They say in sports that speed can’t be taught, but there’s nothing stopping us from learning how to harness it to improve the game. From creating immersive fan experiences, accelerated training techniques and real-time game rulings never before possible, the technology teams at Major League Baseball have embraced the power of 5G connectivity available in both ballparks and beyond to bring America’s favorite pastime into the modern age.
In this special 2-part episode of The Restless Ones, we sit down with Vasanth Williams, Chief Product Officer and EVP of Product & Engineering and Truman Boyes, SVP of Infrastructure for Major League Baseball. Their complementary responsibilities span everything from keeping the league and teams interconnected to unlocking enhanced fan experiences both inside the ballpark and at home. We’ll hear how they are utilizing some of the latest innovations made possible in a connected world, such as AR, smart sensors and low-latency/high-throughput data transfers to elevate the player and fan experience both on and off the field.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So you're talking about big data, and we have lots
of new big data, but we also have old big data.
And it's very interesting to us because we have the
historical archives of baseball video footage going back into the fifties,
but it's been sort of locked away on older media
and so digitizing this data making it available for fans,
(00:21):
true fans of baseball that just love this stuff. The
intention is that all that data is democratized and you
can do whatever you want with it. So it's not
just our curated content, but we're effectively turning that over
to fans to have fun with. Welcome to the Restless Ones.
I'm Jonathan Strickland. I've spent more than a decade really
(00:42):
learning about technology one makes it tick, and then describing
and explaining that to my audience. But it's the conversations
with the world's most unconventional thinkers, the leaders at the
intersection of technology and business that fascinate me the most.
In partnership with Team Mobile for Business, I explore the
unique set of challenges that see I o S and
(01:05):
c t o S face from advancements in cloud and
edge computing, software as a service, Internet of Things, and
of course five G we are often left wondering how
the leading minds and business continue to thrive. Let's find out. Today.
(01:26):
We have two guests from Major League Baseball or MLB
on the show. We're honored to have the Sons Williams,
Chief Product Officer and e VP of Product and Engineering,
as well as Truman Boys, s VP of Infrastructure. When
it comes to high tech, the game of baseball might
not leap to mind right away. The fundamentals of the
(01:47):
game have had relatively few changes over the years, but
as it turns out, sophisticated technology underlies every aspect of
the modern MLB organization, from establishing high speed connections between
the thirty baseball parks and the home offices to creating
unforgettable fan experiences. Technology is a core element in modern baseball.
(02:13):
The sant and Truman walked me through how MLB is
making use of technology and the challenges the organization faces
to make certain that the experiences they want to share
with the fans have the technological support to make them possible.
It turns out there's a lot to talk about, and
so our conversation will span two episodes, because well, I've
(02:34):
got to be honest there's just too much great information
to edit it all down. I started off asking each
of them about their own backgrounds. Thank you for both
being on the show. The sant I'd like to start
off by learning how you first became interested in technology.
So my background, I started as a chemical engineer, so it's, uh,
(02:58):
it's very different from what I'm doing right now. But
as I finished my undergrad and one of the things
I did during my grad was to be an intern
at a chemical factory. And that's when internet was taken out,
is the late ninety mid nineties, ninety nineties. I'm dating
myself here, and I was starting to double in technology
and computers, and I was comparing myself my internship but
(03:21):
as a chemical factory, which you know, these are factories
that are built fifty years ago or thirty years ago,
and you're looking at oh, we got to change the boiler,
which is now you have this, and I'm looking at
software and computers and it was so nascent at the time,
and I was like, this is exciting, things changing every
six months every year. And so that's when I said, okay,
(03:44):
you know what, I'm going to get myself more uh
into computers, and I did my masses and computer science.
I went straight from chemical injuring undergrad two masses and
computer science. And here I am right, so I could
have been working in a chemical factory. Uh right now,
but what I am I have to admit I did
not expect to hear that kind of a journey from
(04:05):
chemical engineering to working in computer science with MLB. That
is a phenomenal start to this conversation. Uh. And I'll
probably want to dive into that more in a second.
But Truman, I would also like to know from you,
how did you first get interested in tech? So I
got interested in online services prior to the Internet. So
(04:28):
you know, early services in the eighties actually compu Serve
and Prodigy and all of these really you know, predating
the Internet services. And I was completely enthralled by it.
I ended up, you know, as a teenager, actually making
early bulletin board systems, connecting them up to other bulletin
board systems, and I just knew at that point how
(04:49):
important all of this would be. UM connecting with information,
connecting with other people. Early email, that was just mind
blowing that you could actually you could communicate with people
when you'd get sponses back and at nineteen, I started
working at a small I s P with some friends.
