Mar

26

Watch Cape League Games on the Internet?

Posted by Andrew | Filed Under News | 

Falmouth CommodoresSoon you may be able to watch live Cape League games over the Internet, at least from the Falmouth Commodores. A poll asking fans if they would watch streaming games has been on their site for quite some time now. In addition, Wareham has announced their plans to offer live streaming video.

What do you think? Would you watch live streaming Cape League baseball? (Make sure to fill out the poll)

Chatham has been offering live video via Teamline (with the help of Cape.com). However, they do not offer video archives of games. But, they do have several exclusive interviews on their site. Baseball.cape.com is home to all of the 2006 season’s audio archives (Note: I am pretty sure all of the January 2007 files do not have content).

Comments

7 Responses to “Watch Cape League Games on the Internet?”

  1. CapeMan on March 27th, 2007 4:50 am

    The CCBL is definately going to offer games over the internet similar to the way Chatham has been doing. My understanding is that unlike Chatham last year, it will be free. Don’t expect top quality broadcasts but I personally will definately tune in from time to time. While this is great for fans, I think the league might be doing this for parents and family members that are back home. I’m not sure if every team will broadcast every game because the interest among some teams is not as enthusiastic as other teams. Good idea by Falmouth to do a poll…why spend the money and dedicate staff for something noone is going to watch?

  2. Andrew on March 27th, 2007 6:03 am

    CapeMan, thanks for pointing out that info about Chatham. I added it to the post. I had a hunch they provided video, but I have never watched it (I am usually at a game instead).

    The Internet is the perfect venue for Cape League baseball due to players coming from all over the nation. Quality is a major concern of mine, and I do not think more than one camera angle would be possible.

    The Alaska Goldpanners offer archived video on their site: http://www.goldpanners.com/pannervision/

  3. CapeMan on March 28th, 2007 5:43 am

    Unless each team invests in multiple cameras and actual televison production and editing equipment, you will only get one camera angle and that is fine with me. This would be a major expense and require professionals and a lot of staff to pull off. The CCBL is just not in a position to do that…nor would they want to be in my opinion. Chatham had their’s behind home plate and while not perfect, it was fine. The service will be free so if the quality isn’t like watching ESPN, I’m fine. The CCBL is very careful about how the league is presented from a publicity standpoint somehow I’m thinking that a lower quality, amateur run video broadcast fits right into their New England, traditional and rustic way of doing things. Simple ball parks, free admission, 50/50 raffles, John Wylde public address announcements, day games in Cotuit, simple video broadcast…just the way they like it.

  4. Dave B. on March 28th, 2007 8:43 am

    I know this is a little off-topic, but I wanted to tell CapeMan that I got a laugh from his comment about John Wylde. He certainly has a distinctive voice and mannerism at the P.A. microphone, doesn’t he ??!! If you walked into a game blindfolded, you would know when you are at Spillane Field.
    I have contacted Mr. Wylde on a few occasions and find him to be a real gentleman. He is always quick to respond and very informative. He has gone out of his way to answer my questions on a few occasions.
    He has certainly been a great ambassador for the league and what he has done for the Wareham franchise is phenominal. I remember many years ago (in the 70’s maybe ? I’m not sure because I’m terrible with timeframes.), the Wareham franchise was in deep trouble. I believe one year they qualified for the playoffs but could not participate because they had no money.

  5. Greg on March 28th, 2007 6:20 pm

    What a wonderful exchange. We will definitely watch games over the Internet if offered. We already do so for all University of Washington Huskies games. They have a very basic set-up. A camera takes in diamond from the press box behind home plate. The sound is live with a play-by-play guy calling the action. We wouldn’t care what the angle or call is. We just want to follow the action for games we can’t attend. This probably doesn’t cost a lot of money and requires a skeleton crew (no editing).

    More to the point, I wonder if the CCBL might consider the GameTracker technology that we get on CSTV? I find that technology pretty slick and easy to follow the game with no cameras at all.

    Finally, I find Mr. Wylde a great asset for the league. I enjoy listening to him and appreciate his work on the stats.

  6. MarinerMike on March 31st, 2007 5:58 am

    I think putting the games on the internet is a great idea. One question I have though is do all the fields have the ability to connect to the internet? I don’t think you can do video over a dialup connection.

    I live on the Cape year-round and last year before the season began I watched the D-III New England baseball championship at Harwich and saw that a company called D3cast was doing the internet broadcast for those games. I think they only had one camera and when I checked it out online they had past games posted in archives. Harwich seems to have the ability to do this if this company had done it there for the college season.

    (I admit I’m a Harwich guy - I’d love it if they had it!)

  7. CapeMan on April 1st, 2007 12:43 pm

    If Harwich does, that makes at least 3 since Chatham did games on the internet last year and the Wareham site says that they have Wifi at their field. You can assume that Bourne does since they are right at a high school….I bet Falmouth has access too. Not sure about the others but the league wouldn’t be persuing this is it didn’t have the connectivity.

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