On a wet August evening at Citi Field, before wrapping up the Mets’ crucial win over fellow Atlanta rivals, Edwin Díaz was closer to kicking off his final warm-up and starting his familiar long journey from the field. Fight right to the mound for the beginning of the ninth round. But something unusual happened: The TV show didn’t cut into commercials.
Instead, the camera follows Díaz as he walks through the cowshed door, jogs and crosses the lawn in the yard. The trumpets of “Narco,” Díaz’s favorite input song, were streamed directly from the stadium’s public address system into the broadcast, making fans at home feel like they were at home. live view all. Or maybe they’re in a bullring in Spain. Regardless, there are chills.
The broadcast was designed and made by John DeMarsico, 35, game director of SNY, the Mets’ regional sports network.
“We mentioned he was coming before, but we never cut off the commercial to show the whole thing,” DeMarsico said. “And we never sent the camera crew down there to do the dramatic, behind-the-scenes shots. I’ve had it in my pocket after all year, and I’m waiting for the right game to do it.”
In the same match, Jacob deGrom returned to Citi Field after more than a year of losing the match due to severe hand and shoulder injuries. DeMarsico gave deGrom, the Mets’ co-ace, his own star moment, skipping a commercial break to show off his first inning warm-ups. That time, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” was included in the broadcast.
In both cases, the makeover was discussed earlier in the season but has been decided at the moment, with DeMarsico sensing the mood of the stadium and improvising a cinematic response.
Regional sports networks share the extent of their abuse, with complaints of online blacks from fans and Major League Baseball’s frequent attempts to build its audience through other alternatives, possibly Apple TV+; NBC’s Peacock streaming service; or other platforms. But in a medium that may seem old-fashioned to some, the theme of the whole year’s SNY is innovation.
In this case, the network is building on what is already a strength. The chemistry of the network’s broadcast team – broadcasters Gary Cohen and analysts Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez – has long kept SNY coming to see the destination, even if the team on the field sometimes fails to command the level. that attention.
Darling, who along with Cohen and Hernandez, said: “The team has always experimented, said: respect the viewer. “I think there are some broadcasts that don’t trust their fan base to be smart enough to see something different. A lot of broadcast teams fear alienating their core fans who will criticize anything out of the ordinary, especially when criticism in today’s world is so immediate. “
As comedian Jerry Seinfeld said on one of the many trips to the booth, “It’s a TV show, not just a game.”
DeMarsico, with the help of producer Gregg Picker, has quietly helped the visuals of their broadcasts catch up with the quality and innovation of the narrative. And like a cunning potion, he did it with a formidable bag of tricks.
He uses unusual camera angles, skipping the typical center field shot at key moments, instead shooting the action from behind the right puncher or near the circle on the visitor’s deck .
He uses split screens to highlight pitcher vs hitter confrontations. During a tense contest between Díaz midfielder Christian Yelich and the Milwaukee Brewers earlier this season, DeMarsico started Díaz’s face to the left of the goal. Then he fades into Yelich’s face on the right side, gradually as Díaz disappears. Fans got a chance to actually see the pitcher and hitter staring at each other.
These techniques are attempts to unravel the drama that existed in the game but was difficult to visualize before.
DeMarsico said: “Baseball is inherently cinematic, more than other sports. “In football and basketball, there is a lot of speed. In baseball, there is no clock. The geography of this field is very structured. You can set the scene and set up bowler vs pitcher confrontations like a duel in the West. “
After decades of baseball games looking almost identical from one network to another, these photos can give off the most original feel.
For DeMarsico, it was a natural collision of his two passions: baseball and cinema. Before starting his SNY career with an internship in 2009, he studied film at North Carolina State University. Conversations about his work are filled with the names of directors, both famous and obscure. He models his suspense-making methods on Brian De Palma’s work, and cites Martin Scorsese’s fame. track shot in Copacabana in “Goodfellas” was his inspiration for the Díaz bull moment. He also cites Nicolas Winding Refn – the Díaz-Yelich moment inspired by Refn’s 2009 Viking epic “Valhalla Rising” – and Sergio Corbucci, who has directed some of the most violent Western spaghetti.
In Saturday night’s win over the Philadelphia Phillies, DeMarsico repeated Díaz bullpen’s shot, but this time starting in black and white, then changing to color as the pitcher stepped onto the field, a clear nod. with “The Wizard of Oz”.
Then there’s Quentin Tarantino, who has probably influenced DeMarsico’s most interesting creations: the “Kill Bill” filter. The Mets lead experts on hit hitters this year, and Manager Buck Showalter’s growing exasperation has turned into a joke among Mets fans. The broadcast team ran with it, using the same effect that Tarantino uses in the “Kill Bill” movies whenever their protagonist is triggered with a thirst for revenge: red, the sound is called. is “Ironside Siren” and her dual exposure of her face and memory of the traumatic event.
DeMarsico used sound and color a few times, but knew something was still missing. So he got his team to put together a montage of this year’s biggest hits and overlay it on Showalter’s face, implying that the manager was experiencing worthwhile insults in the past. season every time the Met gets pissed.
Some baseball purists may object to such pranks, but it’s definitely catching the attention of the online community. The clip of Díaz’s entrance went viral and has now been viewed on Twitter more than eight million times.
For a sport that has long battled traditionalism in an attempt to attract younger fans, these innovations can be avant-garde. But they can also offer some sort of roadmap for how baseball can modernize its other broadcasts — a process that begins almost immediately when Apple TV+ recreates it. entrance to Díaz, almost shot, during the presentation of the Mets game.
But given the Mets’ pace with more than 100 wins this regular season, and DeMarsico topping their broadcasts, a little competition is nothing to worry about. “I still have a few tricks up my sleeve,” he said.
That confidence might explain why the SNY production team was given so much time to experiment, even sacrificing some advertising dollars during the making.
“It’s not something we want to do much because advertising obviously pays the bills,” DeMarsico said of the times they stayed with the action on the field. “But there is an element of trust with the SNY. We pick our spots and choose wisely, and as long as it doesn’t become routine, we can do such things and create special moments for those at home. “
He grinned and added: “Perhaps eight million views deserves a commercial break.”
