The following is a chronological list of the technological advancements [1] [2] [3] of Major League Baseball television broadcasts:
On August 26, [5] [6] the first ever Major League Baseball telecast (the Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Cincinnati Reds from Ebbets Field) aired by W2XBS, an experimental station in New York City which would ultimately become WNBC-TV.
Red Barber called the game without the benefit of a monitor and with only two cameras capturing the game. One camera was on Barber and the other was behind the plate. Barber had to guess from which light was on and where it pointed.
In 1939, baseball games were usually covered by one camera providing a point-of-view along the third base line.
On August 11, 1951, WCBS-TV in New York City televised the first baseball game (in which the Boston Braves beat the Brooklyn Dodgers by the score of 8–1) in color.
On October 3 of that year, NBC aired the first coast-to-coast baseball telecast as the Brooklyn Dodgers were beaten by the New York Giants in the final game of a playoff series by the score of 5-4 (off Bobby Thomson's now-legendary home run).
1955 [9] marked the first time that the World Series was televised in color.
On July 23, 1962, Major League Baseball had its first satellite telecast (via Telstar Communications). The telecast included portion of a contest between the Chicago Cubs vs. the Philadelphia Phillies from Wrigley Field with Jack Brickhouse commentating on WGN-TV.
By 1969, the usage of chroma key (in which the commentators would open a telecast by standing in front of a greenscreen composite of the stadiums' crowds) became a common practice for baseball telecasts.
In the bottom of the 12th inning of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series [14] at Boston's Fenway Park, Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk was facing Cincinnati Reds pitcher Pat Darcy. Fisk then hit a pitch down the left field line that appeared to be heading to foul territory. The enduring image of Fisk jumping and waving the ball fair as he made his way to first base is arguably one of baseball's greatest moments. The ball struck the foul pole, giving the Red Sox a 7–6 win and forcing a seventh and deciding game of the Fall Classic. During this time, cameramen covering baseball games were instructed to follow the flight of the ball; reportedly, Fisk's reaction [15] was only being recorded because NBC cameraman Lou Gerard, positioned inside Fenway's scoreboard at the base of the left-field Green Monster wall, had become distracted by a large rat. [16] This play was perhaps the most important catalyst in getting camera operators to focus most of their attention on the players themselves. [17]
On July 6, 1983, NBC televised the All-Star Game out of Chicago's Comiskey Park. During the telecast, special guest analyst, Don Sutton helped introduce NBC's new pitching tracking device dubbed The NBC Tracer. [19] The NBC Tracer was a stroboscopic comet tail showing the path of a pitch to the catcher's glove. For instance, The NBC Tracer helped track a Dave Stieb curveball among others.
In 1985, NBC's telecast of the All-Star Game out of the Metrodome in Minnesota was the first program to be broadcast in stereo by a television network. [20]
For the 1987 World Series between the Minnesota Twins and St. Louis Cardinals, ABC utilized 12 cameras and nine tape machines. This includes cameras positioned down the left field line, on the roof of the Metrodome, and high above third base.
In 1990, CBS took over from both ABC and NBC as Major League Baseball's national, over-the-air television provider. They in the process brought along their telestration technology that they dubbed CBS Chalkboard. CBS Chalkboard made its debut eight years earlier during CBS' coverage of Super Bowl XVI.
For CBS' coverage of the 1992 All-Star Game, they introduced Basecam, [22] [23] [24] a lipstick-size camera, inside first base.
During CBS' coverage of the 1993 World Series, umpires were upset with the overhead replays being televised by CBS. Dave Phillips, the crew chief, said just prior to Game 2 that the umpires want "CBS to be fair with their approach."
Rick Gentile, the senior vice president for production of CBS Sports, said that Richie Phillips, the lawyer for the Major League Umpires Association, tried to call the broadcast booth during Saturday's game, but the call was not put through. Richie Phillips apparently was upset when Dave Phillips called the Philadelphia Phillies' Ricky Jordan out on strikes in the fourth inning, and a replay showed the pitch to be about 6 inches outside.
National League President Bill White, while using a CBS headset in the broadcast booth during Game 1, was overheard telling Gentile and the producer Bob Dekas:
You guys keep using that camera the way you want. Don't let Phillips intimidate you.
On July 8, 1997, Fox [25] televised its first ever All-Star Game (out of Jacobs Field in Cleveland). For this particular game, Fox introduced "Catcher-Cam" in which a camera was affixed to the catchers' masks in order to provide unique perspectives of the action around home plate. [26] Catcher-Cam soon would become a regular fixture in Fox's baseball broadcasts.
In addition to Catcher-Cam, other innovations (some of which have received more acclaim than others) that Fox [27] has provided for baseball telecasts have been:
For a Saturday afternoon telecast of a Los Angeles Dodgers/Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field on August 26, 2000, Fox aired a special "Turn Back the Clock" [30] broadcast to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the first televised baseball game. [31] The broadcast started with a re-creation of the television technology of 1939, with play-by-play announcer Joe Buck working alone with a single microphone, a single black-and-white camera, and no graphics; then, each subsequent half-inning would see the broadcast "jump ahead in time" to a later era, showing the evolving technologies and presentation of network baseball coverage through the years.
In October 2002, Fox televised the first ever World Series to be shown in high definition.
Starting in 2004, some TBS telecasts (mostly Fridays or Saturdays) became more enhanced. The network decided to call it Braves TBS Xtra. Enhancements included catcher cam, Xtra Motion, which featured the type of pitch and movement, also leadOff Line. It would also show features with inside access to players.
In October 2004, Fox started airing all Major League Baseball postseason broadcasts (including the League Championship Series and World Series) in high definition. Fox also started airing the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in HD the following year. At the same time, the FoxBox and graphics are upgraded.
