Baseball telecasts technology
The following is a chronological list of the technological advancements of Major League Baseball television broadcasts: 1930s and 1940s. 1939. On August 26, the first ever Major League Baseball telecast (the Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Cincinnati Reds from Ebbets Field) aired by W2XBS, an experimental station in New York City which would ultimately become WNBC-TV. Red Barber called the game without the benefit of a monitor and with only two cameras capturing the game. One camera was on Barber and the other was behind the plate. Barber had to guess from which light was on and where  it pointed. In 1939, baseball games were usually covered by one camera providing a point-of-view along the third base line. 1950s. 1951. On August 11, 1951, WCBS-TV in New York City televised the first baseball game (in which the Boston Braves beat the Brooklyn Dodgers by the score of 8–1) in color. On October 3 of that year, NBC aired the first coast-to-coast baseball telecast as the Brooklyn Dodgers were beaten by the New York Giants in the final game of a playoff series by the score of 5-4 (off Bobby Thomson's now -legendary home run). 1955. 1955 marked the first time that the World Series was televised in color. 1960s. 1962. On July 23, 1962, Major League Baseball had its first satellite telecast (via Telstar Communications). The telecast included portion of a contest between the Chicago Cubs vs. the Philadelphia Phillies from Wrigley Field with Jack Brickhouse commentating on WGN-TV. 1969. By 1969, the usage of chroma key (in which the commentators would open a telecast by standing in front of a greenscreen composite of the stadiums' crowds) became a common practice for baseball telecasts. 1970s. 1975. In the bottom of  the 12th inning of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series at Boston's Fenway Park, Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk was facing Cincinnati Reds pitcher Pat Darcy. Fisk then hit a pitch down the left field line that appeared to be heading to foul territory. The enduring image of Fisk jumping and waving the ball fair as he made his way to first base is arguably one of baseball's greatest moments. The ball struck the foul pole, giving the Red Sox a 7–6 win and forcing a seventh and deciding game of the Fall Classic. During this time , cameramen covering baseball games were instructed to follow the flight of the ball; reportedly, Fisk's reaction was only being recorded because NBC cameraman Lou Gerard, positioned inside Fenway's scoreboard at the base of the left-field Green Monster wall, had become distracted by a large rat. This play was perhaps the most important catalyst in getting camera operators to focus most of their attention on the players themselves. 1980s. 1983. On July 6, 1983, NBC televised the All-Star Game out of Chicago's Comiskey Park. During the telecast, special guest analyst, Don Sutton helped introduce NBC's  new pitching tracking device dubbed The NBC Tracer. "The NBC Tracer" was a stroboscopic comet tail showing the path of a pitch to the catcher's glove. For instance, "The NBC Tracer" helped track a Dave Stieb curveball among others. 1985. In 1985, NBC's telecast of the All-Star Game out of the Metrodome in Minnesota was the first program to be broadcast in stereo by a television network. 1987. For the 1987 World Series between the Minnesota Twins and St. Louis Cardinals, ABC utilized 12 cameras and nine tape machines. This includes cameras positioned down the left field  line, on the roof of the Metrodome, and high above third base. 1990s. 1990. In 1990, CBS took over from both ABC and NBC as Major League Baseball's national, over-the-air television provider. They in the process brought along their telestration technology that they dubbed CBS Chalkboard. "CBS Chalkboard" made its debut eight years earlier during CBS' coverage of Super Bowl XVI. 1992. For CBS' coverage of the 1992 All-Star Game, they introduced Basecam, a lipstick-size camera, inside first base. 1993. During CBS' coverage of the 1993 World Series, umpires were upset with the overhead replays  being televised by CBS. Dave Phillips, the crew chief, said just prior to Game 2 that the umpires want ""CBS to be fair with their approach."" Rick Gentile, the senior vice president for production of CBS Sports, said that Richie Phillips, the lawyer for the Major League Umpires Association, tried to call the broadcast booth during Saturday's game, but the call was not put through. Richie Phillips apparently was upset when Dave Phillips called the Philadelphia Phillies' Ricky Jordan out on strikes in the fourth inning, and a replay showed the pitch to be about 6 inches outside. National  League President Bill White, while using a CBS headset in the broadcast booth during Game 1, was overheard telling Gentile and the producer Bob Dekas: On July 8, 1997, Fox televised its first ever All-Star Game (out of Jacobs Field in Cleveland). For this particular game, Fox introduced "Catcher-Cam" in which a camera was affixed to the catchers' masks in order to provide unique perspectives of the action around home plate. Catcher-Cam soon would become a regular fixture in Fox's baseball broadcasts. 