wife (a Cards fan) was taunting him. In all three instances, the commentary from our announcers was spot on. Three great examples of teamwork between the TV truck and the booth.

Brutal Brutal

The Cards beat the Pirates tonight at Busch Stadium by the score of 12 - 8 in 3:47 and I am not in a good mood. The reason for my mood is that the Cards were leading the game 12 - 1 going into the eighth inning and had to have their closer finish the game in the ninth. The brutal top of the eighth and the brutal top of the ninth were two of the worst innings I have ever been a part of. I am stopping now before I say too much.

The Road

I am in the air from Cincinnati to St. Louis after the second to last road trip of the 2013 season. Road telecasts are less enjoyable than home telecasts. During home telecasts, we are in complete control of the show. We have nine cameras with each camera being recorded. On the road we control three cameras and,therefore, can't always give the shot with the best framing - we can't give the best shot. This can be frustrating but you deal with it and move on. Also, I know what each camera operator is capable of on our home show. Sometimes it takes a couple if telecasts to learn the strengths and weaknesses of operators on the road. This fact also affects the quality of the telecast. I love the home show. I can't wait for tomorrow at Busch Stadium. Also, I am very thankful there is only one road trip remaining this season.

Drifting

The Cards defeated the Reds 5 - 4 in 16 innings tonight in Cincinnati. The game too 4 hours and 50 minutes to play. The Redbirds took the lead 4 - 3 in the 14th inning on a home run by Matt Adams. The Reds tied the game in the bottom of the inning and the game played on. In the top of the 16th inning Adams connected again and the Cards held on. It is only natural for the members of the TV crew to start drifting during a long game such as this one. I said to the crew in the 15th inning "Come on.....stay with it, this game is almost over." Thankfully, this game had a fairly good pace for most of the night. Still, just a tiny bit fried as we speak.

Speed

Speed was the name of this game. Both starting pitchers worked fast and threw strikes. The only run of the game came when Billy Hamilton, one of the fastest runners in the game, stole second base and scored on a base hit. The game ended with Aroldis Chapman on the mound throwing the ball 103 mph. A fast pace for the game and a good flow to the show.

Advice From Mom

A long time ago, my mother gave me a bit of advice. She said, "If you don't have anything good to say about someone or some thing, then don't say anything." Therefore, I am going to heed my mother's advice and not write anything about today's telecast.

Nothing

The Cards beat the Pirates today by the score of 7 - 2 in 3:09 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. As you all know, I love the game of baseball. This game, however, had absolutely nothing memorable about it. This telecast had absolutely nothing memorable about it. This was one of those "nothing" games. I am in my hotel room in Cincinnati and I honestly do not remember anything about today's game in Pittsburgh. This was one of those "nothing" games.