I would love for someone to offer a Low Information baseball broadcast. No announcers. No graphics. No strike zone box. No betting odds. Just ballpark sounds and a minimal scorebug.
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Half the time I watch with the sound off, especially for ESPN games. It doesn't stop the FanKings Odds of Third-Base Coach Scratching His Nuts On Camera graphics, but at least I don't have to hear about it too.
I like to watch with the sound off and the radio broadcast on, but I have a hard time getting them synced properly. Apparently there is a way to do that but I haven't figured it out yet.
I agree about the graphics etc. Decades ago, NBC exec producer Don Ohlmeyer tried an announcerless NFL game, with the crowd sound turned up. It was fascinating, actually. It didn't work, because fans couldn't keep up with what was happening in the game, but it was cool to watch.
The Cubs did an "old school" broadcast in black and white with no score box and the old camera angles a few years back and it was the first good broadcast any professional league has done since the late 90s.
One thing I love about baseball is that it allows me to multi task. I love watching a game, but I also love listening to the broadcast while I am doing something else, and letting the announcers help me keep up without retaining all of the information.
I seriously think they should just offer that as an alt broadcast. They've played around with it, I think it was during covid? Being able to hear the seams whistle, the gloves pop etc? It was magical
I don't remember if they did it last season or not, but my favorite part of the initial apple tv broadcasts were when they had the inning that was just ballpark sounds and no commentary
I thought they had an option to do that for the whole game when they first started, but I'm not sure. Bc I know mlb tv used to, so I might be misremembering.
I remember years ago when NBC (?) aired a while football game without announcers. I thought it was pretty cool. We the viewer were able to figure out what was happening based on graphics and the in-stadium PA announcer.
The cubs on WGN had a camera above home plate and Steve Stone would usually give the caveat that the angle was off so we can’t be too sure it hit the corner. It seems like in the modern game people flip if the ball is just outside the box that umps don’t even see.
It seems like, too, when watching old games players wouldn’t get as pissed at bad calls but moreso inconsistent calls or if an ump was off on different parts of the plate.
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