Every MLB fan has their favorite announce team, whether it’s the one that belongs to the team that they root for, or from the out of market games they get to watch on television throughout the season.
Who wouldn’t want to hear Vin Scully call playoff games one last time? Well, as everything sits right now, that’s certainly not going to happen, unless Scully makes a couple of calls. The MLB season is a long and grueling march towards October, and sure, broadcasters deserve a little reprieve. But if the team that an announcer has been broadcasting games for all season makes the postseason, they are relegated to whatever it is they do during the offseason.
This is an odd way to go about business, and since I majored in business in college, let’s take a stab at this one.
Having a team’s regular announce team call their games just makes sense. We could even go with the home team’s broadcast group being the source of commentary. It makes no difference. Obviously there are pros and cons at play here, so let’s go over a few of them.
Pro: The broadcasters have been following the team all season and will have much more knowledge of the players that are involved in the games. That knowledge, and not the dumbed down version that is generally broadcast to a wider audience, could deepen the connection between fans and the game, which is something that baseball has been striving for. Hearing a random story about a player that you had never heard of before could make you a fan for life, and could even lead to merchandise sales. The last one is likely a lot less common, but it’s still something that will happen.
Con: Money. The television partners of MLB (ESPN, TBS, FOX) have the rights to show the games on their own channels. My assumption would be that most broadcasters are signed to contracts with ROOT Sports or CSN in most markets, and it would be tricky to get them onto ESPN’s airwaves, but a deal could likely be struck. The local television providers would likely want compensation, and why pay that fee when you can just go hire your own announce team?
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Pro: Along the same lines of educating the fan base is that not many fans get to hear other team’s announcers unless they have MLB.tv or the ultra-premium cable package that only uses the home team’s feed anyway. In either case they’re likely already a big enough baseball fan. For the rest of the market, exposure to another set of pipes can be a beautiful thing. Imagine never being able to hear Vin Scully or Dick Enberg because you didn’t live in their market. Something about both of these great men deepens one’s appreciation for the game and gets you hooked. That’s what you want.
Con: Money. To extend the previous point, with all of the money that the playoff networks have shelled out, they likely want a little more control over who the broadcasters are for the games that are going over their airwaves. Call it the Hawk Harrelson Rule.
These are just a couple of the pros and cons, but there are likely many, many more.Obviously, I am in favor of a team’s regular announce team calling the games, mostly for the insight that they would bring to the table. Sure, the White Sox may make the playoffs and we would be relegated to hearing “stretch” and “put it on the board” but how much worse is that then the product that is generally provided? Not by much, especially when you consider the upside of bringing in some of the game’s best.
Coming home from a game on public transit in the Bay Area this season I turned on the radio broadcast of a Phillies game, because I have a general interest in the club. They spent part of the time I was tuned in claiming that nobody was listening, and then talking to one specific spectator in the crowd that was listening to the game on his headphones to get a reaction out of him. It was one of the best experiences that I have had listening to a baseball game, which admittedly, I don’t do enough. But this is the kind of thing that you miss out on when we’re not exposed to those that love the teams that are playing.
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Sometimes it just feels like the ones that make it to the big broadcasts have no rooting interest (which is ok for the most part), which makes it seem as though they are there for the paycheck or for their voice and general experience alone. I’d rather have someone passionate about the game that is in front of them, that doesn’t have a stock call for a series being prolonged (“and we’ll see you tomorrow night”) and that just brings some energy into the booth. It’s certainly one for for baseball to grow it’s brand while reaching its largest audience.