As the spring training games began and baseball fans proceeded to throw themselves at whatever live baseball content they could find, an inevitable topic popped up through my Twitter stream: How do you like to experience games?
There was a time when it might have seemed like sacrilege to make the case that there was any better way to watch the game than being present at the stadium. The crack of the bat and the sun in your face and all that sort of thing. But over the past three decades, the ubiquity of live baseball games across all forms of media has created several generations of fans for whom the at-home experience is certainly agreeable, if not preferable.
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Some of us also grew up with the radiocast in our ears, tuning in to whatever AM station would come in at night to catch the games and fill in the blanks between the Wednesday and Sunday broadcasts. Baseball on the radio is one of the most relaxing aspects of the summer, but if given the choice, many of us want to see the great play that just happened in something other than our mind’s eye.
The experience of watching games on TV has changed remarkably over the past decade. The advent of HD televisions and explosion of data and information that’s available to be posted on the edges of that wide screen certainly contribute to this affection for the mediated experience, as does the constant availability of multiple games being telecast. Moreover, fans now have more control over this experience, allowing them to pause, rewind, replay and analyze moments frame-by-frame.
There was a time when you were lucky to catch a couple of games per week on your local channels. Now, there is a constant stream of every game ever being played available to fans, allowing those who are distanced from their home team more immediate access to the TV and radio broadcasts, and allowing fans of the game in general to peek in on the experience of other fanbases.
So with all of this at our disposal, is there a best way to experience the games? Every fan has their own relationship to the game, and the aspects that appeal to them the most.
All things being equal, I’d probably rather be in the seats at the ballpark for any given game. There are elements that one misses while in the seats and away from the couch, like the barrage of information, and the close-up, slowed-down, replayed experience that allows you not to miss a moment, or be left asking the guy next to you "What just happened?"
But there are things that the cameras miss, like the positioning of the fielders on each pitch. Yunel Escobar in particular impressed me whenever I saw him in person, as he’d re-position himself on almost every pitch. Sometimes, depending on the count, he’d move himself dramatically, and get to many balls that you wouldn’t necessarily expect.
There’s also the communication between the fielders, or rituals in the bullpens that can be fun and even enlightening to take in.
But given that I don’t live particularly close to a ballpark, this experience is the exception rather than the norm. If anything, I’m most likely to be listening to the radio broadcast through my MLB.com At Bat app, with the TV on in another room so that I can run to the television and rewind to see the moment I just heard.
I remember a dozen years ago when I first heard a speaker discussing the multi-screen experience, and my skeptical reaction to the idea that people in the not-too-distant future would engage in media in a much more active way, watching two or three screens at a time. Even as a television junkie, it seemed like an absurd notion.
But now, if am I parked on the sofa watching the game, I usually have a tablet or my phone (or both) looking at Fangraphs or Baseball Reference, as well as a copy of the Baseball Prospectus Annual nearby. I’ve usually got a Twitter stream running on some device as well.
That’s the great thing about baseball: there is so much depth to the game, and it is such an immersive experience that it can’t be contained by one screen or through one media.