FORT WORTH, Texas — When you watch Texas Rangers broadcasts and wonder in amazement at the broadcasters' ability to remain positive and upbeat about a team that is one of the worst in baseball, that just means they're good at their job.
On Wednesday night, the Rangers lost, 7-2, to the Cleveland Guardians (the MLB team, not the men's roller derby team) to drop to 44-82. Thus, Texas had secured its fifth consecutive losing season, and the worst stretch in the history of the franchise.
You likely didn't hear that on the telecast.
The focus of the telecast on Bally Sports Southwest was Rangers rookie starting pitcher Jake Latz, who was making his MLB debut.
"I thought for his first start, he did a really good job," Rangers color commentator Steve Buechele said during the postgame show. "He just couldn't keep the ball in the park."
Latz pitched 4 2/3 innings and allowed three runs on four hits with four walks.
There is no harder job in the entire Texas sports scene than working Texas Rangers broadcasts. It is virtually the same show every night where the most important storyline, the outcome, is barely mentioned.
According to those familiar with the broadcasts of the Texas Rangers, when Bally Sports took over as the name of the flagship network, its executives, directors and producers made it clear to everyone in the building that they want to foster a partnership with the team.
These are business decisions that are consistent throughout local sports broadcasting all over America. Viewers and listeners are not going to hear their local broadcasters say that their team just secured the worst stretch in the history of the franchise.
If their team is bad, they're going to hear that the rookie starting pitcher in his big league debut did OK.
Bally Sports wants to do everything possible to ensure that any team that is affiliated with a Bally named regional sports network in the U.S. doesn't look at other carriers whenever their respective contract expires.
The best way to do that is just play nice.
The landscape of sports media has changed so much that a broadcaster who is affiliated with a team, and wants to be too critical of said team, is apt to be replaced.
According to the numbers, when Bally took over Fox Sports you likely didn't notice any change other than the name. Because you aren't watching, or listening, anyways.
Watching a Rangers game on Bally Sports Southwest has not been "Ted Lasso" like viewing.
TV ratings for Rangers telecasts barely register a blip on the Nielsen ratings. Three games over the past couple weeks have registered a 0.1; the highest in this span of games is 0.5.
There have been multiple radio broadcasts of Rangers day games on 105.3 The Fan that have not registered any rating at all. As in a 0.0.
For the broadcasters themselves, they get it. It's not as if they can do anything about the on-the-field product, and repeating that the team stinks for 162 games is not fun, either.
"Honestly it has not been that tough, but it is easier to call winners because the action speaks for itself," Rangers TV color commentator C.J. Nitkowski said in a phone interview.
"For me, it's about digging into talking points and putting that into perspective. I'll ask (Rangers manager Chris) Woodward about a topic, and see if he can add something. That's the task."
For instance, Nitkowski looked up the first 180 games of second baseman Nick Solak, and found that they were similar to Rangers Hall of Famer Michael Young.
A note like that becomes the focal point of a broadcast.
That's what you do when the team you're talking about is 31 games out of first place.
"There is an advantage of me not having been a good MLB player. I have the empathy of knowing what it's like to be on a bad team, or to struggle," Nitkowski said. "I know what it's like to be on a bad team and how hard it is to focus."
The same goes for a broadcast.
These are essentially four-hour TV shows that must steer clear of the most important storyline of the telecast: The outcome of the game.
So if the final score is barely mentioned on the broadcast, it just means the broadcasters are doing their jobs.
