Really, I was brought out here to help with an unprecedented project Major League Baseball and World Baseball Classic was getting ready to venture into. During the 18-day tournament, we broadcast 39 games from 7 different venues into over 200 countries.(Click here to learn more) During these game broadcasts, the viewers at home saw a virtual advertisement behind home plate. The catch, and the reason for the complexity of this venture: not every viewer saw the same sign. A family sitting at home in Tokyo saw an advertisement for Asahi, friends in a bar in Caracas saw Movilnet (Venezuelan telecom), a baseball coach in Toronto saw Home Hardware (Canada's do-it-yourself store), our family members in Puerto Rico saw Best Buy, our neighbors to the south saw Vivir Mejor, and you, my friends, saw AT&T. And that was just the first inning!
Each half inning the signs changed, and a sponsor didn't necessarily get the same half inning every game. The night before each game I would set up a rotation, based on match up, where the game was being played and which regions would be televising the games. Some sponsors only had rights for games originating in Puerto Rico and being broadcast into Puerto Rico. Others had rights to games from Dolphin Stadium being shown in Latin America. Some had to be shown behind home plate when a certain team was batting. All of this had to be taken into consideration when creating the rotations. If I am making it sound difficult, it wasn't, once I created the guidelines of who to show when and when to show what (some sponsors had more than one advertisement, so I needed to change artwork daily)
Now that all of the work was done, it was time to watch baseball. But believe me, I wasn't able to scout my fantasy team like I thought I would. For some games, we had seven different signs going out (US ESPN, US ESPN Deportes, Asia, Canada, Latin America, Puerto Rico, Mexico), and while that game was still going, another would start with 5 to 7 more signs. I had to watch these signs at all times to be sure our sponsors were getting proper exposure, and to ensure the correct rotation was being displayed. If it wasn't, I had to let the operators know to switch it immediately, make a note, and schedule a make up for the sponsor to be given during a later game. Sometimes, poor weather, or a bad signal, or operator error would compromise the quality of the sign. This was taken into account, but also noted, because as I heard from someone in the organization, "We ain't paying for that sh--. Nooooo way."
So this was the job for 18 days.
-I would hop on the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) in Woodside
-Take the train to Hicksville (yeah, Hicksville)
-Hop in a cab with what I would characterize as 'a talker' (they all asked what I was doing, and as soon as I told them, they felt they needed to tell my why they didn't watch baseball anymore, what I should do when this is over, or go off on a tangent about how their girlfriend was a crazy bitch)
-Arrive at Rainbow Network Communications, watch 1-4 baseball games
-Hop in a cab (same type of driver) to the Hicksville RR
-Hop on the LIRR back to Woodside
-Hop in a cab back to Sunnyside
-Go to sleep and do it all over again.
The days were long (14-16 hours), the food was bad (late-night Chinese or pizza), the movement was minimal (sitting and watching, holding my bowels for games at a time) and my health has suffered (shortness of breath never beofre experienced while simply sitting). It was a grind, and it's done.
Now I did a lot more leading up to the tournament, and will do more for the next month, but that was the meat and potatoes of it, right there, crammed into 18 days of baseball's March Madness, or Marzo Locura, or any other variation across the globe.
I haven't even talked about Dominican Repubic getting upset by the Kingdome of the Netherland. "Hier wordt Honkball gesproken."
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