This feature is new but not necessarily permanent. It will highlight the funny, awesome, awful or otherwise noteworthy from the past week at SNY, the Mets' television/Internet entity. There are various SNY programs to examine but game broadcasts will hopefully be the focus. Blog posts on the SNY.tv network are fair game but television activity is the emphasis. Send your SNY tips to ThisWeekInSNY@gmail.com. We can't catch everything. Away we go.
Tuesday, April 5th
It was a chilly night in Philadelphia for the Mets' 7-1 victory over the Philth. To keep warm, Keith Hernandez opted for the conehead ski hat:
(Click to embiggen, the image is a bit dark)
The ball/strike counter and radar gun reading were not being displayed during the broadcast. There was no explanation until Kevin Burkhardt tweeted the following:
Mystery solved. The count and radar gun reading returned later in the broadcast -- was the low man on the SNY totem pole sent back to Manhattan to fetch the equipment?
Burkhardt's Twitter account featured prominently during the game. This image popped up on screen, eliciting some banter from the booth:
Gary Cohen: Hey, it's Kevin on Twitter!
Keith Hernandez: Kevin! Is he just trying to break through to the broadcast booth? C'mon Kev.
Gary Cohen: It's a mid-game tweet!
The KB Twitter break made another appearance later in the game:
Gary Cohen: Wait a second, there's a tweet.
Keith Hernandez: Oh Kev, this is too much for me. I can't stand it.
We get that SNY is trying to embrace social media. But simply acknowledging the existence of Twitter does not add value to the broadcast. It's like the comedic style of those terrible parody movies of the last decade or so. Having a guy randomly show up dressed in the Borat bathing suit is not comedy. Merely referencing Twitter does not enhance the viewing experience. Perhaps the goal is to draw non-Twitter Met fans to the medium. If so, this approach doesn't seem very effective. That is, unless someone is such a big Burkhardt fan that they would open up a Twitter account just to follow him. As self-proclaimed social media experts (is there any other kind), our advice to SNY is this: use Twitter to target influencers with engaging assets to act as platforms for conversation. Or something.
Friday, April 8th
The Keith Hernandez cold weather fashion show continues:
We call this look "LL Bean Clyde Frazier".
Saturday, April 9th
Metsblog's Michael Baron made an appearance on-air during the Mets' 8-4 defeat of the Nationals. He's the one blowing the bubble:
Not a bad photobomb. Baron is a photographer and you view is catalog of Mets photos at MichaelGBaron.com.
That's all for this week -- hopefully future installments will offer more than Twitter commentary and Keith Hernandez's wardrobe selections. Again, send all your tips to ThisWeekInSNY@gmail.com.