How does baseball game coverage differ on WGN, Comcast, ESPN, Fox, etc. ?

April 17, 2006 by diana

Recently we've had the chance to catch Cubs games on WGN, Comcast Sports Chicago, ESPN-HD (Yippee!) and on Fox Sports Midwest.

We should get to see Fox network games soon, right?

I'd like to ask you all what differences you notice in the coverage and what you like / dislike from each that you've seen.

For instance, I've noticed that Fox Sports Midwest likes to use a close-up zoom on things that we usually don't see on WGN. For instance, we saw a close-up of a baserunners anxious feet. Also saw an extreme close-up of the grip of the ball by the pitcher.

When the games on ESPN-HD aren't blacked out, one of the big differences is how thin the Cub players really are. Evidently WGN and Comcast SportsNet Chicago in HD (High Definition) game telecasts are only available to Chicago area cable subscribers.

If you have a HD capable tv, you pretty much need to stretch out the image in order to use the entire tv screen or risk burning in those lines on the left and right side of the screen. I bought my tv used, so those lines were already burned in. :(

If you stretch out the image to fill in the entire screen, that makes the players appear shorter and wider. Of course, the players also appear to be running faster. :)

I'm hoping that the Cubs games in HD will become available throughout the state of Illinois so I can see the Cubs how they really are and not the Chubby Cubbies.

Handy links:

http://chicago.comcastsportsnet.com/team...

http://wgnsuperstation.trb.com/sports/ba...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/clubhouse?...

http://hd.espn.com/hd/

Your comments, observations welcomed!

Diana

TV listings for Cubs fans - April / May 2006
http://www.cubsnet.com/node/1072

Ryne Sandberg Day photos
www.chicagocubsphotos.blogspot.com/2005/...