Those tuning in to Fox Sports 1 last Saturday night were treated to something a little different. Fox decided to run an “alternative broadcast” featuring former Mets sideline reporter Kevin Burkhardt leading Rob Neyer, Gabe Kapler, CJ Nitkowski and San Diego Padres manager Bud Black in a sabermetrics-filled broadcast.
While it did have its hiccoughs early on, the broadcast went smoother (and focused more on the game) as the night went on, as Fox seemingly heard some of the criticism from those on Twitter and worked to address it.
Burkhardt especially did an excellent job of setting up his analysts with thoughtful questions that came from a non-SABR fan perspective, and Kapler, Black, Neyer and Nitkowski were able to succinctly answer.
The only thing that one could really complain about is that often the conversation would stray too far from the game, but Burkhardt did a good job of steering the ship back on course, several times cutting off discussions to focus on big moments in the game, which was won by the San Francisco Giants 3-0 on the strength of Madison Bumgarner’s fantastic start.
This broadcast, which drew a paltry .14 rating, was nice as far as something that served as a refreshing break from the norm. There were no narrative-driven conversations, just straightforward, thoughtful analysis.
“I’m not really a big proponent [of advanced metrics] on a broadcast,” said sabermetrician Mitchel Lichtman, co-author of The Book: Playing the percentages in baseball in a telephone interview.
If you ask any broadcaster, they’ll probably tell you the same thing. Bogging down a broadcast with statistics, whether advanced or traditional, is not a good thing. The game is the most important thing, and if you weigh everything down with too many numbers, the story of the game takes a backseat, and there is no surer way to anger your audience than that.
“It is without question that sabermetrics are a valuable and helpful tool for player evaluation,” said Jon Chelesnik, the CEO of the Sportscasters Talent Agency of America and Board Member of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. “To present them to a broadcast audience, though, would often first require an explanation or interpretation of the information. There simply isn’t time for that in a broadcast. Broadcasters must speak in terms an audience would understand. Your doctor wouldn’t tell you that you are suffering from rhinitis. He would tell you that you have a runny nose.”
He is absolutely right.
This was the big challenge for me this summer as a broadcaster with the Fayetteville SwampDogs summer collegiate team. Anyone who has read my work on this site knows where I stand on sabermetrics, but when I’m in the booth, my audience is completely different than it is here. Here, I’m dealing with readers who even if they don’t embrace sabermetrics, still know what I’m talking about when I cite FIP or WAR or BABIP in an article. But for the reasons already mentioned, I couldn’t do that when on the air.
Instead, I took a more middle-of-the-road approach, not getting too far into sabermetrics in the broadcast, but analyzing the game from a sabermetric point of view. Not by rattling off advanced statistics, but rather by explaining why the manager hitting the best hitter second was good strategy, why the sacrifice bunt was a bad move in a given situation, why the struggling batter who is hitting atom-balls is poised to break out of his slump. I made sure to weave these things in, but as naturally and non-intrusively as possible.
I was the most saber-minded broadcaster in the league, but touches of its influence were felt. Another broadcaster (the talented Jake Donnelly who was with the Wilson Tobs) was not a big sabermetrics guy, but would mention the triple-slash of the hitters when they stepped into the box. We got into some fun conversations on broadcasts about the merits of using RBIs, sacrifice bunts, and more when we paired up throughout the summer. On a challenge from a listener we once dropped a combined 30 WWE references in a slobberknocker of a broadcast, 15 each.
That last point may sound silly, and it is, but that’s the point. When you listen to a broadcast, you want to be informed but also entertained. Don’t as Lichtman says, make stuff up and turn the broadcast into fiction, but also don’t bog it down by rattling off statistics – nobody, not even the biggest stathead, wants to hear that.
“You can give real analysis, that’s insightful, that’s truthful, that’s not just based on nonsense and myths and silly things. That’s not analysis, that’s fiction disguised as analysis,” said Lichtman. “I would love to see broadcasters be in more of a projection mode. Everything we talk about in the game…is based on a projection, as opposed to what they’ve done this season, or against this pitcher, or what they’ve done on the home or the road.”
That is really the proper place of sabermetrics in a broadcast. Use the knowledge we have all gained from the research to start questioning the old narratives, and moving away from them. To use sabermetrics to smartly talk about the game, the strategy employed, to predict based off fact rather than hunch or frivolity. Sabermetrics can be used in a broadcast without it becoming too stat-heavy. That’s what we should strive for.
After all, even Bill James said, “Sabermetrics don’t have anything to do with statistics.”
Joe Vasile is a play-by-play broadcaster residing in Paramus, NJ. He is the voice of Wilkes University athletics on ESPN Radio in Williamsport, PA. He won the 2014 Coastal Plain League Broadcaster of the Year Award with the Fayetteville SwampDogs.
all types of statistics have some value. But they can be manipulated, to cloud the truth. They can make good players look, bad, and bad players look good. I would hate to see sportscasting and writing become like a high school, or college debating debating team. Maybe this is something agents could use, to drive their clients price up or justify their prices. Where it really bothers me is when I see a player like Daniel Murphy, who in my opinion was the best everyday player on the Mets, getting killed by sabermetrics. And the team trying to use these stats not to give him a new contract, and justify a trade.
I see enough of this stuff with politics, especially on CNN, FOX and CNBC. Leaving voter confused,and not to voting in their best interests.
Most real fans no what statistics really count.
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Interesting article that gave us a personal first hand view of sabermetrics in the booth. I am convinced that there is a place in every broadcast for an interesting sabermetric view to enhance the program. Joe, I know you are the broadcaster that could make that happen. Congratulations on winning the 2014 Coastal Plain League Broadcaster of the Year Award with the Fayetteville SwampDogs.
One of the worst moments on SNY in recent years was when KB tried to “explain” advanced numbers.
My take would be not to expect the worst, or the least, from the audience. You don’t want to expect everyone to know what WPA/LI means or when to use it. But you can certainly talk about leverage. And at some point it’s on the audience to meet the challenge.
You can talk about BABIP in a broadcast and just, you know, cite the number. You don’t have to go into a doctoral dissertation on what it is and how to calculate it.
If it takes more than a few seconds to describe it — whatever “it” is — don’t do it. I haven’t heard him in years but Jon Miller used to be good in this regard.
Congratulations on the well-deserved award Joe! I agree with the other commenters, and the piece. I knew very little about advanced stats when I first started here, but by reading and researching I’ve learned a lot. I still don’t know what WPA/LI is, but I know where to find it out at least. I think the job of the broadcaster is to incorporate as much knowledge into the narrative of the game as they can. GKR do that a lot, but they also tell stories and relate it historically as well. That’s why I love listening to them.