Turning the Double Play

Being the director of the television broadcast of a Major League Baseball game may seem like a straightforward affair that doesn’t require much creativity. Point a camera at the pitcher, show the batter as he tries to hit the ball, and then capture the fielders as they catch and throw the ball. Toss in a few shots of the fans and a graphic on the league standings, and you’ve got the bases covered, so to speak.

Of course, few things are as simple as they may seem to outsiders. That’s particularly true with John DeMarsico ’09, the game director for SNY, the regional sports network that broadcasts New York Mets games.

DeMarsico is reinventing, bit-by-bit, how television broadcasts a baseball game. He has brought a cinematic flair to SNY’s coverage of the Mets, creating a different look to the broadcasts that has caught the attention of fans and other media outlets. One example that went viral online was when DeMarsico had a cameraman follow the Mets’ ace reliever Edwin Diaz as he made his way in from the bullpen to the pulsating song “Narco,” by Blasterjaxx and Timmy Trumpet, taking the time when a commercial would normally air to create a sense of the dramatic showdown coming between the pitcher and batter.

The New York Times, in an article this summer, described DeMarsico’s approach: “He uses unusual camera angles, forgoing the typical center-field shot at crucial moments, instead filming the action from behind the right fielder or near the visitor’s on-deck circle. He employs split screens to highlight confrontations between pitcher and batter. In a tense at-bat between Díaz and Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich earlier this season, DeMarsico began the shot with Díaz’s face in the left side of the frame. He then faded in Yelich’s face on the right side, gradually having Díaz disappear. Fans had a chance to truly see the pitcher and the batter staring each other down.”

For DeMarsico, 35, it’s a matter of doing what comes naturally to him. He grew up playing baseball – and spending summer nights in Belmont, N.C., watching Mets games on television with his dad. He majored in film studies as a student at NC State, hooked in his freshman year by a class on subversive film as art. “It blew my mind,” he says. He’s a fan of baseball movies like Major League and The Bad News Bears, and a student of directors like Quentin Tarantino and Brian DePalma. He was a walk-on player for the NC State baseball team, spending three years as the warm-up catcher in the bullpen.

“Baseball is a much more cinematic experience than most other sports,” he says. “In football, it’s hard to build personal stories because they’re all wearing helmets and pads. Basketball moves so quickly … there’s no time to build the drama.

“In baseball, there’s so much time between every pitch, between every foul ball. You can really set the scene before each pitch. It’s a game that lends itself to my interest, and I’ve been able to inject a little bit of my personality into the broadcast this year.”

DeMarsico has been working at SNY since 2009, when he had an internship the summer before he graduated from NC State, taking over as the lead game director for the Mets in 2019. But it’s only this year, in his third season as a director, that he feels free from pandemic restrictions to flex his creative muscles.

The result, he hopes, is a more entertaining production for the fans watching from home. “Baseball gets dusty,” he says. “It’s a broadcast sport that’s gotten a little stale in my opinion. We’re in the entertainment business, and I like to engage the viewer visually. We do things that people aren’t used to seeing on sports broadcasts. I think that could be part of the solution.”

But DeMarsico also recognizes that the game itself remains paramount. “I didn’t get the job at SNY because I love DePalma,” he says. “I speak baseball better than English. My knowledge of the game is the reason I got the job initially. Whatever I do cinematically, it’s still baseball. The folks at home want to see the game.”

Photos courtesy of John DeMarsico ’09