More Mundane Meanderings » Baseball

2007 Mariners in HD

Mike — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 17:21:44 +0000

All I have to say is that it’s about f’ing time:

SEATTLE, March 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA,
CMCSK) and FSN Northwest today announced that all of FSN’s Seattle Mariners
home telecasts and six road games will be available to Comcast customers in
super clear high definition format (HDTV), beginning with the Mariners home
opener April 2nd against the Oakland Athletics.

That’ll be over half the games, so it’s a good start. Maybe we’ll get all of them next year.

(Thanks, Aaron, who hates baseball.)

Antonetti in ‘08

Mike — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:42:28 +0000

From this winter’s trades it already looks like the Mariners are throwing in the towel for a winning season in 2007. Time for a regime change. Chris Antonetti for Mariners General Manager in 2008.

Mariners First Half in Review

Mike — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 16:00:09 +0000

Over at Lookout Landing, they’ve posted First Half in Review: Mariners Go Camping. It’s funny stuff–if you have an unhealthy need to watch every Mariners game like I do. Here’s a quick excerpt (to set the scene, the M’s are lost in the woods and have been wandering for days):

Everett: “Hey, I think I know where we’re supposed to go.”
Petagine: “You know, I have a map here in my pocket-”
Hargrove: “What’s that, Carl?”
Everett: “I said I think I f-cking know where we’re supposed to go, grampa.”
Meche: “This again…” :rolls eyes:
Hargrove: “Which way?”
Petagine: “…it’s a detailed map…creeks, rocks, it’s got everything in it…”
Everett: “We gotta go over there. See that moss? Moss always grows in the shape of an arrow.”
Woods: “What?”
Hernandez: “That’s not true. In the Boy Scouts we learned that moss always grows on the…on the…”
Hargrove: “Sounds good. Guys. GUYS! Follow Carl, he knows where we’re going.”

A Refreshing Attitude

Mike — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 19:04:43 +0000

In last night’s Mariners game, the team lost a close one to Detroit, which was not a big surprise. What was surprising was to see Ichiro get upset and argue with the umpire after a bad call. Ichiro foul-tipped the ball with two strikes, and because he made contact with the ball, he should have not been called out. The umpire, however, said he missed the ball for strike three and was therefore out. Ichiro was not happy. He’s a low-key player, so he did not yell and scream, but it was obvious he was upset. What’s interesting was that it seemed he was more upset that the umpire didn’t take his word that he fouled the ball off. As was reported on the Seattle Mariners News page,

“I reacted that way because it was so obvious that I hit it,” Ichiro said. “If I had missed the ball, I would have run to first base. So for him to say what he did is to say that I’m lying. I’m disappointed and sad that he saw me as a player that would lie.

“It has happened to me a few times, but as a policy to myself, I don’t like to lie to myself. Even if it’s a bad result, I don’t want to lie to myself. I consider myself a player who honestly plays in that sense. If I were a rookie, I could understand the umpire’s reaction, but I’ve played many years in Japan and six years in the U.S. now and I wanted that part of me to be noticed. And if that part of me isn’t noticed, then I’m disappointed.”

I appreciate this sort of attitude. Ichiro is a guy who clearly has integrity and I believe that should be taken into account. I do believe it was to some degree with this play, since the umpire conferred with the rest of the officiating crew to confirm the call, which was upheld. If it had been most other players, I think that would not have happened.

I get very disappointed in professional athletes when they lie about how a play turned out, when they clearly knew it went the other way. You oftentimes can see ballplayers pretend they caught balls that obviously hit the ground before the catch or see players pretend to get hit by a pitch when they didn’t get touched. What’s almost worse is when the announcers praise that sort of behavior, reinforcing that cheating is part of the game. (Don’t get me started on the World Cup where players writhe in the ground in mock pain when barely brushed by an opponent).

I can’t remember where I read it, but I recently saw a comment on a website complaining that it seems that we’re turning from a people who do the right thing to people who do what they can get away with. I’m not sure this is just a recent development in our culture as that commenter was inferring, but in sports, at least if you can’t win without cheating, without having integrity, you deserve to lose.