For their 2007 Division Series coverage, [32] TBS [33] debuted various new looks, such as the first live online views from cameras in dugouts and ones focused on pitchers. TBS also introduced a graphic that creates sort of a rainbow to trace the arc of pitches on game replays. The graphic was superimposed in the studio so analysts like Cal Ripken Jr. for instance, could take virtual cuts at pitches thrown in games. [34]
During their 2009 playoff coverage, TBS [35] displays their PitchTrax graphic full-time during at-bats (with the center field camera only) during the high-definition version of the broadcast in the extreme right-hand corner of the screen. [36]
Meanwhile, for their own 2009 playoff coverage, Fox announced that they would occasionally include this stat on replays: Speed of pitches as they leave pitchers' hands as well as their speed when they cross home plate. [37]
With the start of the 2011 postseason, TBS planned to introduce the following [39]
The screen on TBS's standard definition 4:3 feed now airs a letterboxed version of the native HD feed to match Fox's default widescreen SD presentation, allowing the right side pitch tracking graphic to be seen by SD viewers.
For the 2011 World Series, Fox debuted infrared technology [41] that's designed to pinpoint heat made by a ball making contact — with, say, bats, face masks, players' bodies — and mark the spot for viewers by making it glow. During Game 1, Fox used "Hot Spot" to show that a batted ball was fouled off Texas Rangers batter Adrián Beltré's foot. [42]
Fox's 2012 World Series coverage would include a camera whose replays could generate as many as 20,000 frames per second, the most ever seen on Fox—and up from about 60 frames per second on regular replays. The camera would allow viewers "to see the ball compress" when batted, similar to how cameras now show golf balls getting compressed when struck. The technology for the camera originated with the U.S. military looking at replays of missile impacts. [43]
At the beginning of the 2016 season, TBS introduced new graphics [44] that were used all season including the postseason.
The score box, which was originally docked to the top and left edges of the screen, was completely redesigned for 2017 after much criticism during the 2016 postseason for its large size. Like the 2016 score bug, the current one still stands in the top left corner, only it is smaller.
The 2020 season was delayed until July due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fox soon announced that they would virtually fill the seats [45] of Chicago's Wrigley Field, Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium, Washington's Nationals Park, San Diego's Petco Park and other ballparks that it broadcasts games over the next several weeks. Announcers later spent time explaining and demonstrating the use of virtual fans [46] during the July 25 game between the Chicago Cubs-Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field.
The 1975 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1975 season. The 72nd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Boston Red Sox and the National League (NL) champion Cincinnati Reds. The Reds won the series, four games to three. In 2003, ESPN ranked it the second-greatest World Series ever played, trailing only the 1991 series, while in 2020, Sam Miller of ESPN named it the best World Series ever.
Major League Baseball (MLB) has been broadcast on American television since the 1950s, with initial broadcasts on the experimental station W2XBS, the predecessor of the modern WNBC in New York. The World Series was televised on a networked basis since 1947, with regular season games broadcast nationally since 1953. Over the forthcoming years, MLB games became major attractions for American television networks, and each of the Big Three networks would air packages of baseball games at various times until the year 2000. Fox would rise to major network status, partially on its acquisition of MLB rights in 1996; Fox has been MLB's primary broadcast television partner ever since.
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.
Major League Baseball on CBS is the branding used for broadcasts of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States.
Nationally television broadcasts of Major League Baseball (MLB) games have aired on ABC in various formats: c. 1953-1965, 1976–1989, and 1994–1995. After not televising MLB since Game 5 of the 1995 World Series, and after the ABC Sports division merged with ESPN in 2006, ABC has aired selected games as part of its sister cable network's contract since 2020. The broadcasts since 2020 have been produced by ESPN, and have primarily used the ESPN Major League Baseball branding and graphics instead of the Major League Baseball on ABC branding.
ESPN Major League Baseball is an American presentation of live Major League Baseball (MLB) games on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+. ESPN's MLB coverage debuted on April 9, 1990 with three Opening Day telecasts. ESPN Major League Baseball is guaranteed to remain on air until 2028. In 2014, ESPN returned to broadcasting the Major League Baseball postseason. ESPN has exclusive rights to the Wild Card Series starting in 2022.
MLB on TBS is an American presentation of regular season and postseason Major League Baseball (MLB) game telecasts that air on the American pay television network TBS. The games are produced by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports.
NASCAR on TNT was the tagname for any NASCAR series race that had been broadcast on TNT by Turner Sports between 2001 and 2014. The network continued Turner's longstanding relationship with NASCAR that dated back to its initial association with TBS Superstation.
On December 14, 1988, CBS paid approximately $1.8 billion for exclusive television rights for over four years. CBS paid about $265 million each year for the World Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the Saturday Game of the Week. It was one of the largest agreements between the sport of baseball and the business of broadcasting.
By 1969, Major League Baseball had grown to 24 teams and the net local TV revenues had leaped to $20.7 million. This is in sharp contrast to 1950 when local television brought the then 16 Major League clubs a total net income of $2.3 million. Changes baseball underwent during this time, such as expansion franchises and increasing the schedule from 154 games to 162, led to a wider audience for network and local television.
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.
On August 28, 2012, it was announced that ESPN and Major League Baseball had agreed on a new eight-year deal that increased ESPN's average yearly payment from about $360 million to approximately $700 million.
Sunday Afternoon Baseball is the de facto branding used for nationally televised live game telecasts of Major League Baseball games on Sunday afternoons during the regular season.
Carlton Fisk's 1975 World Series home run was a baseball play that occurred in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series on October 21, 1975, at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Red Sox defeated the Cincinnati Reds, 7–6, forcing a deciding seventh game, when Carlton Fisk hit a home run in the 12th inning home run to cap off what many consider to be the best World Series game ever played.