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Don Orsillo: ‘Wearability’ A Worry For Local Baseball Crews

“You are going to annoy people whether you want to or not because you are on all summer in their living rooms…”

Ricky Keeler

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You may hear Don Orsillo broadcasting national baseball games on TBS and FOX during the regular season and some postseason games on TBS in the past, but he arguably has been more recognizable as the TV voice of the Red Sox on NESN from 2001-2015 and now the voice of the San Diego Padres on Bally Sports San Diego.

As he heads into his 23rd season of calling baseball games on local networks, Orsillo was a guest on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast with Rob Bradford and he said that he has always done local broadcasts differently than national broadcasts since his days at NESN.

“I have a philosophy that I have had since NESN is that a local broadcast is that you are local, you are one of them. When I was in Boston,  grew up in New Hampshire, born in Melrose, went to Northeastern…I was one of them there. That was a crucial part for me that when I got to Boston, I was very comfortable, it was home…The local broadcast is different from the national broadcast because the local broadcast is every day.”

When Orsillo first started, he told Bradford that Joe Castiglione gave him two key pieces of advice and one of them was about being wearable for the audience listening at home because they are with you every day for six months out of the year.

“Joe Castiglione said something to me when I first started that really helped me out. He said two things. First of all, I had done 10 years of minor league radio when I got my major league job and I didn’t really know anything about TV. He said put a caption underneath the picture, don’t be captain obvious. It was great advice. Number two is local TV is about wearability. I didn’t really understand the term, but you can annoy people because you are going to annoy people whether you want to or not because you are on all summer in their living rooms for 6 months every day for 3.5, sometimes 4 hours.

“Wearability is not annoying people, but just discussion, conversations, let them get to know you, show some personality. Don’t miss anything, the game is the thing, eyes on the field all the time. We never miss anything in Boston and we aren’t missing anything here…It’s two guys kind of sitting in a bar watching a game together and that’s baseball, it’s fun. That’s local baseball in my point of view and it’s always worked out.”

Orsillo knows that when he and Mark Grant call a Padres game, his audience is not going to be glued to their TV screen or phone or tablet for every pitch, so content has to remain fresh. He has also been impressed that the Padres broadcasts did well in all age demographics a year ago.

“You’ve got to be cognizant of the fact that people are not going to be locked in on everything you say for 3.5 hours…With that in mind, you have to keep things fresh, you have to account for the fact that they’ve not been there for the entire time and you’ve got to bring something else. You’ve got to bring something else besides what’s there. You can not just do balls and strikes and old-school baseball. That time is gone. The success that I’ve had here in San Diego and my partner’s philosophy is exactly the same. It works and I’m a real believer in that.

“I think the thing that really has impressed me is I thought okay there are some older people that are not going to like that. As it turns out, we finished first last year in the older demographic which let’s be honest, baseball for the most part is, but we finished first 15-24, which told me the young fans are there to. Whatever it is, it’s working. It’s my philosophy and I’m not going to change it. No one has asked me to change it and we are having a bunch of fun here.” 

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Sports TV News

ESPN Sees Larger Than Average Audience For Big City Greens Classic

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ESPN aired Tuesday night’s New York Rangers and Washington Capitals game. DisneyXD and Disney Channel aired an alternate broadcast that included players being 3D animated to resemble the cast of Disney Channel’s popular cartoon Big City Greens. It turned into a ratings win for the networks.

The alternate broadcast featured players animated in real time to mimic what was happening on the Madison Square Garden ice. Players were equipped with special chips in the padding to aid the animation, and special pucks were used to ensure a smooth transition from video to computer-animated graphics.

An average of 589,000 viewers tuned into the game on ESPN. Meanwhile, nearly 175,000 watched the broadcast between Disney Channel and DisneyXD.

The figure for ESPN represents its largest NHL broadcast since a November 1st broadcast featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins.

The combined total for the broadcast — 765,000 — outdrew the World Baseball Classic broadcasts but did not top the NCAA Tournament’s First Four round that was broadcast on truTV.

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Sports TV News

Greg Gumbel: I’m Lucky That I’ve Never Been Fired

“I worked for some people who didn’t like me, I’ve worked for some people I didn’t like. It’s a strange business, there’s no doubt.”

Ricky Keeler

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Greg Gumbel

This week, it was announced that Greg Gumbel will no longer be a play-by-play announcer for the NFL on CBS after working on CBS’s NFL coverage every year since 1998. Gumbel has had an illustrious career and he takes pride in the fact that one thing has never happened to him.

Gumbel was a guest on the Tell Me A Story I Don’t Know podcast with George Ofman (Part 2 from an interview back in September) and he told Ofman that while he has never been fired before, but he doesn’t think broadcasters should be embarrassed when they get fired because of what the business is.

“It’s the nature of the business. I honestly think I’ve been extremely fortunate in that I’ve never been fired in a business that is known for firings. Being fired in this business is no shame, no embarrassment because it’s a subjective business. Because this guy at this network likes my work, it doesn’t mean that this guy at that network does. It’s extremely subjective and if you can buy that and understand it the way it is, then it shouldn’t bother you at all.

“It’s never happened to me. If it had, it would not have surprised me. I worked for some people who didn’t like me, I’ve worked for some people I didn’t like. It’s a strange business, there’s no doubt.”

Gumbel has been the host of CBS’s NCAA Tournament coverage for the last 25 years and he knows it’s a job that he is very grateful to have.

“I know there are people who would give their right arm to be sitting there next to Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis on Selection Sunday or sitting next to Kellogg, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley when the tournament begins to talk about what we’ve just seen or what we are going to see. I am never, ever going to take for granted the fact that I have been very fortunate to be able to do that.”

One thing Gumbel tries to avoid whenever he is on air is the mispronunciation of someone’s name because he knows how it feels to have his name distorted accidentally by some people.

“Pronunciations are important to me. There’s been a lifetime of people who may not completely mispronounce my name, but distorting it a little bit from time to time. I never want to do that to an athlete. If I ever mispronounce an athlete’s name, I hear it from his family, I hear it from the school or the team and I apologize for it as soon as I can. I don’t think that is something light or should be taken for granted.”

Toward the end of the interview, Gumbel was asked by Ofman when he will know it will be time to end his career.

“Other people have given it more thought than I have. I think when that time comes around, it will hit me over the head more than I will think about it. There are people who ask me why I still do what I do. The very bottom line is I love it, I enjoy it.”

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Diamond Sports Group Misses Arizona Diamondbacks Rights Payment

It is believed that the missed rights payment by Bally Sports Arizona triggers a clause in the contract that reverts the television rights back to the Diamondbacks and Major League Baseball.

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Last week, Diamond Sports Group — operator of the Bally Sports-branded regional sports networks — claimed it had paid every rights fee it was contractually obligated, except for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

At the time, the company said it had a grace period until it needed to make a payment. That payment was due by Thursday, March 16th at 11:59 PM. That time has come and gone, and the company failed to deliver its fee.

It is believed that the missed rights payment by Bally Sports Arizona triggers a clause in the contract that reverts the television rights back to the Diamondbacks and Major League Baseball.

The Diamondbacks are not the only team affected by the situation. Bally Sports — which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this week — has also reportedly entered a grace period with the San Diego Padres. According to a report from Sports Business Journal, that grace period ends on March 30th, baseball’s Opening Day.

Previous reporting claims that contract is one the network hopes to get out from under. The company loses a reported $20 million per season on its television deal with the Padres. The Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Guardians are the other two baseball franchises the network holds the rights to that it hopes to terminate deals for.

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