Notice to production truck: There’s a game going on

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Here’s one more reason to long for the start of the regular season: poor broadcasting.

These spring TV games sometimes can be painful to watch. Or try to watch.

They must be overwhelmed in the Phoenix area, having to broadcast so many games back to so many cities. Maybe they’re down to the Class-A crews.

But you would think Fox could bring in a top crew from nearby Los Angeles. The production is curiously off.

The stat bar across the top is frequently wrong. Either by the number of outs or the count or the correct baserunners. At one point Monday, the center-field camera showed a runner on second, while the graphic showed the bases empty.

Later the bar simply disappeared. And then came back. Hello?

The worst part, however, is the camera work. Too often it simply fails to follow the action.

On Monday, Charley Steiner was getting all excited about a play at the plate, his voice rising as Manny Ramirez rounded third.

Probably would have been nice to see live, but the camera remained frozen on the outfielders. Never saw it until a replay. He was out, by the way. At least in this situation, there was a replay.

Another drawback is you can’t escape to listen on the radio. Normally if the game’s on TV, there’s no radio broadcast. You can be driving around, and can’t listen to the game.

Ugh. Only two weeks until the season opener.

-- Steve Dilbeck