The Worst/The Best

The Cardinals beat the Pirates tonight in Pittsburgh by the score of 9 - 7 in 3:36. This game included the worst inning and the best inning of the 2016 season. After the Redbirds jumped out to a 5 - 0 lead, the Bucs took the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning - the worst inning of this season. This inning included 2 errors and a relief pitcher who coughed up the lead in only 1/3 of an inning. To make this inning the worst inning of the season was that you saw it coming. The best inning of this season was the top of the ninth. The situation was 2-outs, nobody on base and an 0 - 2 count on the batter. Here is what followed: homerun (tie game), double, homerun (took the lead), homerun (built on the lead). The Pirates hit a homer in the bottom of the ninth but this game was over. And so is the Pirates season.

Tight Zone

The first two innings of today's Cardinals/Pirates game took one hour and six minutes to play. The final seven innings took two hours and sixteen minutes. Usually slow paced games occur because of poor pitching. The Pirates starting pitcher today filled that bill as he was terrible. He pitched, no threw, two innings. Just awful. Not so with the Redbirds starting pitcher. He pitched well but was continually squeezed by the home plate umpire. There was a very tight strike zone today and thus the length of the game. Call the strike zone the way it is written up in the rule book and the pace of the game will be at the speed Major League Baseball is looking for. The score today was 12 - 6 in favor of the Cardinals. There is no way this game should have taken 3:25 to play. Period.

Looking Forward

The Cards beat the Reds 5 - 2 in Cincinnati today in a game that took 2:56 to play. I can't explain why but this game seemed like it took 6:56 to play not 2:56. Drop the anchor, take the piano off your back, take the 50 pound ankle weights off, do something to speed up the pace of his game. Maybe it was the "different" situation with the TV truck that we encountered this weekend that culminated in my perception of the slow pace of this game. Maybe the game was truly poorly paced. All I know is that I am in my hotel room in Pittsburgh and I am looking forward to the Cards/Bucs three game series. It can't possibly match this weekend in Cincinnati. Thank God.

Another Live Dream

Things were better in the TV truck today - no live truck dream. Still no dual tallys on 4 & 2 but the camera ops were great again. Today could have been labeled "live game dream" for the Cardinals. The Reds won the game 9 - 1 scoring 2 runs in the 7th and 5 runs in the 8th. And, to make matters worse, the Redbirds scored 1 run and yet were given 8 walks by Reds pitching. Last night was the live truck dream. Today was the live game dream. What will tomorrow's game/telecast bring? Hopefully sweet dreams.

A Live Truck Dream

Most everybody who works in the TV sports business has had the dreaded truck dream and has had it more than once. The truck dream is where nothing goes right. No matter what you try to do in the truck dream it doesn't work. Well, the St. Louis Cardinals TV team had a real live truck dream tonight in Cincinnati. No matter how hard the truck engineers worked, and they worked their asses off, nothing was working. We got on the air, of course, but we held our breath all night. We were in the back end of a dual feed which means we share camera 2 (high home) and camera 4 (CF). However, they never had a dual tally light the whole game which means they never knew when I was using their shot or not. After the first inning when there was some ugly camera moves from 2 & 4 (not the operators fault at all) I went to their truck and asked the Cincinnati director to let 2 & 4 know they didn't have dual tallys. After that there really wasn't much of a problem and when there was it was my fault. I will make it a point tomorrow to thank the camera ops for the nice work they did when they were blind with the dual tallys. The live truck dream finally ended with a walk off win by the Reds and we could all begin breathing again.

Shut The Fuck Up

I am lucky. I am so lucky. I get to direct Major League Baseball - the greatest sport in the world. Major League sports directors get one chance to cut the best possible shot in any situation and most likely we succeed in that shot. In every sport, we get one chance to get the best possible shot - one chance. We can't stop play and do it over. We must get it right at the time. Most times we do - sometimes we don't. In fact, Major League Baseball directors make over 3000 commands a game that determine what the viewer at home and in the bars will see. Most times that decision is right and sometimes the decision could have been better. Guess what? Only the director knows what shot could have been better for the viewer. It's the same with everyone on the TV team. Let's take graphics for example. The graphics operator on Cardinals baseball TV is one of the best, if not the best, operator in the business. Our philosophy on Cardinals baseball is to deliver what the game gives us. The game will tell us what to do. Therefore, our decisions are split second decisions in all areas of the production. Too many productions try to force the game to adhere to the telecast. The telecast MUST adhere to the game. Now here is the reason for this blog which I have written on an off day. Our graphics operator was ridiculed on social media for a mis-spelling in our telecast from Milwaukee on yesterday's telecast. This very very good operator is chastised for ONE misspelling on a 3-hour baseball telecast - wow. This operator adjusts to the game with his influential graphics as the game dictates. Typing in split second moments. The websites that criticize live TV sports television " mistakes" only do so because you don't know good TV sports coverage. Let me clue you in: my cut of Yadi Molina's homerun yesterday - it could have been a much better cut. I knew it at the time - you didn't. In fact, you don't know good TV sports coverage and don't have a clue on good TV sports television - period. So shut the fuck up. You know NOTHING!!

Thank You And Good Night

It took 2:33 for the Brewers to defeat the Cardinals 3 - 1 tonight in Milwaukee. It is now 3:00AM and I am in my room in Cincinnati with an off day tomorrow. In today's baseball, 2 hours and 33 minutes is a gift. In fact, any game under 3 hours is a gift. Another well pitched, well paced game. Another telecast with rhythm. What does on say when one receives a gift? "Thank you". What does one say when it's 3:00 in the morning and one has just arrived in his hotel room? "Goodnight".