Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, Mick Gillispie and Kevin Reichard tip their hats to the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues, discuss how MLB should be broadcasting games from empty ballparks, and why submariners are so hard to hit in this week’s Ballpark Digest Broadcaster Chat.
In this week’s chat:
- Tipping our caps to Negro Leagues history, as we mark the 100th anniversary of the first organized leagues, citing Rube Foster and his Chicago teams as well as the legendary Kansas City Monarchs and remember the oft-forgotten Effa Manley
- How MLB should remember the Negro Leagues as the 2020 launches
- When the season launches (likely) with canned crowd noise, will it be better to watch a game on TV or listen on radio?
- How will broadcasters react to calling a game with no fans in the stands? Why we’re eager to hear Bob Uecker call a game at an empty Miller Park and Dan Gladden at an empty Target Field this year
- How mascots will provide entertainment from the stands with no fans present
- Why baseball needs to rethink how the game is broadcast. Our suggestion: personalized broadcasts with one broadcaster devoted to one player, with everyone getting their own Twitch channel
- How cool it would be to mike up players, and how we could see players amping up their speech for the fans
- The bottom line: MLB has a unique opportunity to change how the game is broadcast while giving fans the access they crave, and why MLB probably won’t seize the opportunity
- Jesse’s term of the week from The Baseball Thesaurus: a submarine pitcher, how they change the course of a game and why they present difficulties to batters
Jesse Goldberg-Strassler is the Voice of the Lansing Lugnuts and the author of The Baseball Thesaurus and The Football Thesaurus from August Publications. Mick Gillispie is the Voice of the Tennessee Smokies and a spring-training Voice of the Chicago Cubs. Kevin Reichard is publisher at August Publications and Ballpark Digest.