My old friend Greg Hanlon has a piece in Slate today about the distortion introduced into baseball on tv by the standard camera angle, offset from center field. If you watch baseball on tv, and if you’re reading here, odds are you fall into that category, it’s pretty much a must-read.
Greg uses Pedro Feliciano’s slider in one of his video examples.
Nicely done, Greg.
While the dead-center angle does show the side to side location and movement better than the traditional one, I think anyone who has watched enough baseball has a good grasp of the strikezone while watching from the offset angle. At least as good a grasp as the umpire behind the plate…
The traditional offset angle does look better on TV in terms of the spacing. So why make us learn a new strikezone, and show something that looks worse on TV?
I do like the use of this angle for replays, and I’m glad that they built Citi with this camera location. They should make it available in any ballpark where it is feasible.
I live in New Hampshire, and Boston before that, so I watch a lot of Sox games on NESN (when the Mets aren’t on Fox or ESPN). The angle from straight-away center field is not a bad angle at all, and I didn’t even notice it until I read this article.
It’s not as distracting as it sounds, and would make for more accurate complaints by fans.
I’ve actually heard the Sox announcers claim that their pitchers got away with a call or two before, and they have the more advantageous camera angle to work with.