We basically created a dial up I s P for
New Jersey and New York, and you know, we just
(05:11):
started building things and I just kept going. Um, loved
building networks, loved connecting people, and you know, from there
it was just a journey into technology and just loving
every minute of it. This is so interesting. So we
have Massan who you went into an industry where it
was heavily dependent upon legacy systems that had not really
(05:33):
changed for decades, and was just entering into that revolutionary
transformational period where you start seeing more software implementations and automation,
and that sparked your interest. And then Truman with you,
we have someone who got into online service providers, the
predecessors to I s p s, and really cutting your
(05:56):
teeth in that world. It's interesting how that ex variants,
that encountering of technology really was what set you on
this pathway. I'm very curious of the Truman, what actually
brought you over to MLB? Where were you before that
and how did you move over here? So I was
at a financial services technology organization and was working on
(06:20):
a whole different set of problems ultra low latency trading,
you know, market data, all the fintech components embargoed data,
and it's a massive shift to transition from that world
to this other world. I think there's kind of two
common things that in terms of career and passion, just
making sure that I'm doing things that feel like they
(06:40):
have value one of them. You know, from the financial
services side, you know, market transparency I think is really
important just holistically across the world, and that's what brought
me into that world. And then making people happy is baseball.
So I had an opportunity to uh come in and
are working in the infrastructure space, which was greatly needed
(07:03):
at the time. As we were, you know, MLB itself
was transitioning um parts of its staff and technologies had
moved to another organization, and so it was a bit
of a rebuilding exercise and for me it was a challenge,
and I was looking for a wonderful set of challenges
with organization and technology and a good mix of both.
(07:23):
So in a way, you were coming into MLB while
it was going through its own transformational stage. It's so
fascinating to me when we see these organizations that have
incredible histories behind them and the amount of work and
effort it takes in order to reinvent these various industries
so that they can keep pace with the times the
(07:45):
steenth What about you, I'm very curious how the chemical
engineer ended up over at MLB. The chemical engineer was
at Microsoft and just before coming to MLB, I was
at Amazon for five years prior to that, right, so
um at Amazon, I was running the product and technology
for one of the fastest growing business which was the
(08:06):
online advertising technology there and it was going great. That's
when MLB reached out to me. And at that time,
and you know, I use this framework called them regret
minimization framework, right, So what that is is effectively, what
would you regret not doing ten or twenty years from now,
but I regret leaving Amazon, and or would you regret
(08:29):
not working for one of the top sports leagues that
really brick that brings people together, creates communities. And that's
was very simple. At that point, was talking to the
commissioner and Chris Mannach at at the league. They said, hey, look,
we're at the inflection point right sports media and things
that we need to do. You know, it's it's a
(08:49):
green field you know, you get to come into rematch
and what we could do to get as a sports league.
We tend to get caught up when you're in a
particular role or particular organ station, like you know what's next?
What are you pushing so important to this organization? But
using the regret minimization framework, we really take a step back.
It becomes very clear I would definitely regret not joining
(09:13):
the league. That's what brought me to MLP and my
role here. That's also a really interesting approach to sort
of risk assessment, right, the idea of well, I'm measuring risk,
but I'm also measuring is this going to be the
thing that a month from now I'm going to wake
up and say, why didn't I try that? That could
have been a challenge that really energized me and I
(09:35):
could have made a real impact there. Well. Normally, at
this point I would ask my guest to describe their
job as if they were trying to tell someone in
a casual setting what it is they do. However, since
I have two of you, I have the unique opportunity
to make you try and do that to each other.
(09:56):
So the scent, could you try and tell me what
Truman's job is Yeah. Absolutely, So Truman is a counterpart
to me. Truman brands are infrastructure. Think about every thing
that technology infrastructure that from the ballpark to the MLB offices,
all the thirty ballparks across the country, the WiFi to
(10:20):
the systems, the security systems to the cybersecurity, all the
base infrastructure that we need to have to execute things
on top of it. My digital products does not exist
if Truman does not do his job. And that's not
just at all the thirty ballparks, but also all our
offices and all of the infrastructure. So he's really a
(10:43):
critical and important partner to me. Well, Truman, the Santh
really talk to you up, so it's now your job
to tell me what the SANS job is all about.
And and and likewise, phenomenal collaboration between the SANTH and
I and the SANTH coming in and running product and
engineering has completely transformed the way that we build products.
