Scooter was an animated character used by Fox Sports during Major League Baseball games. The character, a baseball with human facial characteristics, is voiced by Tom Kenny (best known for his work as the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants) and was designed by Fox to explain different types of pitches with the education of children in mind. [1]
Scooter debuted in the 2004 baseball season on April 16, during a game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. [2] While Fox Sports television chairman David Hill called Scooter "really cute and really terrific," the character garnered few positive reactions otherwise, with Sports Illustrated writer John Donovan warning: "purists everywhere, grab the barf bag," [3] and Sports Illustrated media writer Richard Deitsch using Scooter as an example of "how technology does not always help society." [4] The Sporting News reported polling their staff with the question "What best summarizes your feelings for Scooter, FOX's talking baseball?", and 45% of respondents chose the answer "Send him to a slow, painful death." [5] Despite the negative reactions, Scooter would still be used in televised baseball games until after the 2006 World Series.
Some television historians have noticed the similarities between Scooter and Peter Puck, an animated hockey puck that was used by Hockey Night in Canada and NHL on NBC in the 1970s to explain the rules of hockey to viewers. However, Peter Puck was well loved by viewers and is often looked at with nostalgia, whereas Scooter has been met with little but derision.
Joseph Francis Buck is an American sportscaster for ESPN.
Bobby's World is an American animated comedy children's television series that aired on Fox Kids from September 8, 1990, to February 23, 1998. The show was created by Canadian actor/comedian Howie Mandel, who also performs the voices of both Bobby and his father Howard Generic.
Michael "Doc" Emrick is an American former network television play-by-play sportscaster and commentator noted mostly for his work in ice hockey. He was the lead announcer for National Hockey League national telecasts on both NBC and NBCSN. Among the many awards Emrick has received is the NHL's Lester Patrick Award in 2004, making him the first of only six to have received the award for media work, and the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award by the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2008. He has also won nine national Emmy Awards for excellence in sports broadcasting, the only hockey broadcaster to be honored with even one. On December 12, 2011, Emrick became the first member of the media to be inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2017, Sports Illustrated listed Emrick as the sportscaster of the year.
Brent Woody Musburger is an American sportscaster, currently the lead broadcaster and managing editor at Vegas Stats and Information Network (VSiN).
FoxTrax, also referred to as the glowing puck, is an augmented reality system that was used by Fox Sports' telecasts of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1996 to 1998. The system was intended to help television viewers visually follow a hockey puck on the ice, especially near the bottom of the rink where the traditional center ice camera was unable to see it due to the sideboards obstructing the puck's location. The system used modified hockey pucks containing shock sensors and infrared emitters, which were then read by sensors and computer systems to generate on-screen graphics, such as a blue "glow" around the puck, and other enhancements such as trails to indicate the hardness and speed of shots.
"Lisa on Ice" is the eighth episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It was the first broadcast on Fox in the United States on November 13, 1994. In the episode, Lisa discovers that she possesses a skill for ice hockey. A rivalry between her and Bart ensues.
Peter Puck is a hockey puck-shaped cartoon character. The puck, whose animated adventures appeared on both NBC's Hockey Game of the Week and CBC's Hockey Night in Canada during the 1970s, explained ice hockey rules, equipment and the sport's history to the home viewing audience. The voice of Peter Puck was provided by Ronnie Schell. The animation was produced by Hanna-Barbera studios. Nine episodes, each approximately three minutes long, were broadcast between periods of NHL hockey games.
Gary Francis Thorne is an American sportscaster. He was the lead play-by-play announcer for Baltimore Orioles games on MASN from 2007 to 2020. He has also worked for ESPN and ABC, including National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, college football, and the Frozen Four hockey tournament. He also worked for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he was the narrator for the WrestleMania Rewind program on its WWE Network streaming video service.
John Peterson Saunders was a Canadian-American sports journalist. He worked for ESPN and ABC from 1986 until his death in 2016.
