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" When the editors of POPULAR MECHANICS asked me to take readers behind the scenes and into the booth during a New York Yankees broadcast, the assignment seemed simple enough. Especially compared to some of the other articles I&amp;#039;ve written for this magazine, in which I&amp;#039;ve done everything from revealing how baseball players cheat by corking bats to explaining how a breaking ball breaks once it leaves the pitcher&amp;#039;s fingers. Yeah, this seemed like an easy one. Just let contributing editor Cliff Gromer and creative director Bryan Canniff and a few photographers follow me around all day while I do what I always do for a Yankees broadcast. Since I announce about a hundred games a year for MSG Network, it seemed like a snap.  Little did we know that this simple assignment would turn into a marathon of epic proportions and one of the longest broadcasting days of my career.  Hey, that&amp;#039;s what happens when you&amp;#039;re broadcasting a doubleheader and the first game goes 17 innings!  Of course, no one expects to be in that situation. So last year, when we picked July 20 as the day we&amp;#039;d all meet at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx to do this article, no one had any idea what a near-nightmare awaited us.  All things seem quite normal as I arrive at the stadium at about 1 pm. The saunalike July climate does little to quell the growing swarm of fans waiting to catch a glimpse of David Wells or Derek Jeter as they report for work.  The Yankees are having a fabulous season. They&amp;#039;re in first place by 14 games and they figure to make short work of the last-place Tigers as they begin a seven-game, six-day homestand. They&amp;#039;re also looking to snap a three-game losing streak that has marred an otherwise spectacular run in which they&amp;#039;ve won 13 of their last 17 games.  To the MSG Network viewer, the pregame show, the game itself and the postgame show roll by seamlessly, as they should. To make that happen, though, a virtual army of specialized talent, all working with the precision of a military unit, is required. You watch a Yankees game and you see and hear myself and Ken Singleton in the booth. But more than a hundred other people and 14 cameras are required to bring the pictures and sounds of the game from the field to your television set via the MSG Network.  Game time is 4 pm but producer Leon Schweir has been researching and preparing for days for this broadcast. He&amp;#039;s been keeping track of Yankees player trends on the road trip and also what&amp;#039;s been happening with the Tigers. Schweir plans days ahead to produce tape footage he&amp;#039;ll need for different &amp;quot;packages&amp;quot; that will roll during the pregame show and live game telecast.  Obvious footage includes rolls on the opposing hurlers-David Wells for the Yanks, Seth Greisinger for the Tigers-and visuals of their strengths and weaknesses.  I have my own homework to do when I get to the ballpark. Mostly, I&amp;#039;m looking for late-breaking and inside information to punch up the broadcast. I talk with managers and trainers from both clubs to check on health and injury reports and see if all the pitchers are available. I get good information from visiting managers because I used to play with a lot of these guys. I talk to Tigers manager Buddy Bell about his young third baseman, Gabe Alvarez, who was a shortstop and has a tendency to charge the ball. As a third baseman, normally you wait and move laterally on the ball. Pitching coaches tell me who they&amp;#039;re using late in the game, what they throw and if any of the hurlers have a new pitch. Little tidbits like these humanize our broadcast and truly put the viewer inside the clubhouse.  Then I schmooze around the batting cage to see what info I can pick up. Starting Tigers pitcher Seth Greisinger tells me what&amp;#039;s going through his mind today, this being his first time on the Yankees mound. I check out the umpiring crew. Is the guy behind the plate a pitcher&amp;#039;s umpire or a hitter&amp;#039;s umpire? All this info stays in my head. I don&amp;#039;t write it down, so during the broadcast it comes out more spontaneously. A wealth of facts also comes from notes on the two teams supplied by Elias Sports Bureau. I check off several notes I want to work into the broadcast.  Meanwhile, out in the &amp;quot;truck&amp;quot;-trailers, actually, that are the broadcast nerve center for the game-tape machine operators are building a library of roll-ins, names, head shots, stats, promos and scoreboards showing the teams&amp;#039; logos. Some images will be stored on digital tape machines for instant call-up during the game on director Bill Webb&amp;#039;s cue. The truck has a monitor wall showing feeds from all the TV cameras as well as tape feeds. Cameras are numbered and tape machines are lettered. The tape machine section shares the same truck but has its own separate area.  Andrew Braun, tape associate director (AD), Ken Singleton and I discuss subjects that we want to cover during the scene set before the game. As a result of the meeting, taped footage of Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams, who&amp;#039;s coming back from the disabled list, and Detroit&amp;#039;s Tony Clark, who&amp;#039;s been on a roll, are prepared for the telecast. We&amp;#039;re going to need action (a Williams double and home run from last night&amp;#039;s game) and stats on those players, and we&amp;#039;re also going to recap that the Yankees played one of their worst games of the season yesterday.  