Here's an update and video in regards to the WGN telecast which is rewinding back to 1948 today. It's been a fun couple of innings with only a few camera angles and everyone seems to be playing along. Bob Brenly has already complained about the heat in his "burlap suit" and they even have a typewriter that someone has been hammering away on.
Here's the opening of the telecast and the first pitch....
It really is awkward to watch a game without multiple camera angles. I think my mind is so trained to be focusing on multiple images that I noticed my A.D.D. kicking in halfway through that first inning. Good stuff though WGN.
Update: I stopped back in during the top of the ninth inning and Len Kasper was talking about the old "Hey Hey" graphic that WGN had back when the late Jack Brickhouse was the announcer. Kasper said they were waiting to use it during a Cubbies homerun in an homage to Brickhouse, but they hadn't hit one. Bob Brenly said that they should wait until the bottom of the ninth and that you never know what could happen. Well they did and this happened....
How awesome was that? And the Cubs even went on to win in the eleventh, 3-2.
Turn Back The Clock Broadcast Today On WGN (Awful Announcing)
What is a .com!
ReplyDeleteThat's really cool. Did they have color commentators in 1949? They should have kicked Brenly out of the booth for the first 2 innings.
ReplyDeletethats pretty sweet. They should do that with more teams more often
ReplyDeleteWay to do something cool and do it right. Congrats WGN!
ReplyDeleteOT: I loved watching Cubs games as a kid on WGN, because they'd be on when I got home from school and WGN was a "super-station" back then. Viva la late 80's!
Yeah, I liked that. I've actually been watching that game, but I didn't turn it on till the 3rd and sadly missed the fun... Damn you, summer classes.
ReplyDeleteThe Dodgers did this 3 years ago to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers' championship. It was pretty cool, especially because Vin Scully was able to talk you through all the progression in broadcast technology.
ReplyDeleteHas there ever been a worse champion manager than Bob Brenly???
ReplyDeletedusty baker. oh wait...
ReplyDeleteHoly crap, Celtics just fired Doc Rivers and replaced him with Vinny Del Negro's cousin Sal.
ReplyDeleteESPN did a gimmick kind of like this a couple years ago for an Indiana-MSU basketball game - although that was only celebrating 25 years of ESPN, not 60, so it was still in color, and they stuck with the retro setup the whole time.
ReplyDeleteVery cool, WGN. It's way better than the 'Turn Ahead The Clock to 2027' game the Mariners (and I think the Royals) did in 1997.
ReplyDeleteWow, here in New York, FSN once used 1973 graphics and camera angles a few years back when Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner did one last Mets game together at Shea before Murphy retired and croaked the following summer...
ReplyDeleteWell done, WGN, even though dotcoms weren't around back in 1948...
I swear I could hear the pop of the baseman's mitt much better than I can in normal broadcasts. That's what really made this intriguing to me.
ReplyDeleteI love the throwback broadcasts. Any reason's a good reason to have one.
And ESPN, spoilsports that they are, used TBS...er, peachtree TV highlights from that game today.
ReplyDeleteAsshats.
I watched that game today. It was pretty cool. The Edmons homer and Kasper's call was the highlight of the day by far, though.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the Pistons did something like that a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteThere's a reason they don't use those camera angles today.
ReplyDeleteThey suck.
Still a fun watch, though.
That Edmonds home run almost makes me wish I could take back all of the Old Style/Bud Light fueled venom & vitriol I've hurled at him when he was in center for the Cards. Almost.
ReplyDeleteFox did a telecast a few years back to with a camera angle that was just behind home plate.
ReplyDeleteDon't remember the reason or the teams, just remember it was FOX.
The AT&T ads shoudl have been for Ma Bell.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was the Cubs/Dodgers, and it was around 2000 or so at Wrigley Field.
ReplyDeleteDid you people even watch the game?? Anyone who had to sit through those first 2 innings had to be IRATE!!! I tried watching it, but I could not see the ball except for on Chipper's infield groundball hit. There is a reason the TV industry developed color and extra camera angles. Its to keep the viewer away from crappy broadcasts like what WGN provided us with.
ReplyDeleteThe typewriter was heard in the background of WGN telecasts until the late 1980s.
ReplyDeleteSoon, every outlet, will offer the wide, upper deck angles on an secondary channel. I hope.
Irate? Nah. I'm glad only the first two innings were in B&W, but it was hardly anything to get too worked up about. The ball was really hard to see. Love the throwback unis though, and I'd love to see throwback games more often, especially since some of today's uniforms are so damn ugly (hello, Blue Jays and Angels).
ReplyDeleteIt was fun and nostalgic, ATLn. Calm the F down.
ReplyDeleteIf you couldn't find any fun in this telecast, you are too young to actually understand. Antiquity was the damn point! You were given a quick, painless history lesson about TV in its' infancy.
ReplyDeleteBut, no, all some can do is whine....can you imagine how excited Ma & Pa Kettle were back in 1948 -- to see these flickering 'images??'
Hell, I grew up with Jack Brickhouse and until this game -- I NEVER knew why I heard that typewriter in the background, every damn game!
This 10-year-old kid in 1965 never found out until this WEEK what that was all about....
It was...."TV You Can't Ignore..." But, for those who don't have a sense of history, I feel sorry for you.
Look, I know people in my generation, the Millennials (formerly known as Gen Y), have the general feeling that "we're entitled to everything." But dammit, at times we need to put away our me-first attitudes and learn to RESPECT the trial-and-error efforts of previous generations, because if it weren't for them, we wouldn't have any of the spoils we take for granted. (And then I wonder why some of my peers don't understand me...)
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