A fan of the Yankees, Red Sox, and large sample sizes.

 
FOX GRAPHICS ENHANCEMENTS

During the Yankees - Red Sox game tonight, Fox Sports plans to unveil a slew of new graphical enhancements aimed at younger fans. You can read about them in the above article.

Some of it will be annoying - sound effects, rainbow colors to show the distance of a player's lead at first, and Tim McCarver (oh, he's not new?) - but some may help the intelligent fan. ESPN has had K-Zone for a while, and has started using a pitch tracker this year to show a pitch's trajectory. Both of these things will be picked up by FOX.

The addition that could go either way is the new animated, talking baseball graphic named Scooter. It will pop up on the screen occasionally to explain baseball strategy to viewers. Now, if they go on and on about how the hit and run is fabulous, good teams need clutch hitting, and the intangibles that the Yankee clubhouse always has, I'll barf. But if the talking baseball shows me how to throw Barry Zito's curveball or Mike Mussina's knuckle-curve, or explains why on-base percentage is the most important basic stat and how to calculate it, or pops up in the eighth inning to yell at Dusty Baker for not yet removing Carlos Zambrano after 148 pitches, I'm all for it. However, even the optimist in me thinks FOX will go the first route and make me very angry at their ignorance. But if not, I'll be the first to sing their praises.

I'll definitely be watching tonight at 8 pm on FOX, both to see how these new goodies enhance (or de-hance) my viewing experience, and to watch what should be a fun Yankees - Red Sox game.

Posted by Sky at 11:40 AM | 0 comments