Baseball Prospectus (BP) is an organization that publishes a website, BaseballProspectus.com, devoted to the sabermetric analysis of baseball. BP has a staff of regular columnists and provides advanced statistics as well as player and team performance projections on the site. Since 1996 the BP staff has also published a Baseball Prospectus annual as well as several other books devoted to baseball analysis and history.
MLB on Fox is an American presentation of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by Fox Sports, the sports division of the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox), since June 1, 1996. The broadcaster has aired the World Series in 1996, 1998, and every edition since 2000, and the All-Star Game in 1997, 1999, and every year since 2001. It has also aired the National League Championship Series (NLCS) and American League Championship Series (ALCS) in alternate years from 1996 to 2000 and since 2007, with the NLCS in even years and the ALCS in odd years.
Sportvision was a private company, launched in January 1998, that provided various television viewing enhancements to a number of different professional sporting events. They worked with NFL, NBA, NASCAR, NHL, MLB, PGA and college football broadcasts. Sportvision was co-founded by CEO Bill Squadron, CTO Stan Honey and COO Jerry Gepner, who had all worked together at Fox Sports and its parent company, News Corporation.
The broadcasts of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by ESPN have been shown on its various platforms in the United States, including ESPN itself, ABC, ESPN+, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, and Hulu. Since 2021, games have been broadcast under the ESPN Hockey Night branding, while those on ESPN+ have used the ESPN+ Hockey Night branding.
The following is a chronological list of the technological advancements of Major League Baseball television broadcasts:
The National Hockey League has never fared as well on American television in comparison to the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, or the National Football League, although that has begun to change, with NBC's broadcasts of the final games of the 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013 Stanley Cup Finals scoring some of the best ratings ever enjoyed by the sport on American television.
ESPN is an American-based global cable and satellite television channel that focuses on sports-related programming inc
Chuck Wilson is an American interviewer, reporter and sports talk radio host. Wilson was an original host when the ESPN Radio Network debuted on January 4, 1992 and has 20 years experience on national radio, including close to 17 years at ESPN. In December 2009, Sports Illustrated.com named Wilson runner-up for "Best National Sports Radio Host" of the decade.
In September 2000, Major League Baseball signed a six-year, $2.5 billion contract with Fox to show Saturday baseball, the All-Star Game, selected Division Series games and exclusive coverage of both League Championship Series and the World Series.
Since 2000, the CBC has aired an annual special Hockey Day in Canada broadcast to celebrate the game in Canada. The broadcast includes hockey-related features all afternoon, leading up to a tripleheader of NHL action featuring the seven Canadian teams. One exception was the 2008 edition that featured four games including two American teams along with the six Canadian teams; this was due to the NHL's schedule format at the time, as there was no inter-conference games between Canadian teams. Lead commentators, Don Cherry and Ron MacLean broadcast from a remote area. The broadcast includes live broadcast segments from smaller communities right across the country and features panel discussions on issues facing "Canada's game" at both the minor and pro levels. The day is usually in mid-February, but was broadcast in early January in 2002 and 2006 due to the 2002 Winter Olympics and 2006 Winter Olympics, respectively; the 2007 event was also held in January, though no sporting events key to Canada were scheduled.
The NFL on Nickelodeon is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that are produced by CBS Sports, and broadcast on the American pay television channel Nickelodeon. In 2021, Nickelodeon hosted a one-time simulcast in coordination with CBS of the Chicago Bears–New Orleans Saints Wild Card game. This marked the first time that a major live sporting event would be broadcast on the channel. Following positive reception from media and fans, Nickelodeon announced that the simulcast would return for a Wild Card game during the 2021–22 NFL playoffs between the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. In May 2022, Nickelodeon announced that the simulcast would return for a Christmas game during the 2022 NFL season between the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams. In May 2023, Nickelodeon announced that the simulcast would return for a second consecutive Christmas game during the 2023 NFL season between the Las Vegas Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs. In August 2023, CBS announced that it would carry Super Bowl LVIII on Nickelodeon in the same format, marking the second time that a Super Bowl game featured a second English language broadcast, after Super Bowl I.