On the Beach in St. Pete....

From the gulf side of the state, we have been in St. Petersburg, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays. Even with rainstorms in the afternoon, the Tropicana Field covers the field and allows play under any conditions. But when I was on the field yesterday, you could hear the raindrops pounding on the roof of this place - it made quite the noise.

With those acoustics, the volume of the crowd and their cowbells can make it very loud during game play. The amount of reverberation in the building is amazing, but I suppose that is considered to be a home team advantage. I would say the ray tank in centerfield also offers a touch of the atmosphere that surrounds the Tampa - St. Petersburg area with of course its proximity to the water here.

I have included some pics of the field and our base of operations for the few days that we are working. Many of the crew folks that we see here have worked with us in spring training in Winterhaven. This trip in is a little bittersweet in that now we will see our Florida friends only on the Tampa series during the regular season versus the extra time we spend with them in the spring. As it is around the country, there are some very talented people in this area and their work over the years has been much appreciated. I will definitely miss seeing them more often.

Check out the pics and look for info from Toronto upcoming this week!

On The Road Again......

After the All-Star break, it is time to gear up for the second half of the season. There is still plenty of baseball left before we hang it up for the year. Off we go traveling again on the road - this trip has us in Minnnesota, Tampa, and Toronto. This is our last trip to the Metrodome this season visiting with the Twins - and that could be a good thing.... They are a pesky ballclub to face - especially here in their building. We will be saying goodbye for the summer to the fine folks we work with up here at the Metrodome, and be back for their final year of baseball in the "Big Baggy" in 2009.



Tampa is our next port of call and Tropicana Field. The Rays have been pushing for a new stadium to be built in their area, but the ability to garner public support for the funding has not worked out so well. So for now, it will be indoor baseball until a further resolution can be achieved.



And then it is off to Toronto, which is always a favorite place to visit. The third dome on our trip here, the Rogers Centre, or as it was known as the SkyDome sets off the skyline of this great Canadian city. The best part of this is that we will be enjoying a day off in the city that offers great restaurants and an outstanding waterfront area. Our schedule used to have us visiting these cities twice, but with the re-formatting of the schedule for interleague, we don't visit these cities but once a summer.



The trek continues with pictures on one of our more scenic trips for the year!

The problem with no TV

As you well know, Saturday's Indians-Mariners was not on television for only the second time this season. Unfortunately, STO did not have an option to air the game. It was originally scheduled to be one of the Fox national games of the week, but was dropped a couple weeks ago from the Fox schedule. The Mariners did not change the time of the game from it's original 12:55 PM pacific time start, which falls in the Fox broadcast window. Because of this, Fox has exclusive broadcast rights, and we didn't even have an opportunity to pick up the game.

The problem with that is two-fold. Number one, you don't get to see the game (a 9-6 Indians win which ended a 10-game road losing streak). The second thing is we have no video from the game yesterday because it was not on any TV network. That means we can't show highlights, or any kind of player packages in today's game. So when normally we would want to run a highlight package of Shin-Soo Choo's 3 hits from Saturday, we don't have that option. So not only did we not get to see the game Saturday, we won't be seeing any highlights from the game today or any day the rest of the season.

The good news: that is the last time it should happen in 2008. So enjoy the rest of the season right here on STO and WKYC.

All-Star Salute....

Time for the All-Star game once again....A chance for the club to catch its collective breath and for Grady and Cliff to be properly recognized by the baseball community - congrats to them! We know that baseball brings together the best of the best....but there may be some examples of that reflect the history of the game or even the worst selections...

For example, do you know who the 10 worst selections to the All-Star game may be? I had to check it out on this web page... For example, how does a player with just 208 career at-bats and zero career home runs make an All-Star team? Take the case of Frankie Zak, who played for the Pirates in 1944....and become the number one worst selection?

He was in the right place at the right time, and the fact that his career took place during the watered-down talent pool during World War II didn't hurt, either. The All-Star Game was in Pittsburgh in 1944, and Zak was a late replacement. Evidently it wasn't a long search. Zak hit .300 that year in a part-time role. He played in just 36 more games after 1944, with a total of eight hits. He didn't play in the All-Star Game, but goes down as an All-Star .... The worst All-Star ever!
(www.Baseball.about.com)

And what about the first All-Star Game? It was held in 1933 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. That inaugural contest drew more than 49,000 fans and featured Babe Ruth, Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Gabbie Hartnett and Pie Traynor. The AL won the game, 4-2, and fans were treated to home runs by Ruth and Frankie Frisch. Rick Ferrell started at catcher for the American League and played all nine innings, keeping Mickey Cochrane and Bill Dickey on the bench. (www.historicbaseball.com) For more info, check out this part of the site.....