About 2 1/2 hours before game time, I attend a half-hour production meeting with the other announcers, producer, director, tape AD and graphics machine AD to review what we want to look for during the game, go over the script and make sure we&amp;#039;re all on the same page. The script lists the plugolas that have to get in during an inning. Then I may have to do some last-minute voice-overs on packaged roll-ins, read some announcer billboards and possibly package an interview or an opening either in the studio or on the field.  Webb suggests that we may want to do something with a two-box-the separate picture in a box in the righthand corner of your screen. Yeah. I&amp;#039;ve received a letter from a fan who wants to know about the footwork of a first baseman. So if a play comes up during the game where the first baseman has to do some fancy footwork to make the play, Webb will have it taped and tell me over the separate communications system between the broadcast booth and the truck that he has a shot of Tino Martinez making the play. Between pitches, I&amp;#039;ll mention the letter from viewer Ed Thompson about the footwork and Webb will put the Martinez shot in the two-box. If nothing is happening on the field at that moment, he may splash the Martinez play on the entire screen.  I&amp;#039;ll use the Telestrator to highlight the points I&amp;#039;m talking about. The Telestrator looks like a conventional TV monitor, but I can draw circles, arrows or whatever right on the video image by running my finger over the monitor. I&amp;#039;ll also use the Telestrator with replays during the game. I tell the tape AD when to freeze the action so I can highlight the key part of a play.  Game time. Roll the tease. &amp;quot;Tonight we&amp;#039;ve got David Wells versus Seth Greisinger \u2026&amp;quot; Cut to opening scene set. This can be either announcer Al Trautwig on the field at the Low First camera or up in the booth with Singleton and myself. Tonight, it&amp;#039;s Kenny and me. Precision Operation Webb is the broadcast choreographer. The producer sits next to him at the monitor wall. If the game is primarily a pitcher&amp;#039;s duel, Webb may want to emphasize this element by using a split-screen treatment of the two hurlers. Webb cues audio any time he needs music rolling, and he&amp;#039;s constantly selecting which shot goes out live from all 14 camera feeds that he sees on the monitors. The video switcher, Rich Basile, has to be sharp to cut right with him and get the right feed on the air.  Suddenly, it&amp;#039;s the bottom of the ninth and the score is tied 3-3. Here&amp;#039;s a chance for some real drama if the Yankees pull it out in the bottom of the ninth. Sure enough, the Yankees get two runners on base but can&amp;#039;t score. So we go to extra innings, something you don&amp;#039;t want to do in the first game of a doubleheader.  Running The Replay Tenth inning. Yanks have the bases loaded with one out. Scott Brosius is at the plate. Webb calls for a closeup on Brosius with camera 4 in center field. &amp;quot;Ready 4. Take 4.&amp;quot; Brosius connects. &amp;quot;Ready 2. Take 2.&amp;quot; Brosius grounds to second base, but the action is at home as catcher Paul Bako forces out Tim Raines. Webb wants to run a replay. The tape room AD is talking to Schweir.  &amp;quot;It looks great on tape machine A. Camera 14 was cutting at the wrong place. Don&amp;#039;t use D. Use ABYB.&amp;quot; Schweir is watching the tape machines and picking out the replays he thinks will work. Schweir knows that camera 3 was feeding tape machine A. &amp;quot;How did that look on A? It was a great angle!&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;Looks good.&amp;quot;  The tape machines are playing back in slo-mo. Schweir tells the switcher, &amp;quot;Wipe to A. Wipe to B \u2026&amp;quot; Each replay angle runs and dissolves to the next. I&amp;#039;m talking about the play on-air when Schweir&amp;#039;s voice comes over my headphones: &amp;quot;Manager reaction on F.&amp;quot; This cues me to look at my booth monitor and realize that a closeup of Joe Torre is coming up so I can get set to say a few words about him. Then Webb wipes back to the game. It all happens in a matter of seconds, maybe 30 at most.  Lost Opportunities The game goes on. And on. And on. Brosius&amp;#039;s grounder is just one of nine scoring opportunities the Yankees will have with men on base. The Bronx Bombers blow them all. But Detroit does score in the top of the 17th and, mercifully, it&amp;#039;s over. The Yankees drop the opener 4-3.  The game has taken 5 hours, 50 minutes to play. Both Ken and I have done the whole game without relief. That&amp;#039;s a lot of talking. We&amp;#039;ve been at the ballpark for 11 hours so far. It&amp;#039;s about midnight now. But I can&amp;#039;t think too much about it because we&amp;#039;ll be taking a 20-minute break while MSG cuts back to the studios for a short version of &amp;quot;SportsDesk,&amp;quot; the daily sports news update show.  Then we&amp;#039;ve still got the second game to work. And then the post-game show.  It&amp;#039;s going to be a long night.   The communications nerve center in the truck contains monitor walls for camera and tape feeds, graphics, backgrounds and stat-generating machines.      Producer Leon Schweir in the production meeting.   MSG announcers Jim Kaat (right) and Ken Singleton often use the Telestrator to give insight on plays.      Camera Locations   1.  High Home   2.  High Home*   3.  High Home*   4.  Center Field   5.  Center Field*   6.  Center Field*   7.  Tight Center Field   8.  Low 1st Base*   9.  Low 1st Base   10.  Low 3rd Base*   11.  Low 3rd Base*   12.  Low 3rd Base   13.  Mid 1st Bucket   14.  Mid 3rd Bucket   15.  Low Home   16.  Left Field   17.  High 1st Base   18.  High 1st Base*   19.  High 1st Base*   20.  High 3rd Base   21.  High 3rd Base*   22.  High 3rd Base*   23.  Roof Robotic   24.  Low 1st Robotic   25.  Low 3rd Robotic   *Visiting team broadcast network cameras   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/sports/a238/1283206/>