Calling a game from 3,000 miles can be a challenge.
Calling a game from 3,000 miles away has its challenges
Yankees radio announcer John Sterling’s signature home run call sometimes leaves him vulnerable to being fooled. He has to start his “It is high, it is far” call a little bit early to nail the dramatic timing, so occasionally instead of “it is gone,” he has to wrap up with “it is ... off the wall” or “it is ... hauled in at the track.” But Sterling has never been fooled the way he was on Wednesday night.
When Aaron Judge stepped to the plate in the third inning in Seattle, Sterling, sitting in the broadcast booth in the Bronx, saw Judge crush a hanging breaking ball into the upper deck.
“It is high, it is far, it is gone!” Sterling said, before realizing he’d been bamboozled. “Unfortunately, that was a replay of the home run [Judge hit in the second inning].”
“I’m sorry, it’s on the monitor,” Sterling continued, sounding a little exasperated. “What am I supposed to do?”
“This is a great way to do a game, isn’t it?” his broadcast partner Suzyn Waldman chimed in.
It seems strange that, as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted in baseball and in the country at large, MLB announcers are still calling road games from their home parks. If announcers are fully vaccinated and comfortable with traveling, there’s no reason why they should still be sitting in empty ballparks and calling games off of monitors.
Announcers have gotten better at calling games in a virtual setting (watching the Yankees, I sometimes forget Paul O’Neill is in his basement in Ohio) but the broadcast certainly suffers when the crew is hundreds or thousands of miles away. Having the announcers able to pick up on little things like the energy of the crowd or the weather conditions, or see things that aren’t captured by the cameras, makes for a better viewing experience for fans at home. With the All-Star break right around the corner, maybe MLB will decide that announcers can return to the road in the second half of the season.
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Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.
Calling a game from 3,000 miles can be a challenge.
Calling a game from 3,000 miles away has its challenges
Yankees radio announcer John Sterling’s signature home run call sometimes leaves him vulnerable to being fooled. He has to start his “It is high, it is far” call a little bit early to nail the dramatic timing, so occasionally instead of “it is gone,” he has to wrap up with “it is ... off the wall” or “it is ... hauled in at the track.” But Sterling has never been fooled the way he was on Wednesday night.
When Aaron Judge stepped to the plate in the third inning in Seattle, Sterling, sitting in the broadcast booth in the Bronx, saw Judge crush a hanging breaking ball into the upper deck.
“It is high, it is far, it is gone!” Sterling said, before realizing he’d been bamboozled. “Unfortunately, that was a replay of the home run [Judge hit in the second inning].”
“I’m sorry, it’s on the monitor,” Sterling continued, sounding a little exasperated. “What am I supposed to do?”
“This is a great way to do a game, isn’t it?” his broadcast partner Suzyn Waldman chimed in.
It seems strange that, as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted in baseball and in the country at large, MLB announcers are still calling road games from their home parks. If announcers are fully vaccinated and comfortable with traveling, there’s no reason why they should still be sitting in empty ballparks and calling games off of monitors.
Announcers have gotten better at calling games in a virtual setting (watching the Yankees, I sometimes forget Paul O’Neill is in his basement in Ohio) but the broadcast certainly suffers when the crew is hundreds or thousands of miles away. Having the announcers able to pick up on little things like the energy of the crowd or the weather conditions, or see things that aren’t captured by the cameras, makes for a better viewing experience for fans at home. With the All-Star break right around the corner, maybe MLB will decide that announcers can return to the road in the second half of the season.
The best of SI
Jetpacks were supposed to be the transport of the future when they were introduced at Super Bowl I. Why weren’t they? ... This week marks the 25th anniversary of the night the NWO was formed and changed wrestling history. ... The 12 teams that could win Super Bowl LVI.
Around the sports world
Naomi Osaka made her first extensive comments about the French Open controversy in an essay for Time. ... Derek Carr says he was told he wasn’t the unnamed “motherf-----” Tom Brady was talking about. ... The Nevada State Athletic Commission will no longer punish boxers and MMA fighters for using marijuana. ... The XFL has halted talks to merge with the CFL and pushed its expected return date back to 2023.
Two Stanley Cups in nine months. Not bad.
A shirtless Nikita Kucherov had a lot of fun in his press conference
Pandemonium after Harry Kane’s goal
The first four words of this tweet had me worried we had a Sergio Romo situation gone too far
The guy playing Kurt Warner in his upcoming biopic throws like Tim Tebow
Billy Hamilton is out here playing cricket
Broncos QB Drew Lock’s car was hit with a big piece of metal on the highway
Tremendous trash talk
Not sports
Adam Driver got a five-minute standing ovation at the end of the premiere of his new movie at Cannes, so he lit a cigarette while he waited for everyone to calm down. ... A man in Austria was bitten by his neighbor’s escaped python while sitting on the toilet. ... Wisconsin lawmakers want to make Colby the official state cheese.
“Vax That Thang Up”
This 69-foot-tall sandcastle is world’s tallest
A good song
Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.
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