Monday, November 14, 2016

10 Ways to Improve MLB on TBS Playoff Coverage

Trimming the list to a mere 10 items required some effort, but the ones that made the cut truly deserve some consideration.

  1. Avoid confusion by eliminating player names altogether.  Tigers fans were excited about the possibility of “Jason Verlander” following in Justin’s footsteps, and some were salivating over the idea that “Skip Punto” might be the scrappiest player ever.  Even the legend of “Dave Kozma” grows with each passing mistake.
  2. Send Craig Sager and Ernie Johnson back to cover basketball.  Replace Johnson with a muppet and Sager with someone who spent $20 thrift shopping.  Done and done.
  3. Ban camera operators from caffeine and amphetamine use at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled first pitch.  Nobody needs to get seasick or end up with vertigo just from watching the first 2 innings of a game.
  4. Just let Cal Ripken talk, and take away the microphones from everyone else. Whether or not Ripken talks about the actual game is immaterial.  He’s knowledgeable, interesting, compelling, and he’s a natural at explaining what he sees.
  5. Stop trying to shove your Bleacher Report stuff at people.  If I wanted to watch a 15-slide presentation accompanied by unoriginal content, I’d sit through one at work.  I’d rather read TMZ to get the WAGs updates.
  6. Quit interviewing managers in the dugout.  The cliches they are too many.
  7. Let the natural narrative breathe a bit.  Shoving various prefabricated talking points into your broadcast distracts from the actual drama of what is occurring on the field.
  8. When covering a Dodgers home game, just pay whatever it takes to have Vin Scully’s audio over the TBS video feed.  Your advertising partners will thank you.
  9. Instead of lauding the Pirates for selling out PNC with new attendance records each game, try to figure out where the fans were earlier in the year.  That’s a real story.
  10. Turn over coverage to MLB Network or anybody that could do a better job than you have done – maybe Nat Geo or OWN.