The winner and champion of Major League Baseball's 111st World Series are The Kansas City Royals. The team has many people to thank for helping them win baseball's most prized title. The players, coaching staff, management, the fans, of course, and...FOX Sports?
For those who watched Game One of the World Series, you are probably aware of the broadcasting difficulty that FOX Sports network faced during the fourth inning. For those of you who are unaware, the millions of baseball fans across the nation tuned into FOX Sports station were horrified when the game cut out and a "Technical Difficulties" message appeared on the screen. Viewers were brought to a group of FOX Sports commentators who improvised the best that they could while the problem was solved.
The reason the game was interrupted for fans at home? A power outage to both the primary and backup generators at the FOX Sports production site. Although many might think that this five minute delay was nothing more than a freak accident that only affected those at home, it did indeed affect the game. Without the ability to have instant replay, the umpires halted the game. After the managers for both clubs agreed to continue the game without instant replay, the ball game restarted.
Fans at home were eventually reconnected to the game once MLB's international feed replaced FOX Sports commentators. Fans were greeted by commentators Matt Vasgersian and John Smoltz of the MLB's international feed while the game continued. Eventually, FOX Sports got their act together and the news feed returned back to the original format, unfortunately, commented by Joe Buck. FOX Sports commentator Joe Buck seemed as shocked as the fans at this broadcasting disaster and continued to repeat how Alcides Escobar of the Kansas City Royals hit an inside the park home run back in the first inning instead of offering any useful commentary about the state of the FOX Sports news feed.
In addition to embarrassingly losing their live feed to an internationally televised championship game, one could also say FOX Sports helped shape the results of the game's outcome. With home field advantage being in favor of the Kansas City Royals, The New York Mets players lost their momentum due to the halt in play in a stadium full of confused and angry fans. Mets batters had to wait while the issue was being resolved and fans did not even get to see the Mets pitcher end the inning with a strikeout. It is a common strategy in sports to "ice" or delay an action as long as possible to allow time and the fans put additional pressure on the opposing team. Unintentionally, but still doing so, FOX Sports iced out the New York Mets during the middle of the first game of The World Series. The Mets ended up losing the game after going into extra innings leaving Mets fans wondering, would the outcome of the game and the series been different if FOX Sports were more prepared?
