San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
The ‘bizarre’ realities of broadcasting in a pandemic
In the new world of baseball broadcasting, there is no need for a suitcase. Hand signals could be a crucial asset. And get used to calling the action with nobody on the field.
It’s still one of the greatest jobs a sports person could ever have, but life is just plain weird right now.
As the Giants’ and A’s broadcasters prepare to work Monday and Tuesday nights, in the pair of exhibition games serving as a trial run for everyone involved, they’re realizing “the whole process is bizarre,” said Giants radio playbyplay man Jon Miller.
Nobody’s traveling — not even from San Francisco to Oakland, or vice versa. Television crews won’t be allowed to work road games, and although visiting radio crews are authorized to travel, the Giants and A’s have backed off. With the exception of Monday night’s game in Oakland, when Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper will handle their telecast from the NBC Sports Bay Area studio in San Francisco, radio and television people will work the season from their designated locations at Oracle Park and the Oakland Coliseum.
“We’re not gonna go to Oakland Monday because it will be our dress rehearsal for these things,” said Miller, noting that the first KNBR broadcast of the regular season will be on the road, at Dodger Stadium, on Thursday night. “Dave (Flemming) and I thought about driving down to L.A. for that, until we realized it didn’t make sense. None of the travel makes sense.”
Broadcasters have been designated Tier 3 by MLB, joining frontoffice types, cleanup crews and others who are not allowed to have contact with players (Tier 1) at any time. As Giants executive vice president Mario Alioto described it, “Not only would the home team have to approve a visiting crew, based on booth availability, Tier 3 means the broadcasters can’t join the team on flights, buses or hotels. Our guys would have to drive or fly to the cities, with a lot of other complications. Keeping in mind the health situation, it just wasn’t worth the risk.”
Flemming doesn’t blame MLB for the Tier 3 placement, “but once they shut us out, the thought of commercial airports and hotels, and each of us getting our own rental cars, it didn’t sound like the best idea,” he said. “We literally couldn’t even share a cab to the game. Would we be safe? Probably. Our nightmare scenario is we don’t want to knock each other out (with the coronavirus) and then have ... no broadcast.”
Even in the eerie climate of an empty stadium, working home games will be a breeze compared to awaygame assignments. “You think about it, we’re sitting here in Oakland, the team is in Texas or wherever, and we’re working the game entirely off television monitors,” said A’s TV analyst Ray Fosse. “What I’ve always done is watch the pitch on a monitor, and when contact is made, I look up and follow the ball. Now I’ll do that and — nobody’s out there. We’re gonna need as much help as we can get.”
Fosse’s partner on
NBC Sports California, Glen Kuiper, said it will be “especially weird with the first few road games. You gotta get used to sitting in that ballpark all by yourself. I mean, it’s not like you’re looking out on the water here (in Oakland). But you know what? I’m looking forward to it. Who knows? It might be a lot of fun.”
Working alone is the new reality, each broadcaster isolated from the next. To get a mental picture of the new setup, here’s how it’s been rigged at each ballpark, from left to right if you’re looking at the field:
At Oracle Park: Flemming with proper distance from engineer Darren Chan (wearing a mask) in the regular KNBR booth; Miller in what is normally the visitors’ TV booth; Duane Kuiper in the regular NBC Sports booth, and Krukow in what is called the Willie McCovey Booth, favored by the late Giants star in his later years. They can all see each other through clear windows and will stay in those locations for the traditional postgame wrap, to be aired only on radio.
At the Coliseum: Radio playbyplay man Ken Korach in the visitors’ TV booth; Vince Cotroneo with engineer Michael J. Baird in the regular home radio booth; the home TV booth reserved for a cameraman in his customary spot; Glen Kuiper in the visitors’ radio booth, and Fosse in a booth used for various purposes. When Dallas Braden handles TV analysis (19 of the 60 games), Fosse will move to a press area to Korach’s left.
In a setup likely to be common throughout the majors, each broadcaster will be provided three monitors: the socalled “dirty feed,” what viewers see at home; a lockedview camera angle that doesn’t move, showing all nine defensive positions; and a multiview monitor broken into six sections, allowing views of the home bullpen, the visiting bullpen, the scoreboard, the countdown clock, the High Home (same as the second monitor) and the centerfield camera shot. “That High Home is the one we really need for road games, to see the whole field,” said Korach. “You want to know if the thirdbase coach is waving somebody home, see if a ball’s fair or foul, where guys are playing defensively. With all the shifts that are going on in baseball, I could say, ‘Ground ball hit to shortstop,’ and there’s nobody there. So that’s going to be crucial.”
Sorely missed by the broadcasters will be the nightly pleasure of hanging around the club
house and batting cage before the game. “I’m always on the field during batting practice, asking a ton of questions,” said Cotroneo. “A play from last night, something about a guy from the other team — now you’ve got a story you can weave into the broadcast later. And there won’t be any scouts; those guys have been my lifeblood. They see the game differently than I’ll ever see it, and I try to learn from that.” Krukow and Duane Kuiper have worked together for so long, they couldn’t be more confident. “We’ve come up with some hand signals just to cue the other guy what’s coming,” Krukow said. “And we are stoked. Calling baseball is the highlight of our lives. (Voice rising) Oh, my God, I can’t wait.”
Fans might be put off by the sight of cardboardcutout photos of
fans in the stands, but Kruk & Kuip have some ideas there. “I’d like to see a section with all rock ’n’ roll legends,” said Kuiper. “And I can’t wait to say, ‘That baby is ... outta here! And listen to those cutouts!’ That’s what Mike and I do. We get to the park, we laugh, we have fun.”
With the blessing of Giants management to respectfully include the deceased among the cutouts, Krukow let his imagination go wild. “You could have a section with Hank Greenwald and Lon Simmons sitting with Carol Doda, Herb Caen and Robin Williams,” he said. What’s more San Francisco than that? Herb Caen havin’ a schmag (cigarette) and a martini — perfect.”