Orioles Doubleheader

On Monday September 25, 2012 the Baltimore Orioles played a doubleheader (two games back to back) against the Toronto Blue Jays.  Doubleheaders are rare in baseball and especially this season, as the only other time the Orioles participated in one, was on May 9^th.  Doubleheaders present a unique challenge for the broadcast team in the booth during play-by-play and color commentary, especially for the 2^nd game.  They have a lot more information that needs to be included in the broadcast as they have the task of reviewing the previous action while keeping the viewers focused on the current game.  I noticed a couple ways that the broadcast team chose to accomplish this feat. 

            For one, they clarified any changes that might have confused a fan who watched the first game.  The broadcast team tried to do this as early as they could.  Some examples would include the play-by-play announcer Gary Thorne addressing the Orioles uniform changes (they switched from white to orange) and giving the reasoning behind the switched.  His response: “just because they can.”  As well as the new umpire behind the plate and how he calls his strike zone. 

During the first inning most of the time was spent going over statistics of the batter’s last game and how he played.  This is unusual because that time is usually spent going over season statistics.  I noticed that information got pushed back to the player’s next at bat.  Additionally, the color commentator’s (Mike Bordick) role was diminished at the beginning of the game, because the play-by-play had to go over more review and spend less time on analysis of that current game.

Something else I noticed was the type of play the color announcer would talk about.  He didn’t attempt to analyze every second of the game.  Sometimes an ordinary first-pitch-fastball doesn’t need to be broken down.  He tried to pick out the significant developments and the more important plays, the ones that stick out in everyone’s mind.  This allows for more in-depth analysis of the game and also helps to make him look like even more of an authority.  His words are rarer, and therefore perceived as more valuable.  Something else important would be the descriptiveness of his analysis, where the more details the better.  One instance that stood out for me occurred after the Baltimore pitcher threw a strike.  Bordick said: “Great pitch by Wei Yin Chen to follow that fastball.  Down and away it looked like it was going to be in the same location as the last pitch, which gives the batter a huge advantage but it had great movement at the end and tailed off just in time.” 

These are two skills I am going to be working on while doing sports broadcasting for the university.  As a play-by-play announcer I will try to get background information and statistics done early so that the focus can be on the current game.  As a color commentator I will work on picking and choosing my analysis so that I can give better more relevant information.