THE QUIET GAME
With no fans in the stands, Astros announcers turn to humor about the surreal atmosphere in stadium
What was on the TV screen was definitely baseball, but it sounded more like golf.
The game on the screen Friday night unquestionably was baseball, but it sounded more akin to golf as the Astros and their television partners at AT&T SportsNet Southwest began what inevitably will be a subdued season of telecasts from Minute Maid Park.
With nobody in the seats and no noise, save a low level murmur sourced from MLB video games and piped through the stadium sound system, analyst Geoff Blum and play-by-play broadcaster Kevin Eschenfelder had to be concerned not only with balls and strikes, but with volume and etiquette.
“There’s no reaction in the building,” Eschenfelder said during the early innings.
“We knew the players would have to adjust, but I didn’t have any idea that we would have to adjust to it,” Blum replied. “I hope I don’t get ejected.
“If I start ragging on (umpire) Alphonso Marquez’s strike zone. am I going to get ejected? I’d better start whispering.”
Actually, if you watched only out of the corner of your eye and gave the screen your full attention only when the announcers raised their voices, Friday’s telecast wasn’t entirely unlike what Minute Maid Park was like during the Astros’ hundred-loss seasons in 2011-13 — lots of wide open spaces with nary a fan in sight and very little noise.
The nature of baseball and the construction of the ballpark made it possible for producer Carl Patterson, and director Paul Byckowski when possible, to shoot the game tightly focused and avoid driving home that for this home game, there were no fans at home.
Still, the opener reflected what a challenge this season is going to be for the TV crews working games at home, let alone the challenges of calling road games off monitors from the AT&T SportsNet downtown studios.
“It’s a different atmosphere, for sure, to say the least,” Eschenfelder said.
“We’ve been spoiled over the last four or five years having this place packed on a nightly basis,” Blum added.
The network pulled out a couple of bells and whistles for the opener, including cheers and chants sourced from recent Zoom calls and diagrams about the MLB rules for social distancing within the dugout.
Eschenfelder and Blum also filled airspace by marveling at some of the strange sights both on and off camera, including ballpark employees wandering through the stands picking up foul balls that in normal times would have been snapped up by fans and retrieving them for future use.
“Almost like a high school game from that standpoint,” Eschenfelder said.
“Did they take into account the money they’ll save by getting those balls back and putting them back into the batting practice bucket?” Blum replied.
Field reporter Julia Morales, who will report from the visiting team TV booth with reporters barred from the field level, also chipped in with some observations about Astros pitcher Justin Verlander and other topics that probably wouldn’t have made air had she been in her usual spot at field level of a crowded, noisy stadium.
That element could consume a larger part of the telecast as the shortened season wears on.
Eschenfelder and Blum also spent a half-inning talking with play by play announcer Todd Kalas, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 this week and is quarantined at home.
“I feel great,” Kalas said. “I’ve been asymptomatic this whole time. I’ve been one of the lucky ones. It’s a matter of going through the protocol until I can get back there. I’m feeling really good.”
All things considered, there were enough elements of this strange atmosphere to get the AT&T crew though Friday’s telecast in relatively good order.
It’s going to be a challenge, though, to proceed through the rest of this truncated season without the temptation to continually marvel about weird everything is.
But at least it’s baseball at a time when fans can use some entertainment. That point was driven home by the opening tease of the pregame show, written by producer Clint Herod and read by former Astros announcer Bill Brown.
“We hope we can continue to appreciate the golden age of Astros baseball,” Brown read. “We hope that these 60 games give you the chance to connect with friends and families in new ways. We hope to smile as new memories are made, as new wins are collected, as more records are broken.
“And we hope that once again, we can find joy in baseball.”