For those Natosphere completists out there, I've been off since Thursday and posts will be pretty infrequent until further notice. Things intervene. But one thing you should know, regardless of any situation or predicament, is that an email from my buddy Todd Webster at the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network always piques my interest. Always. And so I could not pass up commenting on this EXCITING PRESS RELEASE!!!111!!!!
New feature will launch for Tuesday's Orioles vs. Nationals game
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Providing fans even more access to Nationals and Orioles baseball, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network will add "Super Slo Mo" video replays to its production of home games, starting with Tuesday's Beltway Battle at Camden Yards. While standard video cameras shoot about 24 frames per second, the "Super Slo Mo" camera shoots up to 90 frames per second, allowing at-home viewers to see incredible in-game detail.
The feature will create a unique and exciting new dimension to the game, bringing viewers closer to the action. The technology is currently being used by many national networks, but very few regional networks like MASN.
"This technology will allow viewers to see the actual stitches on the baseball as it approaches the plate. It marks another example of MASN's commitment to providing the highest-quality coverage of major league baseball to its viewers," said MASN spokesman Todd Webster.
Super Slo Mo? That's pretty wicked awesome. Reminds me of 1994 newspaper articles reminiscing about the advent of slow motion replay a generation or more earlier. So Super Slo Mo must be cutting edge. Or am I overly cynical in concluding this is all one giant euphemism writ large for "Up to Industry Standard"? I could think of someone who would say no.
Anyway, as great as this innovation is for MASN viewers in this oh-so exciting season, I can't help think what it would be like if Super Slo Mo were at their baseball watching disposal back in Nats Year One. Not that it mattered a wit or a twit, seeing as I think the only guy who could even tap into MASN back then was that Kristof guy from The Truman Show, but it would have been nice anyway.
And so I wonder, do I wonder . . .
As an added bonus, here is what all three color commentators in MASN history would have said about that play in Super Slo Mo:
Don Sutton: "And that's what happens when you try to pull a low and away changeup."
Tom Paciorek: "Woah. Glruugh."
Ron Darling: "{. . .}"
Ah, cheap attempted humor.
* * * *
I caught a few minutes of Johnny Holliday doing play-by-play while Bob Carpenter was off publishing more scorebooks or going through de-St.Louisization or learning how to judge a fly ball in RFK Stadium or whatever it was he was off doing. You know what? I must say I enjoyed Mr. Holliday. He called a steady, easy ballgame and generally got along very well with Sutton despite it being the first time the two had ever teamed up (and the first time Holliday had called a baseball game in . . . well, however long it's been).
I have a notion -- just a notion. Disagree if you wish. But if Holliday's old legs can sustain it, MASN should really switch Holliday and Carpenter. Put Bob in the studio and see if he can out-happy Ray Knight. At the very least, it would set up a different kind of Battle of the Beltways with the Orioles studio guy, Jim Hunter: Which of these cheerleading, vaguely imperceptive longtime baseball announcers is more tolerable?
On second thought, what kind of question is that? We're spoiled here in Natsland. Carpenter may not be perfect, but he's not actively odious like Jim Hunter. O's fans are truly cursed in a myriad ways, but moving Hunter to a studio is more putting lipstick on a pig than resolving a problem.