Ad Nausea (Pun Intended): MLB’s Advertising Nightmare

MLB has a serious problem. Well, it has many serious problems. An unfathomable percentage of which are self-inflicted. The ever-encroaching ad-pocalypse is primary amongst them. The blight and constant bombardment of advertisements detracts from what I believe to be one of the sport’s unique qualities amongst its peers in American professional sports: its dynamism in aesthetic storytelling.

MLB is—in my experience as a sports fan—unique in that the dimensions of its playing surface necessitates multiple camera angles to depict the action on the field. In football, basketball, soccer, tennis, and even NASCAR, the predominant shot during the live action is from a static angle placed at the half-way point of the playing surface—the 50-yard line, half-court, mid-field, the net, or just the halfway point on one of the ovular racetracks in NASCAR. Baseball is dependent on multiple angles to show the viewer any at-bat that produces a ball in play. This at bat by the Mets 24-year-old catcher Francisco Alvarez in the top of the fifth inning is an excellent example.

We start with a shot of the pitcher, rookie Tobias Myers. It’s a close up, showing him peeking over his left shoulder to make sure the runner on first isn’t taking too liberal of a lead. Then the broadcast cuts to the centerfield camera, the foundation of every play in the game. Myers uncorks a fastball to Alvarez who fouls the ball up and over the backstop and we see the broadcast cut again to a camera above home plate to show you just where the ball went. We’re one pitch into the at bat and already have seen three different camera angles. From there, we see a fourth angle in between pitches, showing Alvarez readjusting his helmet and readying himself for the next pitch. Before Myers delivers the next pitch, back to the center field angle, and another foul ball tracked up and over the backstop by the high-home-plate camera. Then another new cut to a closeup of Brewers backstop Gary Sanchez, mask off, flipping a new ball back to Myers. In these closeup shots, MLB’s broadcast does not put overlay ads onto the backstop, there is no interruption of what you are seeing, and it looks good! It’s smooth, there is no visual noise to sort through as a viewer. We then get two more cuts in quick succession, one of Myers walking back on the mound thinking of how to approach the potential put-away pitch, then to Alvarez in a closeup showing his consideration of what the strategy might be from the pitcher. Then the broadcast brings the fans in to show the audience that this is a big pitch, and another cut to a beautiful wide shot showing the pitcher, batter, catcher, and the fans on their feet. The broadcast continues to play with shots to build narrative tension until Alvarez pops out to the first baseman. But in this one at bat, you can see how important the aesthetic variety of camera angles is to the narration of a baseball game.

Of course, the other sports rely on multiple camera angles for replays or narrative single-player shots, but baseball is the only major sport so dependent on multiple cameras and quick cuts between them. The only other sport I can think of that needs multiple cameras in order to see all of the action is golf, but that sport still sees long, static shots that allow the action to play itself out. While each pitch in baseball begins with the centerfield camera, any contact will see a camera change. For example, here’s a still frame from the first pitch of the Mets Brewers Wild Card Game 3 from October 3.

This is never the only camera angle you get in baseball, but it is the one that you will see the most, as exemplified by the Alvarez at bat above. Since Francisco Lindor, a switch hitter, is batting from the left side in this plate appearance, there is nothing immediately objectionable in this shot. You may, however, notice that there is a lot of advertising going on in this shot. There are three separate ads behind him, the catcher, and the umpire, all for T-Mobile. And that is before you include the Brewers’ home field sponsor, American Family Insurance. MLB also sneaks in an ad for their Play Ball initiative, which is the only behind-the-plate ad that I have no objections over. T-Mobile is actually advertised on your screen a fourth time if you include the watermark on the mound. I get it! You want me to switch to T-Mobile! But I want to watch a baseball game! We already have commercial breaks between the half innings where people yell at me about dog food, erectile disfunction pills, hair loss pills, and nutrition supplements—not to mention the deluge of political ads this time of year. This season is also the first in which MLB is including batting helmet sponsors as part of every post-season game. They are not there during the 162-game regular season, only during the most-viewed games of the year. MLB has also added corporate sponsorships to their jerseys as well, though I have less to say about these as I am also a fan of European football, and all of their professional leagues have nearly full coverage ads.

