Flyover_camera
FOX has announced that they will use flyover cameras, similar to those seen at NFL games, for all of their playoff games this year (which includes the NLCS and World Series).

This is not going to end well.

Look, I love cool camera angles as much as anyone- I get a hard-on every time they show the super slo-mo cam- but placing wires above the field at a baseball game is just asking for trouble. [Hardball Talk]

Fox will formally announce Wednesday that its Major League Baseball playoff coverage will include what it bills as a TV first: Cameras zipping over the field of play . . . The idea is to use one camera per game that will move along cables and be controlled by operators who are supposed to keep those cameras away from fair and foul territory until pitches cross home plate.

Then the cameras, like the cable-cams that now routinely hover over NFL games, can roam over the field at altitudes ranging from about 12 to 80 feet above ground.

It works well in football because the camera can stay behind the predictable play and balls are rarely lofted 100 feet into the air.  Only on a punt would they present a real problem, and even then the wires a pulled taut to form almost a “V” over the ball's trajectory.  While FOX says that the camera will remain out of play until after the pitch, you would think there would still have to be wires over the field to allow for shots over the pitcher's mound and bases.  i.e. something will have to be there to pull the camera in that direction. 

I’m sure there are minds much smarter than mine that have thought of this (the camera will probably use a pulley-like system, with no wires coming directly from the outfield), but still, the opportunity for disaster seems to far outweigh the “cool factor.”

If you think Jayson Werth was pissed when that fan interfered with a ball, imagine what will happen if a wire deflects a ball.   

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