Games to still be shot through net

The netting behind home plate will be in every
camera shot of batted balls in Yankee Stadium this season.
-Photo by Andrew Fletcher

After watching the first of two exhibition games against the Cubs on YES, I noticed that the reports of the cameras shooting through the netting behind home plate were accurate.

And according to The Times’ Richard Sandomir, they will continue to shoot through the net.

On replays of Mark Teixeira’s two home runs, the home plate camera was used to show the balls soar into the stands. As it zoomed in, the netting grew increasingly vivid and annoying.

The home plate view, combined with the omission of two traditional low camera positions that looked up the baselines at the old stadium, cannot produce an optimum broadcast.

If any debate existed between the Yankees and YES, the network lost it. To avoid the netting, YES could move its camera to a higher deck — although it has no doubt thought of that — but that would produce a worse shot and require taking seats out of circulation.

Right now, the Yankees think the problem is not a big one — but viewers will ultimately decide that. “Like everything we do, we’re always looking for ways to improve,” Randy Levine, the Yankees’ president, said Wednesday. “But as of today, we believe this is not a major issue. Safety is more important, and we’re fine with this.”

Sandomir notes that Citi Field’s protective netting is “nearly transparent from a distance” and suggests that the Yankees could examine what they have done.

The organization has built this “palace.”  Too bad the games being played in it will look absolutely awful on television.