A New Way to Hear the Game

     In yesterday's spring training game between the Indians and Diamondbacks, Major League Baseball positioned over 60 microphones on the field to broadcast live audio of the game.  Among those wired for sound were the players, managers, coaches, umpires, and other key action spots to let the fans hear what a game sounds like from the field.  There was limited commentary from the broadcast booth and the people tuning in were able to hear the umpire's calls, some conversation between players, the crack of the bat and other sounds of the game not normally heard during an average broadcast.  There was a slight delay and some of the conversations were understandably omitted because of language.  The audio also did not include conversations on the mound, or chatter from the bench away from the manager and coaches.  There was only need for one announcer in the booth and even the announcements of the hitters were overheard from the speakers at the ballpark. 
    According to MLB Network CEO, Tony Petitti, the goal of the audio enhanced broadcast was "to make the presentation of the game of baseball as exciting and as new as possible."  To the fan who doesn't already see the game of baseball as being exciting, this was a great move in the right direction.  However, from a traditionalist's point of view the replacement of commentary from the booth with on field sound, and even at times no audio at all is just annoying and quite frankly, boring.  If this on field audio version of the game enters into the regular season, is the network going to tell the great Vin Scully to take a night off?  There have been many great announcers throughout the history of baseball, such as Red Barber, Mel Allen, Jack Buck, and Harry Kalas just to name a few, who have made hall of fame careers broadcasting games.  These men put in the work to describe the game in such a way that fans tuning in can close their eyes and picture exactly what is happening in perfect detail. 
   If Major League Baseball wants to provide the viewer with on field audio it should be during the replays and not in place of the broadcaster describing the action.  Part of the game of baseball that makes it so intriguing are the stories of the teams and players both past and present, and a mix of opinions toward them.  These stories are made even more memorable when told by some of the greatest announcers to sit behind the mic.  Their jobs should not be compromised in any way when they are the people adding the color to the commentary.