TBS reviewed

After four days (Monday's one game playoff between Colorado and San Diego included), I thought I'd write about TBS' coverage of the playoffs. Lucky for me, I am at my parents' house in Ohio for the week, and they have DirectTV. Back in DC, where I didn't buy cable, I would not have been able to watch it, at least not without using a international proxy server to get MLB.TV.

Top ten things I like about TBS' playoff coverage:

10. They aren't Fox or E$PN.
9. TBS has awesome camera shots from around the park and knows exactly when to use them. None of this zeroing in on a particular fan or a guy on the bench - we get to see more of the park and get a sense of what it is like to be there.
8. TBS doesn't dwell on the celebrities in the crowd. Celebrity interviews are quick and to the point. The only reason Steven King was on camera yesterday was because he was sitting behind the kid who caught Manny's foul ball and robbed the Angels' catcher of it. Great kid, funny stuff.
7. I don't know how many people noticed this, but at yesterday's Indians game, there was a guy who was sitting behind the lefthanded batters wearing an Indians cap - only we didn't know it was an Indians cap because someone in the studio kept coloring it with bright fluorescent colors. At first it was bright yellow, and I thought it a terrible distraction but then it changed to orange, red, blue, and pink throughout the game, and my mom and I couldn't stop laughing at it. Apparently the guy doing it got into trouble, because the last few innings just the Indian's cap was atop his head.
6. The announcers calling out LeBron James for being a frontrunner when he showed up with his Bankees cap. And then he didn't show up at all for the next game! Ha!
5. The way they show the scorecard line when a batter comes up to the plate.
4. Chip Caray, Tony Gwynn, and Bob Brenley. Funny when they need to be, don't sit there and talk about things that aren't relevant to the game, don't talk about "whenIplayed," and aren't Tim McCarver or Joe Morgan. The other announcers are good, too. They get that people don't watch baseball to hear them.
3. There aren't commercial breaks between every pitching change and you actually get to see some of what is happening at the game - kinda makes you remember what it's like being AT the game.
2. Their Game Breaks are done BETWEEN innings rather than during them. This is a pet peeve of mine, when Fox goes into their Game Breaks while the game is still going and shows a split screen with the game so tiny you can't see what's going on.
1. They show THE GAME rather than the announcers or interviewees in the booth or talking baseballs or all of that excess crap that Fox and E$PN think people want to see. When they do show the announcers, which is only a couple of times a game, it's only for ten seconds or so before they get back to the game. And when Craig Sagen goes into the crowd, it's very brief, to the point, funny, and you don't miss the game.

And the things I don't like (I couldn't think of ten):

5. TBS is a cable station, limiting the number of people who can watch the games.
4. There's only one October and Dane Cook. The Dane Cook who said that before the Red Sox were the Red Sox they were the Boston Braves and they scouted his dad in 1952. I wonder which store he bought his Red Sox cap from in 2004?
3. Frank TV commercials. Although that impression of Bush distinguishing between home runs and inside the park home runs is pretty funny.
2. Craig Sagen's wardrobe. Although the announcers making fun of it is pretty funny. ("Where'd he get that outfit - from Prince?")
1. The stupid 9 feet arrow graphic they use to show a baserunner's lead. There is no reason for it and it reeks of Fox or E$PN.

Fox and E$PN could really learn something from TBS' producers. I commend them for doing an excellent job.

Go Tribe!