
New York Mets slugger Francisco Lindor wasn’t happy with the lack of eye contact from San Francisco Giants pitcher Joey Lucchesi on Friday night. The SNY broadcast made sure to drive the point home metaphorically.
The Giants led the Mets 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning when Lindor stepped to the plate with a chance to tie the game. As he prepared for the first pitch, he stepped out of the batter’s box and turned to the umpire, gesturing to his eyes. Pitchers and hitters must establish eye contact during an at-bat, and Lindor didn’t feel like he was getting that from Lucchesi.
Eventually, the pitcher delivered a ball, and Lindor prepared for the second pitch before calling it off over the lack of eye contact once more, leading to the umpire warning Lucchesi. As the Giants pitcher prepared to deal, the SNY broadcast thematically tied the moment together by using a “blinking” transition from Lucchesi to Lindor.
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That transitional flourish was par for the course for SNY director John DeMarsico, who has built a reputation for working unusual camera angles and homages to movies into Mets broadcasts. His attention to detail and ability to weave in cinematic easter eggs make watching games on SNY a little extra special.
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DeMarsico spoke with Awful Announcing recently, explaining his mindset around what makes baseball cinematic.
“The language of baseball is inherently more cinematic than the other sports, just by the nature of the mechanics of the sport… We start on a camera in center field to cover the pitch, and then when the ball is put in play, we cut 180 degrees to the other side of the ballpark to a high home camera to cover the ball in play. If we want to show runners scoring, we have to cut low to the low cameras showing runners rounding third base. It’s one of the only sports where a lot of the points or runs are scored away from the ball. There are a thousand decisions that our group has to make on any given play to produce the action.”