And so we finish our first half of the season - things on the technical side have gone very well thanx to the hard work of everyone involved. There will be more in the second half here about cameras, trucks, transmission, graphics.... all the fun stuff that goes into a telecast - with pictures as well!

Enjoy the break!

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What is both surprising and delightful is that spectators are allowed, and even expected, to join in the vocal part of the game.... There is no reason why the field should not try to put the batsman off his stroke at the critical moment by neatly timed disparagements of his wife's fidelity and his mother's respectability.

George Bernard Shaw

4th on the 5th.....

We rolled into Minneapolis on July 3rd just ahead of all the festivities planned here for the 4th of July celebration. Here at the Metrodome, there have been a succesion of impressive ceremonies honoring the men and women in our military before the games - especially the one on Saturday night that featured a hot air balloon remembering those missing in action. It has been gratifying to see a very public thank you to those who serve.

On the 4th, when we started our telecasts here, we were certainly conversing with family and friends who were all enjoying the fabulous weather both here and in Cleveland. But the show must go on - and our crew here in Minneapolis performed admirably in getting us up and running for the 3 game set - putting up cameras and audio in the indoor ball field on a gorgeous holiday.

So the crews from both shows determined that the 5th would be a great day to celebrate the holiday on our own right here at the truck compound. These folks know how to set up a picnic! There was all types of food right down to desert - and the grills made it look and smell like a tailgate party. (Note to the boss: We passed on the adult libations until the post game party)
It was great fun and a good time was had by all. All of us in the TV traveling party would certainly rather be home, but our hosts from Minnesota made us feel at home in the course of our stay here.

Interleague Play - 20008 - Mission Accomplished!

Our season of interleague play finished its turn on Sunday against the Cincinnati Reds - and I know the Tribe is glad to see it finish up and move back into playing divisional rivals. We had the chance to see the Rockies' ball park and Dodger Stadium - a couple of places we would not normally see and the Padres and Giants visited us in Cleveland. It was good to see Omar Vizquel in the lineup and receive the warm greeting of the Tribe faithful after his many years with the club. I had the opportunity to at least visit with Duane Kuiper, broadcaster for the Giants, and his brother Jeff, producer for their TV show. Duane as you may recall was a member of the team in the 80's and it was great to see him in fine shape and enjoying his job with the team.

But what about this type of play? Are you for or against it? I know from my corner of the world it is interesting to see our team play in the National League format - but I would be just as interested to see more of the Yankees, Orioles, Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Rays in our own division.
Regardless of that what did the figures show? According to MLB.com, a total of 8,893,312 fans attended Interleague games through Sunday, an average of 35,573. One Interleague game remains on July 10 as the makeup for a Yankees-Pirates rainout.

With the continued popularity of Interleague Play, Major League Baseball's cumulative attendance average of 31,687 is up 0.6 percent over the same date during the record-breaking 2007 season. At the current pace, MLB is on track for a fifth consecutive year of record overall attendance.

American League fans again have the most to smile about when they reflect on Interleague Play '08. The AL is 149-102 -- and much of that damage was inflicted by clubs in the AL Central.

The Minnesota Twins (14-4), Detroit Tigers (13-5) and Kansas City Royals (13-5) all cleaned up in Interleague Play. The AL Central was 58-32 overall, with four its five clubs going 12-6 or better. Eleven of the 14 clubs in the AL finished over .500 and only the Mets, Reds and Braves broke .500 from the NL.

So there it is - the fans seemed to have spoken.... They like it and in great numbers! Now it's wait until next year.... In the meantime, plenty of baseball left and into the Central we go....

Baseball is like a poker game....Nobody wants to quit when he is losing; nobody wants you to quit when you are ahead.

Jackie Robinson

Leaving LA.....

As we depart from Tinseltown, who knows when this hearty rivalry will be seen again - but we do leave having visited one of the oldest, most historic ballparks in the country. The interesting part with it being nestled in the side of a mountain is that we enter on the 9th floor, our trucks are located on the 7th floor, and of course the game is played on the 1st floor.... It really gives you that view looking down into the stadium when you look from our vantage point. The booth with the announcers is located on the 5th floor, giving them a prime spot behind home plate.

One of the difficulties of playing this past weekend was the fact that the temperature was so hot --- and dry... The temperatures on the field were over 100. Uncomfortable for the players true - but the camera operators hung in there as the heat rose - especially on our day game Sunday. Kudos to them for hanging in there!

And a quick note from this corner in that we lost one of our camera friends in the last month.....I would just say that Chris Jones was not only a terrific camera operator but a great guy to have on the crew. He was a true professional and will be missed by his friends in California and colleagues around the country.

It is a picturesque park nestled in a ravine...and the Tribe took 2 out of 3 there! It was a good visit....