Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, Mick Gillispie and Kevin Reichard discuss the Best of the Ballparks vote, where the Blue Jays will end up, and how broadcasters deal with mistakes on the field and in the booth in this week’s Ballpark Digest Broadcaster Chat.
In this week’s chat:
- The launching of the Best of the Ballparks competition for MLB ballparks, and why the Field of Dreams site in Dyersville should have been included in the voting
- Where will the Toronto Blue Jays play the 2020 season, now that the players have come down against playing in a minor-league ballpark like Sahlen Field or TD Ballpark? Why not Lansing? PNC Park and the Trop are reportedly in the mix, as players hold out for an MLB facility
- Why spurning Buffalo can be seen as another MLB snub of grassroots baseball
- Why owners are missing the bigger picture when it comes to appealing to fans
- Why the New York Mets sale shows what is wrong with baseball: no one seems to be bidding for the team because they love baseball
- One of the potential Mets owners is committed to sports books and sports gambling. Is this a trend we will see in the future? Gambling as an MLB revenue source seems to be less of a hot topic now, but watch for the topic to reemerge when fans return to ballparks
- Speaking of the Mets: if the team is a media play, then SNY is key to the Mets sale, and why teams like the Yankees and Cubs were eager to regain streaming rights
- Control means boundaries can be shattered when it comes to sponsorships: this weekend’s Summer Camp games features commercial logos on the back of the pitchers mound, which will inevitably lead to uniform sponsors
- When can sponsorships go too far? Sponsor reads!
- Mick and Jesse share broadcasting stories about miscommunications between managers and broadcasters, and how to deal with such mistakes
- Today’s Ballpark Thesaurus term: how did the term battery come to describe the pitcher/catcher combo? Originally the pitcher was the battery armed with ammunition from the catcher, but over time battery came to be applied to both
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.