I try to answer the suggestions that were made in the "How to make conference coverage better poll"
Posted by DW on July 25, 2022, 4:55 pm
About a month ago about 50 of you answered the "How to make the conference coverage better poll" and some of you had suggestions which I try to answer here:
Suggestion: Grow the sport and make live-streaming free. Suggestion: The old streaming was great before usssa began charging. Answer: I (DW) was shocked when they went to pay per view on USSSALive and thought it would never be successful. I was wrong (again) and the pay per view has been hugely successful and I think it will definitely continue. There are some free streamed games throughout most weekends on the USSSA-Slowpitch Facebook page and the USSSALive YOUTUBE channel plus the condensed games the following week.
Suggestion: More live events Answer: Bernie at USSSALive has mentioned covering the Smoky and some other events throughout the year with multiple cameras etc but I think USSSA gets really busy in July with youth baseball in Viera and it never seems to come to happen. I will add this to the list of possibilities.
Suggestion: See if DW could get a major player to explain more advanced parts of the game, what they are trying to accomplish in a situation. How to move defenses, types of pitches or something? Answer: Talking to players is always a good suggestion but most shy away from the camera. These would all be good suggestions for the play by play announcer to use when a player is doing the color commentary on a broadcast.
Suggestion: Having people commentate the livestream during all tournaments. Maybe just the “show field” from top 8 on but would be cool to get commentary in game. Answer: Currently this requires someone to be in Viera at the main IT room but is definitely something that has been done in the past and can be done in the future remotely. To have an in person broadcaster at the main field the person would actually have to stand next to the livestream camera to commentate. Tough to find someone willing to do that.
Suggestion: Cover more of the Women's game it is so undervalued. take the time to give this side the same exposure. Suggestion: More coverage of the womens. Answer: I (DW) made a proposal back in October/November to cover the women's Conference exactly the same as I do the men's conference. I had the people in place to do the work and what it would take financially etc. They told me in April that they decided to have Clay cover the women's Conference instead of taking me up on my proposal. My proposal still stands if they ever change their mind.
Suggestion: I would love to see a scoreboard for the live streams like the major. Suggestion: Consistent score & inning information on livestreams. Visual would be nice at all fields but probably not likely! Answer: The technology exists and can be implemented if we can get all of the teams to use Gamechanger. Until they all use Gamechanger the scores on the screen won't happen except for games at the Viera stadium.
Suggestion: I suggested having a podcast weekly and to announce the condensed games, DW said he had already thought about these things and I've seen some condensed games announced since. Answer: We did end up creating the Hit & Sit show and currently have 7 episodes. We do a show about 3 times a month. As for announcing the condensed games I believe I have announced or had an announcer for every condensed game I have ever posted. Or did you mean livestreamed games?
Suggestion: Maybe a better mic for DW while he's commentating Answer: I use a 4k sony handycam so I'm not sure what mic could be used with that to make it better?
Suggestion: More Mic'd up on players. Maybe follow different players for a week. I know a few conference players and the different lifestyles could be interesting. Wegs schedule was amazing, how he fit it all in and still trained amazed me.... Answer: Mic'd up is cool and I will add this to the suggestions/reminders to do at the Viera stadium as has been done in the past. Following players around I don't see happening.
Suggestion: Updated Scores from anyone! Suggestion: If umpires would update scores on live streams that would be nice, but understand that's out of your control. Answer: The umpires are reminded before every tournament to give the scores between innings but I will never understand why catchers aren't giving scores when the umpires aren't? After all the people watching are the friends, family's, and sponsors of the teams themselves.
Suggestion: For new content how about an interview with the Conference USSSA Tournament MVP time permitting? Suggestion: Interview players before or after the games. Answer: Unfortunately men's teams don't pick their MVP or all tournament selections until later Sunday or Monday but this is a good suggestion. I can try interviewing some players here and there and see how it goes. It is difficult to get a team picture out of these players let alone an interview.
Suggestion: Some more info from and about upper players, we hear from some guys like Branch but rarely ever hear anything from other guys. Answer: The player interview pages I used to post on Softballcenter covered a lot of this but most of todays players don't seem to be interested in doing the interviews and most older players don't seem to be interested in updating their interview pages. They should understand that it allows them to thank those people and sponsors that helped them along the way.
Suggestion: commentate on the show field for the entire tourney, when possible Answer: A great suggestion but a huge task.
Suggestion: the articles that I read are good. I couldn't care less about points, the name calling, and classifications of teams. Would love to hear the big name players that get talked about and lied on, fire back sometimes. At least defend themselves if they can. Answer: I will never understand how anyone could let something posted about them go unanswered. I know I can't. Also I sold theoldscout for this very reason, so I didn't have to be in the middle of anonymous posters ragging on players, sponsors, associations, directors, umpires, etc...
Suggestion: Like to hear more from the players on how their teams are doing and what type of training do they do once the season starts. Answer: Players do answer training questions on oldscout. As for how their teams are doing etc, maybe I will bring back the manager responses I used to do after big tournaments and put the answers in the report.
