Hockey Day

Off day in LA. What do you do on an off day in LA? You watch hockey. My Blues are out of it but I still enjoy watching the great sport of hockey. I spent this off day watching the Rangers beat the Bruins and the Red Wings beat the Black Hawks. Tomorrow the Cardinals open up a three game series with the Dodgers. We televise on Friday and Sunday with Saturday being a Big Fox game which means I am off once again. I will be watching more Stanley Cup hockey Saturday night!!

Basics

I am in my room in LA contemplating tonight's telecast after a 2:15 bus ride from San Diego. It is 1:27AM and I am grateful for the way tonight's game/telecast played out. The Cardinals 5 - 3 victory in 2:37 was a very clean show. The Cardinals starting pitcher was making his Major League debut and that was the story line we followed the whole game/telecast. The game will always dictate the TV coverage and tonight's game followed that tenet to a T. There were no surprises tonight and for that I am very grateful. A very basic game and a very basic telecast. Sometimes that is needed. Tonight it was.

Night And Day

The final score was 10 - 2 as the Cardinals beat the Padres tonight at Petco Park. This 2:38 minute affair was a complete opposite game for the Redbirds from last night's game. They scored 10 runs and were in complete control the whole game. This telecast was also completely different from last night's show. Night and day in fact. This was one of our cleaner telecasts of the season and it included some special moments as well. We captured the Redbirds lead-off batter visualizing his swing while stretching in the outfield before the game and aired the video during his first at-bat. During a shot of the Cardinals' dugout after a grand slam homerun, we captured an elated Redbird who signaled that he had "called" the homerun. My favorite moment of the telecast occurred when the Cards centerfielder slid awkwardly into home plate. Our replays showed why that happened. The on-deck batter who was signaling the runner to slide was completely blocked by the home plate umpire. Just a great, great shot from our low third (camera 1) operator. A high quality telecast tonight indeed.

Garbage Telecast

The Padres beat the Cards 4 - 2 in 2:46 tonight at Petco Park in San Diego. The Padres played superbly on defense making four outstanding plays in the field. Unlike the play of the Padres our telecast was quite the opposite. This show was the biggest stinker of the season for St. Louis Cardinals television. I will not highlight the lowlights of this show because I don't have the time or the space to cover all the garbage that aired tonight. The St. Louis Cardinals TV production team takes a very low key approach as we cover each game. We take pride in the fact that our game coverage is quite good. However, sometimes our low key approach is misunderstood by local crew members that we don't care and therefore the effort put out by the crew is maybe not 100%. Believe me WE DO CARE. We on the Redbirds TV team take full responsibility for the ugly television that aired tonight. We are not going to turn into a bunch of screaming assholes but the crap that aired tonight will NOT air tomorrow.

Too Comfortable

The Redbirds beat the Brewers today by the score of 4 - 2 in 2:34 at Busch Stadium. My low first (Cardinals dugout) cam (camera 5) went down in the fifth inning. This is the camera I use for pickoffs at 1st base and lead runners. I really didn't realize how much I depend on this camera during a game. I made an adjustment and had my mid-first camera (camera 3) my pickoff camera and my lead runner camera. This adjustment came after a play in which no cameras followed the lead runner because I didn't adjust my camera responsibilities in time. A TV sports director can get very comfortable with the camera positions and responsibilities. The trick is not to get too rote with your game cut. I don't feel that I get too rote, but I sure missed camera 5 today.

Other Thoughts

It took 10 innings and 3:48 for the Brewers to beat the Cardinals 6 - 4 tonight at Busch Stadium. This was another game with no pace. The middle innings dragged even with a nice strike zone from the home plate umpire. At 9:37 pm I received a text from my wife. It was a picture of my grandson who was over for a sleep over! Of course this 6:00 start didn't help as the game went extras. I may have lost a bit of concentration after the text because I hadn't seen my grandson in almost 3 weeks and I couldn't wait to see him. My thoughts were on my grandson for the most part tonight.

A Welcome Change

The Cardinals beat the Brewers tonight 7 - 6 in 2:49 at Busch Stadium and there were many reasons to be happy for the TV director. #1 - There were three homeruns hit in the game. A grand slam and two 3-run homers. As you know, the homerun is the most fun a TV baseball director has while cutting the game. #2 - There was a fairly good pace to the game and a very nice flow to the show. #3 - There was a 1 - 2 - 3 top of the ninth inning. #4 - A Cardinals victory. Believe me, this was a welcome change from garbage games of the Mets series.