Every person likes to be recognized for their work.
This is true in every profession.
One of the greatest video tape sequences I have ever seen occurred during our telecast today. Early in the game, one of the members of the opposing team was interacting with the catcher on the Cardinals in the batters box while preparing to face the pitcher. Later in the at-bat, this player reached first base.
At this point in the telecast, our talent (announcers) remarked that “for a big man, this player had a remarkable stolen base percentage. Our graphics operator backed up this statement with an insightful graphic showing the career stolen base vs. attempts during the career of this player.
Right on cue, this player attempted to steal second base and was thrown out by the catcher. As the player was jogging off the field he smiled at the catcher who, in response, smiled back. The shot of the player who attempted to steal second base smiling at the catcher was on the air live. By the time I cut to the catcher he had stopped smiling at the opponent he had just thrown out.
Later, when we were in commercial break after the inning ended, our lead tape operator “sold” to the Producer a tape package of the exchange between the two players, the attempted stolen base, and the interaction after the play between the two ballplayers.
The sequence was absolutely perfect and showed the following:
The opposing player, while at the plate was conversing with the Cardinals’ catcher. I believe this shot was live but the value of this verbal exchange was not, at that time, realized.
Then, after the opposing player reached first base, our lead tape operator had video of the opposing player looking at the catcher and basically telling the catcher he was stealing. This video was great because it was not seen live by our audience.
The third segment to this outstanding video compilation was the actual attempted steal where the opposing player was thrown out by a mile.
The final piece of this segment showed the catcher and the other player looking at each other and smiling.
It is the goal and hope of every TV baseball telecast team to capture unique and memorable moments on every show.
Today, our team nailed one of those memorable moments.
This video segment was the combination of our lead tape operator’s skill at capturing moments not usually seen and creating a story out of that moment.
This will certainly be one of the most memorable moments we will have on our telecasts this season.
Nice going, Brian.