College Baseball 360 » Mike Patrick http://collegebaseball360.com baseball news, college baseball stats, sean stires, pete lafleur, college world series video, college baseball podcast, Fri, 14 Feb 2025 21:33:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 Can We Speed Things Up At The CWS? http://collegebaseball360.com/can-we-speed-things-up-at-the-cws/ http://collegebaseball360.com/can-we-speed-things-up-at-the-cws/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:11:01 +0000 http://collegebaseball360.com/?p=262

(This was originally posted on 7/30/09.  We just moved this and all other CWS posts from our old blog after we launched our new web site design on 9/25/09.)

It’s been a while since my last post, so I thought I would share a few thoughts while I’m watching the Cubs vs. Astros on WGN.

Speaking of baseball on TV, the length of the games on ESPN was one of the hottest topics to come out of the College World Series. The average CWS game time was 3 hours and 40 minutes. That is a bit long, but more commercials are a fact of life when it comes to postseason sports on television. Networks are paying big money for the rights to the games, and packing each break is a necessary evil if they’re going to make money.

An average big league ball game is just under three hours, while a commercial break typically lasts between 90 seconds and two minutes. Compare that to the aforementioned 3:40 game time that is due in part to the three and a half minute breaks ESPN takes every half inning.

Here are some ideas to speed things up next year (and beyond) on ESPN in Omaha:

1. Do away with the mid-game interview with each team’s head coach. I watch Major League Baseball all the time, and it’s never done in the regular season, and yet I still enjoy the game. The mid-game interview is the single most useless interview in TV sports, and ESPN isn’t the only guilty party. Fox does it too during the MLB postseason. They don’t do it during a football game, they wait until halftime (and it’s still mostly useless). It’s not like the interviews are sponsored, so put us all out of our misery and get back to the game quicker rather than make us sit through an extra 30 seconds of dugout banter. However, if ESPN wants to keep the interviews how about a compromise…

2. Inset the interview in a small picture-in-picture type box at the bottom of the screen. This way viewers and ESPN all get to eat their cake and eat it too. The interview goes on at the bottom of the screen while we watch the start of play begin that inning. ESPN holds-up play to get the interviews in, but they could be easily recorded (which I know FOX has done in the past and may still do). I’m sure it won’t kill Orel Hershiser and Mike Patrick if they get 30 seconds less air time. Speaking of which…

3. Do away from the in-game instructional demonstrations in the press box. Bob Brenly’s doing a pretty good job of analyzing the game I’m watching right now, and he hasn’t done one on-camera bit between innings to show me how Kevin Hart grips the ball when he throws his off-speed pitch. I know it’s college baseball, but it’s still baseball. We don’t need the game explained to us like we’re ten years old just because we’re watching college players instead of big leaguers. However, if ESPN really thinks it needs the demonstrations see suggestion #2. Do them at the bottom corner of the screen in a small box while the game is going on. Better yet, ESPN could promote its web site by posting the demonstrations there. IE- Mike Patrick: “To see Orel show you how to throw a curveball go to espn.com, to hear him mispronounce another college player’s name keep it tuned here.”

4. Start the games when they’re supposed to start. If the ticket says game time is 1pm start the game at 1pm and not 1:08pm. This is another network TV commercial related thing, but come on would it really be so hard to at least shoot for an :04 start time? All the chatter before the game is just lettuce on a steak sandwhich.

]]> http://collegebaseball360.com/can-we-speed-things-up-at-the-cws/feed/ 0 Thursday Thoughts & CWS Notes http://collegebaseball360.com/thursday-thoughts-cws-notes/ http://collegebaseball360.com/thursday-thoughts-cws-notes/#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:54:19 +0000 http://collegebaseball360.com/?p=248

Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires with his thoughts from Wednesday’s CWS action…

  • Brett Eibner more than atoned for his short start on the mound vs. LSU Monday when his 2-out 9th inning home run tied the game 3-3 to send it to extra innings.
  • ESPN’s Mike Patrick was half correct when he talked about the importance of Zach Cox’s 2-out, 2-strike single that came just before Eibner’s HR.  However, Patrick said it was important, because if Cox hadn’t singled Eibner’s HR would have just been a solo shot.  It was more important than that though, because if Cox hadn’t reached base the game would have been over, and Eibner wouldn’t have even come to the plate again until 2010.
  • Speaking of TV…wouldn’t it be nice to make as much money as ESPN analyst Orel Hersheiser makes to butcher players’ names?   In his time in Omaha he has incorrectly pronounced: Arkansas pitchers Dallas Keuchel and Brett Eibner, Virginia pitcher/DH Danny Hultzen, Arizona State SS Drew Maggi, and MLB’s #1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg.  His analysis is usually spot-on, but c’mon Orel is it too hard to just write the names pho-net-i-cal-ly?  Is it a wonder Howard Cosell used to opine about the “jockocrasy” in TV sports?
  • Speaking of TV II…it was pretty touching to see and hear business owners from the Rosenblatt area getting choked-up while trying to talk about the CWS moving to downtown Omaha after next year.
  • Speaking of TV III…Pretty cool North Carolina’s Garrett Gore got to man one of ESPN’s TV cameras for a spell during the game.  Gore said afterward “That was it, took control, my show”.  I’m sure Cosell would have been appalled though!
  • Good job by the umpires in the Arkansas-UVA game to make sure they got John Hicks’ fifth inning home run call correct.  They conferred after it was originally not called a home run, but Hicks got credit for the round-tripper after they correctly decided the ball hit a fan’s hat and then another fan’s glove and not Arkansas left fielder Chase Leavitt’s glove before it caromed back onto the field.
  • Great piece of bunting by Virginia’s Keith Werman.  The pinch-hitter entered the game in a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the 9th with runners at first and second and no outs.  Werman bunted the first two pitches of the at-bat foul and then took two balls from fellow lefty Dallas Keuchel before he finally dropped down a two-strike bunt to move the runners to second and third.
  • How about Keuchel’s relief appearance just two days after starting against Cal State Fullerton?  The southpaw tossed four shutout innings, while fanning five and giving-up just three hits to improve to 9-3 this season.  It was the junior’s first relief outing this season.
  • Speaking of pitching…a tip of the hat to starters Drew Smyly of Arkansas and fellow freshman lefty Danny Hultzen of Virginia.  The two combined to pitch 11.0 innings with 14 strikeouts and no walks on 13 hits. Smyly’s string of 19 straight shutout innings in the NCAA Tournament ended on the previously mentioned fifth inning HR by Hicks.  He was starting for the first time since losing a no-hitter in the ninth inning of the Razorbacks’ Regional Championship game vs. Oklahoma. (Podast with Smyly is available by clicking HERE.)

It’s been great having Green Day’s music playing into breaks during Super Regional and now College World Series games on ESPN.

]]> http://collegebaseball360.com/thursday-thoughts-cws-notes/feed/ 0