1997. In addition to Catcher-Cam, other innovations (some of which have received more  acclaim than others) that Fox has provided for baseball telecasts have been: 2000s. 2000. For a Saturday afternoon telecast of a Los Angeles Dodgers/Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field on August 26, 2000, Fox aired a special "Turn Back the Clock" broadcast to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the first televised baseball game. The broadcast started with a re-creation of the television technology of 1939, with play-by-play announcer Joe Buck working alone with a single microphone, a single black-and-white camera, and no graphics; then, each subsequent half-inning would see the broadcast "jump ahead  in time" to a later era, showing the evolving technologies and presentation of network baseball coverage through the years. 2002. In October 2002, Fox televised the first ever World Series to be shown in high definition. 2004. Starting in 2004, some TBS telecasts (mostly Fridays or Saturdays) became more enhanced. The network decided to call it Braves TBS Xtra. Enhancements included catcher cam, "Xtra Motion", which featured the type of pitch and movement, also "leadOff Line". It would also show features with inside access to players. In October 2004, Fox started airing all Major League Baseball postseason broadcasts (including the  League Championship Series and World Series) in high definition. Fox also started airing the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in HD the following year. At the same time, the FoxBox and graphics are upgraded. 2007. For their 2007 Division Series coverage, TBS debuted various new looks, such as the first live online views from cameras in dugouts and ones focused on pitchers. TBS also introduced a graphic that creates sort of a rainbow to trace the arc of pitches on game replays. The graphic was superimposed in the studio so analysts like Cal Ripken, Jr. for instance, could take  virtual cuts at pitches thrown in games. 2009. During their 2009 playoff coverage, TBS displays their "PitchTrax" graphic full-time during at-bats (with the center field camera only) during the high-definition version of the broadcast in the extreme right-hand corner of the screen. Meanwhile, for their own 2009 playoff coverage, Fox announced that they would occasionally include this stat on replays: Speed of pitches as they leave pitchers' hands as well as their speed when they cross home plate. 2010s. 2011. With the start of the 2011 postseason, TBS planned to introduce the following The screen on  TBS's standard definition feed now airs a letterboxed version of the native HD feed to match Fox's default widescreen SD presentation, allowing the right side pitch tracking graphic to be seen by SD viewers. For the 2011 World Series, Fox debuted infrared technology that's designed to pinpoint heat made by a ball making contact — with, say, bats, face masks, players' bodies — and mark the spot for viewers by making it glow. During Game 1, Fox used "Hot Spot" to show that a batted ball was fouled off Texas Rangers batter Adrián Beltré's foot. 2012. Fox's  2012 World Series coverage would include a camera whose replays could generate as many as 20,000 frames per second, the most ever seen on Fox—and up from about 60 frames per second on regular replays. The camera would allow viewers "to see the ball compress" when batted, similar to how cameras now show golf balls getting compressed when struck. The technology for the camera originated with the U.S. military looking at replays of missile impacts. 2016. At the beginning of the 2016 season, TBS introduced new graphics that were used all season including the postseason. The score box, which  was originally docked to the top and left edges of the screen, was completely redesigned for 2017 after much criticism during the 2016 postseason for its large size. Like the 2016 score bug, the current one still stands in the top left corner, only it is smaller. 2020s. 2020. The 2020 season was delayed until July due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fox soon announced that they would virtually fill the seats of Chicago's Wrigley Field, Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium, Washington's Nationals Park, San Diego's Petco Park and other ballparks that it broadcasts games over the next several  weeks. Announcers later spent time explaining and demonstrating the use of virtual fans during the July 25 game between the Chicago Cubs-Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field.