When the Broadcast Becomes the Distraction

📰 THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

When the Broadcast Becomes the Distraction

There’s an old rule in baseball broadcasting — one that goes back to the golden days of radio and early television:

Don’t become part of the game. Describe it. Enhance it. Then get out of the way.

Last night’s FOX broadcast of Cardinals vs. Red Sox didn’t follow that rule.

Instead, it stepped all over it.

The headline on the field was clear enough. The Cardinals executed the new Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System flawlessly, going a perfect 5-for-5. In a season where teams are learning how to use — and not waste — their challenges, that kind of efficiency matters. It’s strategy. It’s awareness. It’s the modern game evolving in real time.

That should’ve been the story.

But in the booth, John Smoltz had something else in mind.

From early innings to the late frames, the broadcast became a running commentary — not on the Cardinals, not on the Red Sox, not even on the flow of the game — but on the ABS system itself. Pitch after pitch, challenge after challenge, the focus drifted away from the field and into a debate.

And that’s where things went sideways.

Smoltz, a Hall of Famer and one of the game’s great pitchers, has earned the right to his opinions. But there’s a difference between offering insight and dominating the broadcast with a single point of view. Last night, it felt like every pitch came with a lecture attached.

Fans noticed.

Not because they disagree with tradition — baseball fans, maybe more than any other, respect the past — but because they know when the conversation stops serving the game. Social media lit up with the same refrain: let us watch the game.

That’s the job.

You don’t need to sell the audience on baseball. You don’t need to convince them what’s right or wrong with the modern era. You need to bring them closer to what’s happening between the lines.

Last night, too often, the game felt like background noise to the commentary.

And that’s a miss.

There’s room in baseball for old-school thinking and new-school reality. The best broadcasts find that balance — they explain without preaching, analyze without overwhelming, and most importantly, they respect the rhythm of the game.

Because baseball has a rhythm all its own.

And when you interrupt it long enough, fans start reaching for the mute button… or the radio dial.

That’s not where you want them.

 
Bottom Line the teams and the fans have already adapted to the system, the game moved forward, but the Fox Sports broadcast didn’t.