Rob Neyer and Craig Calcaterra Get it Wrong

[emkayseven]

I'm not sure I've ever been known to support David Samson or criticize Rob Neyer, but I'm going to do both in this post. In his blog today, Neyer wrote: "You know, it's really hard to like David Samson when he says stuff like this." The "stuff like this" in question linked to a Craig Calcaterra article about the Marlins out-of-town scoreboard disappearing, and I assume the specific thing Neyer was upset by was this quote:

Team president David Samson says the scoreboard and lineups aren't needed: "every fan has a handheld device with Internet accessibility.''

As we wrote on April 10th, the Teal Tower was replaced with ads for reasons that went beyond revenue. The Dolphins own the stadium and are supposed to manage its upkeep, but did not want to pay to fix the burned-out light bulbs in the scoreboard. Given that the Marlins are moving after next season, it simply did not pay for the Marlins to lay out thousands of dollars to fix something that isn't really theirs to begin with, and that they'll be abandoning in less than two seasons. I can't say I blame Dolphins owner Stephen Ross for balking at putting money into something he won't see any money from, but I sure don't blame Loria, Samson, & Co. for not wanting to fix it anyway. They are tenants and I do not believe it is their responsibility. If you were living in an apartment you were going to vacate in a few months and there was a crack in a tile that the super said he wasn't going to fix because after you moved out he was going to re-tile the whole place, would you pay out of your pocket to fix it?

In addition to this misplaced blame, Calcaterra titled his article "The Marlins no longer have an out-of-town scoreboard." This is simply not true. If national writers didn't resort to skimming the headlines and writing blog posts about it, Calcaterra would know that

• A) out-of-town scores are now shown on a ribbon scoreboard, which actually displays much more information (hitter, pitcher, men on base, etc) than the old scoreboard did, and
• B) the lineups are shown on the biggest HD screens you've ever seen

None of this is to say that Samson's comment was right or proper or funny; we all know that he says asinine things that just aren't humorous and get blown up in the media. But if Calcaterra had taken more time to investigate the reasons behind the scoreboard removal and what its replacement was and less time researching the percentage of new phone sales that are smartphones, he and Neyer wouldn't have been so off the mark on this one. Of course, that's the usefulness of team-centric blogs like ours.

[Jewbility]

Calcaterra made a booboo with the title--nice fix, MK

But judging from the quote, Neyer was criticizing Samson's dismissive attitude--not the fact that the team no longer has the scoreboard.

[Party]

The out-of-town scores are also on the LED board directly above the Teal Tower between Joe Robbie and Don Shula in the Ring of Honor.

[Swifty]

Yeah, Markkotsay7 got it wrong too.

We have a permanent out of town board now, the only draw back is it has to alternate leagues.

[emkayseven]

that's the "ribbon scoreboard" I mentioned

[Swifty]

The ribbon is that display that wraps around the club level, the out of town scoreboard now sits on the facade to the upper deck by the dolphins ring of honor. You are definitely describing the club level display because that's the one that shows batter, pitcher, situation, etc.

What's more, the club level one was there last season, the upper deck one was added after the demise of the teal tower.

[Party]

It's only a ribbon if it goes all the way around the facade of a stadium.

[emkayseven]

Dodgers Ribbon Board messages: http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/la...scoreboard.jsp

just to counter festa's definition, that's how I understand a ribbon board to look

and having not been to a game this season I was going off of this and other articles with the same reference: http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/marli...wn-scoreboard/

[Party]

It's only a ribbon if it goes all the way around the facade of a stadium.

How is that any different from what I said? Only difference is Dodger Stadium is not fully enclosed.

[emkayseven]

ok, well that's what I was thinking of when I wrote "ribbon scoreboard"

[Swifty]

Yeah, but the problem is the scoreboard on the upper deck, the new permanent out of town scoreboard is not descriptive at all; it's just NL half the time, AL half the time. The descriptive one is the club level board which sucks balls because it only shows scores one at a time and for 4.3 seconds at a time.

Also, the jumbotron doesn't show lineups 100% of the time, just when the guys in the scoreboard booth feel like putting it up there.

Just for the purposes of fairness.

[Party]

I remember there used to be a huge board in Gate H when you walked in with the home and visiting line-ups. The old dot matrix board gave home run distances.

Next time I'm at JRS I'll take pictures of all the scoreboard 'settings.'

[Party]

Not only are out of town scores now posted, but the scores for affiliates as well.

[Bobbob1313]

I took pictures of the scoreboards tonight (Caution, dangerously high res):





They are the orange fuzzy things on the facade of the top levels in both pictures.

[Party]

Bob, I almost sat in that section.