Monday, May 03, 2010

ESPN Determined To Teach Counting To America

I haven't watched any Sunday Night Baseball games on ESPN this season, largely because they seem to only show east-coast inter-divisional games, and the fact that listening to Joe Morgan seems to melt my brain cells. But after hearing SoSG regulars Dusty Baker and Josh S. snipe at this year's scoreboard graphic, I had to see it for myself (thanks for the screenshot, DB):

Yikes, this new scoreboard graphic is a mess. In an effort to go all Fenway Park on us, they've added glowing dots to signify balls, strikes, and outs. We might as well invite Ernie and Count Von Count into the broadcast booth, just in case we've got our abacuses (abaci?) out with us at home on the couch.

And at this stage, can this guy be that far behind?

11 comments:

Greg Zakwin said...

I actually don't hate the new "scoreboard".

Still hate Joe Morgan though.

"I'm not a numbers guy."- Joe Morgan

No shit sherlock, even though the numbers love you.

Fred's Brim said...

I was watching the game on ESPN Deportes last night. It was so much more enjoyable. But the announcers are the opposite of Vin when it comes to calling homeruns. The ESPN guy screams nonstop through the whole homerun trot

Steve Sax said...

@FB: Eric Collins broadcasts on Deportes too?

Fred's Brim said...

Es posible!

Kyle Baker said...

I guess the thing that really brings a brother down re this graphic is the placement of the innings indicator. It sits right there next to the score, so if you just glance up, you see two numbers on top of each other then one immediately to the right. It's not rocket science, but the graphic is meant to relay pertinent information clearly, and I think it fails in this department. Simply moving the innings indicator to the right side of the graphic would help immensely.

Is this also an appropriate place and time to complain about the GameDay graphic? It has similar issues with me. I need to be able to glance down at the screen when I'm in the middle of an important conference call. But the innings indicator is shown right next to the score, so I have to put work on hold in order to ascertain both the score and the inning of any particular game I'm following.

This is the second most important facing our nation after the oil spill, and I expect MLB to have the problem corrected immediately.

Fred's Brim said...

Dusty: "Let me be clear: MLB is responsible for this scoreboard. MLB will be paying the bill."

Kyle Baker said...

Heh...

MR.F said...

I have no problem with the dots signifying the balls, strikes, and outs.

I do agree with DB about the innings being too close to the score.

Rob said...

The new scoreboard sucks. Let's get that straight. Their endless pandering to the Red Sox, and Yankees, and Mets, is mighty annoying. Example: their May Sunday night schedule consists of

May 9: Yankees @ Boston
May 16: Philadelphia @ Milwaukee
May 23: Yankees @ Mets
May 30: Texas @ Minnesota

Two of those are Yankees, three of the teams are New York (including yesterday's game, four), and all but one of them are eastern division teams within a fairly easy drive of Hartford, CT.

Rob said...

... all but one of those games involve an eastern division team ...

Kyle Baker said...

@Rob

I'll bet on those two other May dates the suits were sitting aorund going, "Whooooa...are you SURE we don't want to pencil another Yankees game in?"