Mariners Ticket Guide

Mike — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 16:34:31 +0000

For anyone who’s planning on buying some Mariners tickets this year for a game a Safeco, I just saw this handy blog post (from USS Mariner):

Seattle Mariners Safeco Field ticket guide

No HD for 2006 Seattle Mariners

Mike — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 16:19:39 +0000

I sent Comcast another e-mail asking about their high definition coverage for Seattle Mariners games (see my previous post). Here’s their reply:

Dear Mike,

Thank you for contacting Comcast.

Most Mariner games will be aired on FSN and a good number on KSTW. We do not offer either of these channels in HD. Comcast is committed to deploying HDTV service. We are working to provide as many high definition channel broadcasters as possible. At this time there have been no announced plans to add either of those that channels to your HD lineup. Please keep an eye on your monthly billing statement as the announcement of any channel additions will appear on those statements.

Thank you for choosing Comcast.

Sincerely,

Eric
Comcast Customer Support

They don’t seem to be committed to working all that hard, since FSN lists the Mariners as one of the teams that offers HD coverage (from FSN HD FAQ):

Which teams offer HD games on FSN HD in their respective regions?
NBA teams include the Bucks, Grizzlies, Jazz, Lakers, Magic, Mavericks, Sonics, Spurs, Suns, Timberwolves, and Trailblazers. Major League Baseball teams include the Astros, Brewers, Devil Rays, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Mariners, Marlins, Pirates, Rangers, and Twins. NHL teams include the Blues, Coyotes, Hurricanes, Kings, Lightning, Panthers, Penguins, Stars, and Wild.

Also, Tacoma’s Click! Network carries FSN HD as part of their standard HD package, so it’s clearly available to broadcasters in the area.

It looks like Comcast is committed to making business decisions that give their customers a poorer-quality product. I’m going to have to consider switching my cable television and internet over to Tacoma’s home-grown services.

Technorati tags: baseball mariners comcast hdtv

Working with Poor Data

Mike — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 20:20:51 +0000

I just read a lengthy article on the Seattle Mariners-focused blog U.S.S. Mariner called Evaluating Defense. It’s a nice discussion on the current state of defensive statistics and their evaluation in baseball. Beyond that, it’s a nice discussion on interpreting and making decisions based on multiple sources of not-so-great data.

On contradictory results:

[T]he age of defensive statistical analysis is still in its infancy, and as such, there is not a consensus system that is correct, or established as the industry standard. There are several systems built on solid theories that evaluate different parts of defensive prowess, and sometimes, these systems give widely contradictory results. So, what do we do then, if two systems, both well designed, can’t agree?

At this point, my preference is to take a prism perspective. All of the systems have strengths, and all have flaws. So I’d rather not take any of them at face value, but instead develop a general idea of a player’s abilities based upon as much good input as I can get.

On sample size:

The generally accepted principle in defensive statistics is that you need at least two years of data to generate any kind of real conclusion about a player’s abilities, and you’d prefer to have more. With [Yuniesky] Betancourt, we basically have 1/3 of one season. There are just way too many non-fielding factors that could influence the number over that period of time. Ball in play distribution is a huge factor in small sample defensive numbers, for instance. If Betancourt happened to receive more easy to field grounders than others, his number would be through the roof. If teams were whacking uncatchable balls into the hole, his rating would suffer, and because of the small time frame, the impact of a few extra balls here and there would be magnified greatly.

When it comes to defensive evaluations, you simply cannot ignore the issue of sample size. Limited data samples can be more misleading than informational. If you don’t have a big enough sample, ignore the data…. [W]e need to use the best available information we have, and in cases like [Betancourt's], that’s scouting reports.

Technorati tags: baseball mariners stats

Mariners in HD

Mike — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 15:44:08 +0000

I sent the following to Comcast, trying to figure out if I should get their High Definition service:

Will 2006 Seattle Mariners baseball games be available in high definition on Comcast? If so, how many will be on in HD and on what channel?

And their surprisingly quick response:

I understand you are looking for information regarding Seattle Mariner games in HD. Comcast and Fox Sports NW were unable to reach an agreement to carry Seattle Mariners games in high definition for the 2005 season. We negotiated in good faith with Fox Sports NW and made every possible effort to reach an agreement that would both cover their costs and not result in cost increases for our customers. Comcast could not accept Fox Sports NW’s terms because the network is asking Comcast to contribute three to four times the network’s cost to produce these games in a high definition format. Unfortunately, no information has been released regarding the 2006 baseball season.

