Watching a baseball game on TV and in the ballpark itself are two different experiences.

Much better journalism is available on TV and is one of the reasons for the popularity of sports these days.

Hype rules at the ballpark.

Fans who are used to seeing a controversial play in super slow-motion from five or more angles on TV find no such thing at the ballpark in spite of a giant screen in centerfield that has excellent resolution.

We experienced that in attending the Yankees vs. Baltimore game in Yankee Stadium Monday. The close game, eventually won by the score of 11-10 by the Yankees, included a crucial third base play in which Oriole Nick Markakis was thrown out. (AP photo via pe.com)

We were sitting just opposite third base and he looked safe to us. We waited anxiously for the video replay but there was none.

As is policy at the Stadium, replays are kept to a minimum.

But that night we saw the same play in super slow-motion from five different angles and it looked like he was safe.

Fans told us policy is only to provide replays where the Yankees look good and no controversy is involved. They think management feels that subjecting plays to the microscope of slow-motion replay might cause fans to become unruly.

In any case, fans at the Stadium are being short-changed by this policy.

Transcripts Are Slo-Mo Replay


In the business world, transcripts of meetings, videos and presentations are the equivalent of the slo-mo replay. It gives interested parties a chance to parse, word-by-word, what is said or not said.

Transcripts of the four teleconferences on the proposed dues hike of PR Society of America should be available to members as well as non-members.

Audiotapes are available to a select few members but who among them has an hour to sit and listen to them. A transcript can be scanned in a brief time for relevant parts.

While many rank-and-file members will not study the transcripts closely, there are others who will do so including journalists, PR professors, PR students, and potential members.

Transcripts of the Assembly of the Society were available for many years on floppy disks. So were audiotapes of the Assemblies.

Members and others have been deprived of these “slo-mo replays” for too long.

The Society can live up to its Code that champions the “free flow of information” by again providing transcripts.