I've complained before about the third member of the broadcast team, particularly on ESPN, where the third member either gives us (a) meaningless information, (b) information readily available from any other source or (c) a product endorsement. Normally it's just an excuse to let someone other than the play-by-play and color men talk.
Watching the Mets at the Marlins, on FSN, I saw a useful report from Craig Minervini, the "sideline" reporter for the Marlins local broadcast. In the game, Carlos Beltran hit a deep fly to right that appeared to hit just above the yellow line on the wall. It was called a home run and Beltran did his trot.
Marlins manager Freddy Gonzalez argued, the umps conferred, and they changed the call. The replay shows it hit the railing and was clearly a home run. Even though it would have been hard to see exactly where the ball hit in real time from field level, it bounced way up in the air. It only would have done that if it hit the railing. If it hit the yellow line on the padded wall, it would barely have bounced at all.
Anyway, within minutes Minervini was in right field, in the stands, asking the fans in the front row exactly where the ball was hit. A fan pointed to the spot on the railing. Another fan with a scorebook said he recorded it as an HR, and only crossed it out when the umps got it wrong. That's good and fast work.