(11:03):
So I would say that the SANS job is basically
to plot out what it is that we want to
build from a product perspective, taking a look at existing
products that we already have that you have to life cycle,
continue to mature, that's where the fans are, that's where
all of our user bases. Finding ways to build and
invest in those properties, and then you know, to run
(11:24):
a team that continues to add features and connect back
with the market. What do they want? What are they
looking for? And that's what his team is embraced and
we've see in phenomenal you know impact there around engagement
around uh, you know, gaming opportunities, Um, you know what
we're doing in terms of second screen experiences, just getting
(11:44):
even advertising right, you know, how do we insert the
right personalized add into media streams? And all of that
falls into the sans work. So I view it as
it's a really hard problem to solve, which is always
knowing what people are looking for and and building it. Well,
then this is really fortunate for me to be able
to talk with two people whose work complements one another,
(12:07):
that the one enables the other, and there's sort of
a feedback loop going on where you are able to
determine what is it that the organization needs and then
how do you meet those needs both from infrastructure and
from an experience. Well, what is something about your job
that you suspect the average person is not aware of?
(12:28):
Someone who perhaps is even an ardent fan and goes
to baseball games and things, but doesn't really get that
this is part of what you do. And Truman, I
guess we'll start with you. I'd say most people don't
know that some of the hardest work is happening during
the off season. So you know, when baseball is not
(12:48):
being played, that's when we're going out to ballparks. We're
installing new cameras, we're refreshing all our infrastructure, we're building
applications and getting ready to release them. So there's so
much that's happening in the off season. And so i'd say,
you know, November through March, we're busy, very busy. Every
time that we think of a project, it's always times
thirty and sometimes you know, if it has to go
(13:10):
out to minor league ballparks or or other areas that
we're investing in in other leagues. Um, you know, there's
there's quite a bit that goes into that travel schedule,
and so, um, you know, it's just every task is
a big task, right the soth What about you? What
is something that about your job that people just aren't
aware of? One is how much fun it is, even
(13:33):
the toughest day at at Major League Baseball is fun
And at any point do you feel frustrated. You just
go to a game and you feel you'll know that
your reason why you exist. So it's uh, it gives
a man sense of satisfaction, so that on an everyday basis.
The other thing about the job an average UH fan
or a person may not know is UH how much
(13:57):
tracking that happens on the field. In a single play
each player at any instant, we're at tracking eighteen points
of the player. We're tracking the spin on the ball.
We're tracking u at a at a frame rate that
high fidelity that never existed before, and we provided back
to these players, back to these clubs so so they
can leverage this information for better coaching or injury prevention.
(14:22):
So what seems like a regular baseball game, we generate
petabytes of data that we pass back to the club
and we're making sure each of the data is accurate.
Is what a lot of my teams do. Every hardcore
fan of baseball I know is a statistics junkie. And
as you say, that's going to lead us to some
pretty cool conversations a little bit later in this episode
(14:43):
to talk about ways to to leverage that both behind
the scenes and for the fan experience as well. Well,
then I'll follow that up, Truman, What is something about
your job you find just really exciting, like the thing
that gets you out of bed in the morning. I
think it's it's, you know, similar to the points that
this ath is raising, which is really around the connection
(15:06):
to the game. So it's taking technology, bridging it and
just seeing how it directly impacts what we're doing. And
many times, you know, technology is just you know, kind
of the mundane. You know, here's how we all like
log in, we check our email. This thing actually has
a direct impact on the experience and so it makes
the fans happy. And you know things in point being
the accuracy of calls, making sure that a replay review
(15:29):
can happen within a minute. How do you do that, Well,
you have to have lots of cameras and lots of
bandwidth and send that back to New York and have
operators that know how to pull up those angles very quickly,
increasing the pace of the game itself. Historically, you know,
baseball is a long game, and you know, how do
you keep it relevant and how do you keep it
you know, something that people want to enjoy and watch
(15:50):
a you know, a two and a half three hour game.
So you know, finding ways to build products that allow
us to do that, you know, consolidated games, catch up games,
just all of the attech. But it makes people happy.
I would say the number one thing is tech makes
people happy because it's you know, improving the experience. And
and Basant, I think you kind of touched on this
in your last answer, but is there anything else about
(16:12):
your job that really excites you that you think of
as this. I'm so glad when I did that regret
minimization approach, that that I took this choice. Yeah, absolutely right.
One thing I can tell you is no two seasons
are the same, right, No even two months are the same.
