The Texas Rangers moved one win away from their first World Series victory last night, but that was not the real story of the game. The real story was the incredible technology deployed by Fox Sports’ broadcast.
Throughout the game, Fox showed a drone view of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ stadium. This did not really add much to the broadcast’s baseball coverage, but it does sometimes look kinda cool. So places are gonna keep doing it. Fine. I like the drone shots.
But Fox showed off its real tech before the Rangers beat up on Arizona, 11-7. During the pregame show, someone dressed a camera drone in a Halloween costume, and flew it behind Kevin Burkhardt, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Derek Jeter. They were amused. But then things got better: We got a drone with Cookie Monster taped to the top of it.
Burkhardt called it a “pretty cool moment.” Then the former players, all of whom put up Hall of Fame-level stats and made millions during their careers, marveled at the drone with a stuffed Cookie Monster taped to it. They spent nearly 90 seconds on this bit, which devolved into Ortiz yelling at the stuffed toy that he had a game tomorrow and couldn’t fly away. As the Cookie Monster drone flew toward the outfield, Alex Rodriguez had a comment: “Amazing technology.”
One might think Rodriguez, best known for having gum disease, was just trying to find something to fill the dead air 20 minutes into the postgame show. But I think differently. Watch the video closely. Rodriguez was trying to placate the drone. He absolutely is terrified of it.
A-Rod may have been able to face his early-stage gum disease diagnosis, but he is not yet comfortable with the Cookie Monster drone. He’ll get there, though. By next season, he’ll be able to face the Snuffleupagus drone.
