But say no to Charlie.
The Red Sox have barely played on Thursdays this year. In addition to the many scheduled off-days they have, there was even a rain out on a Thursday!
There was also a game that only lasted three innings against the Cincinnati Reds before rain forced it to be resumed the following afternoon. Then there was that weekend in Washington with a rain delay, albeit a short one that didn’t force the starting pitchers to leave. And, as soon as Wednesday’s finale against the Rockies was finished, the Sox grounds crew put down the tarp. And, yes, it’s raining right now.
Rain has been a factor this year, as it usually is. No, the Red Sox don’t need a dome, that’s crazy talk. Baseball doesn’t feel right indoors. But they do need some innovation in rain delay progamming. It’s time.
And I’ve now had more time to think about this than I’d like, so let’s talk about what the Red Sox and NESN should do with rain delays:
- Why not restart the broadcast? This is mostly for weird delays like the recent one in D.C. That delay was so short that Dave O’Brien could’ve made a quick announcement to say “Hey, if you joined late we’re just re-airing the first few minutes of this game during a brief delay. Forget ‘Sox in Two’ you can catch up right now!” If you’re streaming the game, that’s better than dead air. It also gives us the opportunity for OB to break in with “and now we rejoin the Red Sox already in progress” like it’s the 1980s.
- Whatever else you do, DON’T AIR ANYMORE CHARLIE MOORE OUTDOORS. No mad fisherman, please. Real question: does anyone actually watch NESN content that isn’t the Red Sox or Bruins? The food show? The Boston vs New York poker show they had back when pokermania was sweeping the nation? Red Sox dating? At least some of these were real shows, I swear.
- Interviews. This is a little complicated because I’m sure they prefer to do in-game interviews, well, in-game. But the 1975 night against the Reds would’ve been the perfect time to do more. They had Sox legends at Fenway Park right there, ready to go. Could Dave O’Brien really not have done a few minutes with the guests who were already in the house? Or bring Tom Caron over? These guys have more to say than a one inning hit permits. Wouldn’t that have been fun? This wouldn’t be an every time thing, but if you can do an interview with guys who, I assume, aren’t always in town, why not take advantage of that?
- Flip to a classic game. People are tuning out anyway, but why not stick on a classic game from the archives? Give us either a good game from the current season or something people will know from the past and people would watch.
- NESN specials? We know they do special work around the various World Series wins. There are canned interviews someone could string together just for a rain delay. YouTube is filled with The Best of Don and Jerry. Now, I know that Don Orsillo is a sore point for the organization. But instead of pretending he doesn’t exist, imagine if the Sox go into rain delay and you get a clip show of “here comes the pizza” or “dentist Don” or “Stuffy McInnis” or the lamp? I could go on forever.
- Just leave the camera on. This also probably presents some issues, but I’m thinking more of a screensaver type ting. Set the camera, zoom in, let the rain noises do their thing. We already have the fake version of this with Baseball Zen.
If it does rain tonight and you get your Thursday back, will you really want it back? Or do you want to watch 30 minutes about a pizza being thrown at Fenway Park? Let’s do better.