Gameday gets better and better

The Gameday feature is a much-loved part of MLB.com. While MLB.tv and Gameday Audio require a subscription fee (and well worth the money they are too), Gameday’s main attraction is that it is completely free to use. MLB.com have been very good at catering for different sectors of fans, whether they want to pay for high quality video footage or they simply want a way to follow a game without paying a fee. What has been most impressive is that the fact that Gameday is free has not stopped MLB.com from spending considerable money on developing the product. Far from it. 
 
Gameday started from humble beginnings, providing basic play-by-play details with simple graphics showing where each pitch ended up in relation the strike zone. It is now a stunning device. With the Pitch/Fx cameras installed in all thirty Major League ballparks, we can enjoy pitch speed, exact location and flight for (almost) every pitch. The service was upgraded again for the 2008 season with a pitch recognition feature that automatically tells you what the pitcher went to on each count (fastball, curve etc), which appears to be getting more accurate as the season moves on. Video clips of the top plays now come flashing on to your screen a few minutes after they happen (not quite within the ‘moments’ mentioned by Harold Reynolds in the advert, but close enough), which for a free product is incredible.

The Gameday feature has even been expanded so that the complete details for each game can be found in one area. The game preview and the game wraps are all just a simple tab-click away, as are links to the full MLB.tv video and related items.

The latest change has seen the main ‘strike zone’ part of Gameday become a 3D set-up that can be manipulated by the user however they wish. There are three standard angles to choose from: high behind home plate, at an angle behind the batter and at an angle behind the pitcher. All are useful, but the real joy is being able to set your own position by zooming in or out and moving your view in any direction. When I started using it, for some reason I wanted the mouse to work in an inverted way (e.g. by holding down my left mouse button and moving to the left, I wanted the view to spin to the right). I’m not sure why my instincts wanted it to work that way, but after using it for a while I’ve been able to train it out of my brain.

The 3D view also now uses a colour coded system to allow the user to instantly distinguish between different types of pitch (on top of the standard green for a ball, red for a strike, blue for ‘in play’ ends that we have come to expect). Fastballs are red, splitters are purple, breaking balls are dark blue, knuckleballs and change ups are light blue etc.

These enhancements (and the original Pitch/Fx version was even called ‘Enhanced Gameday’ to distinguish it from its more basic older brother) have not found favour with all users. Despite utilizing the latest version of Flash, some have complained that it is too demanding on their PC’s processor and would like the option to use a basic version instead. MLB.com have resisted these calls and ultimately you can understand why. They’ve invested a lot of money in this new technology and they want people to use it. Other sites provide their own versions of the basic Gameday service (e.g. ESPN), so baseball fans do have a choice if they want to use something else instead,

Personally, I think the developments we have seen in Gameday over the last couple of years have made it a fantastic service. I don’t have the fastest computer or Internet connection and I’ve experienced no problems in using the new Gameday. Watching games live via the feature is a lot of fun (especially with the video clips thrown in as well). It would be great if they could match up the Gameday output with the Gameday Audio commentary, but I’m sure that would be tricky to do without a fair bit of manipulation.

Once the game is over, Gameday is brilliant when it comes to looking back at the pitcher-batter duels; seeing what pitch sequences were used in each at-bat and such. With the video clips ready and waiting to be clicked on as well, you can very quickly get a sense of how the game played out in quite a lot of detail with minimal effort on the user’s part.

And if all that wasn’t enough to convince you of the merits of Gameday, a British company has played a significant part in making the new 3D view a reality. Brighton based Plug-In Media are experts in using Flash to produce games and “innovative content for the web”.

As far as “innovative content for the web” goes, Gameday takes some beating. I can’t wait to see what else MLB.com have up their sleeve for the next development stage.