White Sox TV producer Chris Withers anxiously awaits first broadcast with pitch timer
Chris Withers said White Sox announcers Jason Benetti and Steve Stone realized in the first spring-training game that their stories need to be more concise because of the pitch timer.
Ron Vesely/White Sox
Chris Withers has a lot on his mind. As the producer for White Sox games on NBC Sports Chicago, he’s in charge of the broadcast. And with Major League Baseball implementing monumental rule changes, he’s working to ensure that his show is ready.
“I’ve lost sleep thinking about so many different scenarios that are going to happen in a game,” he said this week. “And I’m sure that I’ve still not thought of every single one, and there’s probably going to be 10 of them that happen Friday night.”
That’s opening night for NBCSCH, which lost out on the real opening night because ESPN took the Sox’ game Thursday against the World Series-champion Astros. That gave Withers, starting his 18th year on the job, another night to stew over the effect of the new pitch timer on the broadcast.
Every facet of the production will be affected. With spring-training games this season roughly 30 minutes shorter than last season, the entire crew must be more discerning with its time. Withers, play-by-play voice Jason Benetti and analyst Steve Stone might not be able to delve past their A material.
“I don’t see it being this huge deterrent of the flow of our show,” Withers said. “It was the fifth inning of our first [spring-training] game when [Benetti and Stone] said on the air, ‘Our stories just have to be tighter, shorter.’ They’re going to have to be.”
Directors Dave Turner and Andrew Bloustein might not be able to show all the shots they want. It used to be easy to show a couple of replays between batters or sequences of fan shots in big moments. The quicker pace will force the directors, who split the games, to decide what’s most impactful for viewers.
“You need to get back to Camera 4 to see the pitch,” Withers said of the shot from beyond center field. “It’s important for us to get back even earlier because of the rules for the batter being ready, as well. I don’t want to be burned by batter violations and we don’t see them.”
Withers said all of the graphic elements pertaining to the new rules are ready to go. The timer will appear in the score bug for every pitch, and drop-downs and other graphics were built to cover other rules. But as prepared and as excited as he is, he’s a little nervous.
“There’s still so much unknown of what this looks like when we do a full show,” Withers said. “And I want to keep the production level that we’ve provided to our fans, what they’ve come to expect. We can keep doing it, we just have to think of different ways of presenting it within a game that is quicker paced.”
Radio waves
Sox fans listening to Len Kasper’s call on ESPN 1000 won’t have the benefit of seeing the pitch timer. And Kasper can’t imagine calling it like a basketball announcer would with a shot clock.
“I would be surprised if I referred to how much time is left on the pitch clock very often,” he said. “It’s more if there’s a violation, point it out. I don’t think people want to hear, ‘And three, two, here’s the pitch.’ It’s doesn’t feel right to me.”
Like his TV counterparts, Kasper is prepared to be concise with stories, and he joked that starting one with two outs – the cardinal sin of baseball broadcasting – is even more perilous. But whereas Stone can talk over a nondescript pitch on TV, radio analyst Darrin Jackson has to give up the mic.
“My guess is the biggest adjustment will be the radio analyst,” Kasper said. “I don’t like to be behind, and DJ’s really good at letting me set up the pitch. Space is still hugely important to me, the sounds of the ballpark, the pacing of my cadence. I haven’t changed any of that. In terms of our banter, I don’t feel like it’s changed at all.”