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Tuesday - June 17, 2008

Off-topic: GameTracker

Have you ever paid attention to GameTracker when a game is in progress? There are lots of entertaining little things going on all the time that give me a chuckle. Clearly, the programmers and graphic designers are having some fun. I remembered to "tune in" this afternoon just in time to "watch" the bottom of the 9th in today's LSU/Rice game. LSU (home team) was behind 2-5 with an out and a runner at 1b. The first batter I saw (Ochinko) was hit by a pitch. His little avatar (or whatever you want to call it) glowed bright red momentarily and advanced to 1b. Ouch. The red glow made me laugh out loud. And, I ended up getting some screen caps for you while I watched the news this evening. Here's the hit batter in pain:

And, here's the sequence as he runs down the line:

I've "watched" quite a few games on GameTracker and that's the first time I ever noticed the red-hot pain of being hit by a pitch. Heh.

The next batter singled up the middle, scoring one. The next reached on an error by ss. I have no idea what the actual error was but according to the GameTracker graphics, the ball hit the shortstop in the chest and landed on the baseline in front of him:

Note how the ball is just laying there on the ground?

The final batter (Dean) hit a bases-clearing double to lf. According to the GameTracker graphics, the ball bounced right to the left-fielder who just held onto it and didn't bother to throw home.

See how the left fielder (Luna) is hanging onto the ball?...while Hollander's avatar turns an eerie shade of yellow as he heads back to the dugout after scoring and Mitchell runs toward the plate? We all know that's not what really happened, though, right? I saw a replay on the news and the double went off the wall in lf and bounced back into the field past Luna. By the time he caught up to the ball, it looked like the 3rd run was crossing the plate.

They've modified the field graphics a bit for the CWS. The CWS logo now shows up on the scoreboard in lf for most of the game. There's a big "Rosenblatt" banner above the scoreboard. And the astro-turf "College World Series" ring around home plate has shown up as well (making it difficult to read the names of the catcher and batter).

What are some of the regular things that happen? When a strike is recorded, you see the ball cross the plate while the batter swings ineffectually...whether he really took a swing or not is immaterial. Whenever a ball is hit, the batter drops his bat on the ground before running to 1b. The same thing happens on a walk. When a game ends in the bottom of the 9th, the final "frame" usually reflects conditions on the field at the time of the last out or final score. In today's game, it ended on that bases-clearing double by Dean:

I love how they don't clear the field. When the home team is ahead and doesn't have to bat in the bottom of the 9th, GameTracker usually clears the field and the last batter's bat lays discarded near home plate.

Ah well. If only they could get the system to the point where it wouldn't freeze up for minutes at a time. I'm sure that's on the way. In the meantime, those little things do entertain.

Posted by Joanna at 11:01 PM