Why do they hate America?

I’m sure Fox Sports NW blames Comcast just as much as Comcast blames Fox Sports NW. They’re all bastards as far as I’m concerned. Hopefully they can placate my indignation by providing me with high-definition Mariners games in 2006 (and more than just a small fraction of them, please). If they do that, I’ll go back to staring blankly at my TV like a good little consumer.

Technorati tags: baseball mariners comcast hdtv

Customer Feedback Works

Mike — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 01:21:25 +0000

Well, I suppose it was more viewer feedback than customer feedback, but Fox Sports Net has made a few changes to their score box at the top of the Mariners games. Who knows if my feedback played a part, but it’s definitely an improvement. Here’s a photo:

Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of it prior to the change, but I was pleasantly surprised tonight as Aaron Sele threw out the first pitch. David Delucci hit a home run off of Sele’s next pitch, but that wasn’t enough to dampen my spirits. As you can see in the picture, the inning, outs and pitch count numbers are now in a large white font on a black background, easy to read. There’s still a bit of a glass effect over that text, but it’s much less obtrusive and doesn’t obscure much of the text. I’d still prefer it to be totally removed, but it’s tolerable.

The blue behind the “SEA” also seems a bit darker, which I also like, as it allows it to be ignored a bit easier. It’s hard to say if it actually changed, though, without a picture of the older version as a comparison. “TEX” is also in blue, so it’s hard to tell if the darker colors are an across-the-board improvement. It would have been nice to see the update during the Oakland series, with the bright green color used behind their “OAK”.

Though I didn’t mention it in my previous post, the last version also had a poorer version of the baserunner indicator (seen on the left side of the bar). It had very little contrast between homeplate and the runners on base. The updated version is a bit better, with a grayer homeplate and a yellower baserunner. Here you can see Ichiro on first base, waiting for Randy Winn to hit into a double play on the next pitch.

The bar still is not up against the top of the screen, but it does appear to be slightly closer. I think I’d like it better if they’d just color in that gap with black rather than letting us see a bit of the frame there. The motion up there seems amplified a bit by squeezing it in a small space between two mostly black borders. If they covered it up, it would be less distracting. Better yet, I’d like it if they’d just move it all the way to the top, but maybe they can’t due to minor variations in screen dimensions or picture centering across different TVs.

Thanks for the changes, FSN.

Change for Change’s Sake

Mike — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 03:20:53 +0000

I think I must be getting old and crotchety. I just wrote an e-mail to Fox Sports Net Northwest complaining about how they’ve changed the graphics that display the score and other information during Seattle Mariners games. I watch them play almost every night, so the change was quite noticeable. It pretty much made it much less readable to make it look more up-to-date, I guess. Anyway, here’s what I wrote:

I must say I’m not a fan of the new graphics you’re using for the score, outs, pitch counts, etc., during the Mariners game. First of all, I’m watching on a standard 27″ tube TV. The score line is significantly below the top of the screen. I’m hoping this is just a temporary bug. If not, you should move the line all the way to the top of the screen, like the old one.

Next, the fonts for inning, outs and pitch count seem to be much smaller than before and are much more difficult to read–especially with the trendy Mac-like (and unnecessary) glassed-over effect you’ve placed on it.

Also, I’m finding the colors you’re using behind the team names to be distracting. The old line was much simpler and blended in with the background, until you wanted to look at it to see the score or pitch count, or whatever. The focus of the broadcast should be the game itself, not some fancier, harder to read graphics.

Another thing that could use some more work is the new number of pitches display. The gray background doesn’t really work with the black text for the balls and strikes–it’s too hard to read. The pitcher’s name is shown in white on a similarly colored background and is equally hard to read.

Finally, the fake computer-sounding beeps it makes when it appears is pretty silly and really adds nothing positive.

What I liked about the old display was that it was unobtrusive with relatively large, simple fonts on a high contrast background. If you much change it for change’s sake, please keep on working on it to make it easier to read and less obtrusive.

Thanks.