The still image of Lindor, above, is fine with me. I have grown up in a baseball ecosystem that has long since ceded most of the available stadium real estate to advertising. That’s fine, that isn’t going to change anytime soon, and if it did, I’m positive that owners would use it as an excuse to increase their already-extortion-level prices for tickets. My problem is when it interrupts your ability to actually watch the game. What do I mean by that? Here’s an at bat from Brewers rookie phenom Jackson Chourio. This at bat isn’t all that important, but it will show you how MLB has compromised its aesthetic brilliance to force ads down your throat whenever they can. Pay attention to Chourio’s sliding glove in his back pocket as well as his bat, arms, and hands. You can clearly see the “Sage” advertisement which has been digitally overlayed on the backstop distorting the visual integrity of the broadcast. When they cut to a close up, you can see how different it is when there is no ad overlay. But when they go back to the center field camera, ever bat waggle creates visual distortion. I slowed down part of the video where you can see Chourio’s bat disappear in his hands, showing the backstop without the Sage overlay.

MLB has a much bigger problem that at bats in the bottom of the third inning though. The biggest moment of the game, and of the playoffs so far, has also been tainted by this desire to monetize every second of the game. Down 2-0, facing one of the best relievers in the game, a struggling Pete Alonso came to the plate with two on and the chance to open up scoring for the Mets in their last at-bats of the game. After working the count to 3-1, Alonso ripped an opposite field home run for the Mets first runs of the game, putting them ahead of the Brewers and eventually being the game-winning at-bat for the Mets. While they tacked on another run in the inning to go up 4-2, the three runs delivered but this swing from the Polar Bear was all the Mets needed.

You can see very clearly that the video is distorted. Around the catcher, umpire, and Pete Alonso, MLB’s own advertisement for the product that you are currently watching ruins the aesthetic value of the moment. Why? What are you gaining by showing me an advertisement for the product that I’m watching? If I’m seeing the ad, I am obviously sold on the product. This could very well be Alonso’s final year with the Mets, capping off a six year run as one of the most dominant first baseman in the game, seeing him win a Rookie of the Year Award en route to four All-Star appearances and cult-like dedication from the Mets faithful. With all of that being said, this was the biggest moment of his career. Sure, he’s won a few Home Run Derbies, but this is his first appearance in the playoffs, and the star became the savior.

The distortion in one at-bat doesn’t seem like much, but this happens in every single at bat. Pitches, bats, arms, and legs disappear from view at the beginning of every play. If you were watching the NBA Playoffs and a Steph Curry three disappeared midway to its target and you were left to fill in the blank as to how the shot finished, the broadcast would be rightfully panned as a failure. It’s distracting at best and compromising at worst. Baseball, as was mentioned to me by one of the readers of this blog who is one of my close friends, is a very technical, mechanical game. Seeing how the batter orients himself before a swing and how he executes his mechanics is what separates this incredible at bat from Alonso from one of these ugly swings from Javier Baez.

MLB also employs a much more intrusive form of mid-plate-appearance advertising though. In the top of the sixth inning, following a Mark Vientos strikeout, cutting away from a shot meant to build tension in a tied playoff game, the broadcast minimizes itself in favor of another Sage advertisement, it’s baseball themed, sure, but there is also literally a baseball game happening in a much smaller screen pushed aside for the product that MLB apparently cares more about than its own, that of its advertisers. This is not a commercial break, this is the middle of the Mets turn at the dish in the sixth, and we take 15 seconds away from the broadcast to shill for some company that probably does not impact the vast majority of the people watching. Worse still, when the broadcast cuts back to the center field camera for the first pitch of Brandon Nimmo’s plate appearance, THERE IS A SAGE ADVERTISEMENT ON THE BACKSTOP. The same company that just disrupted the broadcast already has a backstop ad. And if you remember the Jackson Chourio at-bat from earlier in this article, you’ll remember that this very same ad overlay disrupted the aesthetics of his at bat.

I’m not an idiot. I know that MLB and its broadcast partners need advertisers to deliver the product that I love so much. But for the love of god, when all I see during the broadcast is advertisements and then we get another barrage in between innings for commercial breaks, it’s exhausting. MLB has taken steps to intentionally shorten its games while boosting the presence of advertisers to an infomercial-like level. As a fan, it makes me wonder what MLB thinks of its own product. Do they care about the sport at all? My girlfriend and I sat down to watch the Ohio State v. Iowa football game on October 5, and the level of commercial interruptions or advertising displayed on the field is so much less than that which happens during a baseball game. I know that baseball isn’t as popular as football, but if this was one of the hundreds of shows about fire, EMS, police, or other rescue services that all seem to have Rob Lowe in them despite no one actually watching them, this level of advertising would be unfathomable. If every surgery in Grey’s Anatomy was brought to you by Coke, or every joke in The Office had a punchline that Jim delivered to camera about switching to T-Mobile, no one would watch. MLB has a lot of problems. But key among them is that it misunderstands its product. Baseball is an interesting sport if you take the time to explain it and allow the broadcasters the chance to build narrative tension with creative camera angles. It is not, as the league and its broadcast partners seem to think, an infomercial.