Suggestion: Have women and men separated so you can tell put team names Answer: I do not understand this suggestion?
Suggestion: Hire a true writer, not some computer geek who knows nothing about journalism. Answer: I wish I was a computer geek, would make life easier. Although USSSA did just hire me full time to cover Men's Conference. I would love for someone to do the writing in the reports though, its like having to do a book report every Monday.
Suggestion: More interviews with coaches and players. Maybe interview coaches after big games at the major. Short clips that can be added into a report. Answer: I like this suggestion and will give this a try. One thing with a lot of these teams I don't even know who the manager is? Anarchy is it Arriol or Nimmo? For Smash It is it Katz or Seth? Resmondo is obviously Helmer. Monsta is it Sonny or Hildebran? MPT is obviously Carucci. It isn't always obvious though, lol. Most players hide from the camera but I may give it a shot. Players, you should think of it as an opportunity to thank your sponsors and plug your equipment, think Nascar interview...
Suggestion: More articles on overall softball topics. hitting philosophy (interview a top hitter for an in depth summary on what they're thinking at the plate), softball history (talk about Steele's and Ritch's Superior and the legends back in the unlimited homer days), Follow a single team, major or AA, around to all their tournaments hard knocks style where theres interviews with players and managers and sponsors to give some more behind the scenes to what big time conference ball is like and what it takes. Answer: There are only so many hours in a day but great suggestions.
Suggestion: I know it's very difficult but attempting to catch all the games not just the top 3 majors team on videos and live streaming Answer: The livestream covers every minute of every Conference game. The highlight videos I try to capture all conference teams and most non conference teams but the major teams play more games so they definitely end up with more clips. I treat every weekend the same whether its a big tournament or not so teams that make it to the winner's final or championship will have a condensed game regardless of their classification.
Suggestion: player interviews at tourney (pre-game/post game) would be cool. player of the month, player spotlights Suggestion: Find away to get more personal with the players. Like live interviews. Answer: Camera interviews most shy away from but I may try a couple. Player of the month might be a good idea.
Suggestion: Easy content would be highlights of X player. Easy to go through the top teams that have been filmed and get highlights of the guys with names on bats. Answer: I do have player videos coming out soon. I did a Harvey video a couple years ago and a Cayton video but more to come.
Suggestion: Other quality content you do not have that is John Kings s? of showing "prospect" highlights, a minute of two of C-A young guys highlights. Answer: I will leave that to John he is doing a good job.
Suggestion: Show the compression testing of tournaments, would be cool to see all the bats. Answer: I will try to do this soon.
Suggestion: Homerun derby videos Answer: Conference doesn't have any home run derby's anymore it seems and when they did there was music so I can't post the videos on youtube.
Suggestion: Player/sponsor following or blogs would be fun using video or social media platforms. Be interesting to see and follow player/sponsors life during the Week, away from softball and out of uniform. Careers, Family, Mon-Fri lifestyle and would help connect people. Answer: That is beyond the scope of what I can do timewise.
Suggestion: Putting a go pro on some pitchers helmet would be cool, or getting some in game commentary Answer: Good idea, not sure electronics like that are allowed on the field but maybe.
Suggestion: Lobby to have USSSA provide you with a new/upgraded camcorder/camera. Answer: The camera used in Palm Springs at the Golden State Major two weeks ago was a USSSA camera. I thought the quality of the video and the audio was worse than my Sony Handycam 4k. I don't know of a better camera to be honest. I am open to looking at purchasing a better camera, just have never been able to find one that is higher quality and has good zoom.
Re: I try to answer the suggestions that were made in the "How to make conference coverage better poll"
Dealing with rankings, come up with rules, black and white, not grey area guidelines that let Stro to play favorites with these sponsors. If you stick with the points system then make it that. Don’t change it up because a team followed the rules and is winning or because Rick Schiffhauer sells most of the bats in this game and threatens not to sell the products that make the sport go round. Pick the ####ing rules and stick with it.
Re: I try to answer the suggestions that were made in the "How to make conference coverage better poll"
Suggestion: I suggested having a podcast weekly and to announce the condensed games, DW said he had already thought about these things and I've seen some condensed games announced since.
I believe this one was mine DW and at the time you had just started releasing condensed games and there were some that didn’t have commentary while you were filming. My idea was to have you or someone else do the play by play during the editing process, that was maybe if you had another cameraman, you could get twice the condensed games and thus would have more content. I don’t know why I left off having a second cameraman as a suggestion but that would give you so much more to release. As a diehard conference fan, I’m ready. You just say the word and have usssa get me there and back home and I’m in lol.
Re: I try to answer the suggestions that were made in the "How to make conference coverage better poll"
Also I sold theoldscout for this very reason, so I didn't have to be in the middle of anonymous posters ragging on players, sponsors, associations, directors, umpires, etc...