Javy Cam coming soon to Marquee

Upcoming Cubs telecast will feature new infield camera

MESA, Ariz. — Javy Cam is on the way to the Marquee Sports Network.

Marquee officials showed Cubs President Theo Epstein the special infield camera on a practice field Thursday at the Nike Performance Center.

The tiny camera, which the network has been testing this spring, is located in the dirt near second base — close to shortstop Javier Baez — and Marquee hopes to use it in a Cactus League telecast Wednesday or March 12.

“It was done at the All-Star Game, and the league has allowed us to do some experimenting here,” Marquee general manager Mike McCarthy said at Sloan Park. “That’s a great thing about spring training and doing all these games — we’re able to try things.

“We were able to look at this Javy Baez fellow. He’s good at baseball is what this camera seems to illustrate.”

It’s not officially called Javy Cam, but it’s inevitable the camera will show off Baez’s dexterity at short.

Marquee planned to show some video highlights on Thursday’s Cubs-Rangers telecast.

“This camera speaks for itself. It’s very cool,” McCarthy said. “And the Cubs have been so open to experimenting.”

Did Marquee need Epstein’s approval? “It’s a partnership, and we definitely want his buy-in and we probably have it,” McCarthy said. “We worked closely with the team on miking players. We really couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to bring perspectives on the Cubs to the viewers that they may not have been able to get before.”

McCarthy said the network is experimenting a lot this spring. Some things will be part of regular-season telecasts, and some won’t.

The horizontal-score bug, which differs from the vertical bugs in the corner on most teams’ telecasts, and the bottom-line crawl that provides news and scores are two components Cubs fans watching Marquee have been getting used to.

“We know that anything that’s new has a little bit of a marinating period,” McCarthy said. “We’re trying to decide on things like (the crawl). But we like what it’s giving in the way of information, and obviously we’re going to be tweaking things.”

So spring training telecasts are a work in progress?

“In a healthy way,” he said. “We’re getting feedback, a lot of it positive. A lot of ‘Hey, have you thought of this?’ That’s what makes it fun.

“I’ve been around sports awhile, and the passion of the Cubs fan is like no other. They really care, and that makes everybody better, which is great.”