In baseball, it's exciting the constant pace of change, not
(16:33):
just what's happening on the field, but also what we're
seeing now with a fan base, like the way they
consume baseball, the way they engage with baseball is changing
fast than ever before. And you don't think about it
is it's, oh, it's a hundred twenty year old spot,
but rather thinking about the changes that are happening in
real time. You know, last year was not a great change,
(16:56):
but still there was a lot of change. So and
I think it's just going to continue to act the
right thing. And that to me is exciting about this
job and it gets me up every day. Uh. And
I have to say most people who work in tech
fields in businesses, they don't get to hear their consumers
burst out into a standing ovation when something truly amazing
shows on the screen, or when they're able to augment
(17:20):
the already incredible experience of being at a baseball game
through technology. So that has to be pretty astounding. Absolutely. Yeah,
it's been fun. I've been here to years and it's
every day it's been fun. I gotta say that's great.
(17:44):
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Set mobile dot Com next. I wanted to learn more
about how MLB is using technology today, and I was
(19:12):
shocked to learn that MLB took the concept of big
data and cranked it up to eleven. Can you sort
of explain in what ways MLB now is really leaning
on technology, both in the ballparks and also like within
the office. Is kind of give us an idea of
your job is dealing with infrastructure, What does that actually encapsulate. Sure. Well,
(19:36):
first of all, it's it's a lot of data. So
there's there's constantly streaming data from statistics and video that's
coming out of all thirty ballparks and on some days
you know, it's coming out of fifteen of those ballparks
at the same time. So the way which we lean
on technology, it's really at every layer. It's from production,
it's from being able to have highly accurate replay and
(20:01):
really highly accurate understanding of what's happening on the field.
And so with all of that technology which we've invested
in at all of the ballparks to create a common platform,
we now have a uniform way to address what actually happened,
what is playing out on that field, you know, describing
how detailed it is. It also provides a way for
us to take that data and provide it back for coaching,
(20:23):
so you see over time that not only is the
game being affected you know, that's currently being played, but
that there's this feedback loop to give back to UMP,
to the replay team and also two coaches so that
they're able to over time you have just better calls
and better players. I think overall, the way that technology
is affecting it is that we're having a better experience
(20:44):
for the fans, but we're also providing a better experience
for the game itself. And we're improving just the way
that everything comes together, and we start to have better
on field dynamics. And I think the next piece that
you know, to kind of tease together is what is
it like to experience the game of baseball in a ballpark.
We don't really have that opportunity last year, and and
as people are returning, you know, this year and the
(21:06):
numbers have been phenomenal, it's how do we make this
more frictionless? You know, the long lines that's going to
go away, and how do we get to a place
where it's easy to get in, it's easy to sit down,
get your food, watch a game, and leave. And so
we're interested in all the technologies that would allow that
to happen. And I love that this is also a
(21:27):
way of leveling the playing field across different ballparks and
very different regions that they all have access to this
same sort of technological infrastructure so that you are able
to have that experience no matter where a game is
being played and bassans, so we touched on a little
bit about this technology gathering up all this data. This
(21:48):
is I think the very definition of big data, the
idea of of collecting enormous amounts of information. So I
assume that that part of your responsibility also is figure
out ways of leveraging all that information and actually finding
meaning and usefulness out of that. Is that an accurate representation? Yeah? Absolutely,
(22:09):
So there's two aspects to this, right. So there we
talked about the data collection on the fear right, we
installed the new tracking system Truman's team a clear and
help do all of that across all the thirty Major
League ballparks. So basically now we track every movement on
the field with such high fidelity. So we got a
lot of the data. So what do we do with this?
(22:29):
There's two ways to think about it, right. One is
how could we use to better the game itself? Right?
So so we uh, that's we give this data to
the clubs. We give this data to the players to
help them refine the game. You know, you can see
that a lot of them as leveraging that pretty significantly,
and you know pictures are getting better and better with
that information. And then there's the second aspect to it.
(22:50):
What can we do from a fan perspective? Can we
take this data and showcase and provide fans and experience
that they're never used to get before. Right. So a
one use case that we have been dabbling with is
because we have so much data, we can literally recreate
the game from any angle you want. We launched the
(23:11):
first generation of that called field vision, which basically being
able to see the game from an angle there was
there was where there's no camera. So can we provide
an experience to fans that is kind of fun? Like
let's say from the ice of Mookie bat when he's
sliding in into first space, right, So can you see
that what was he seen when at that point in time?
(23:35):
So we're trying to step take a step back and
see how could we take this data and use this
in a way that it's kind of fun for fans
to immerse themselves into the game. We're in early stages
of that, but for folks, you should just go look
up field vision. I think back to when I was
watching baseball growing up, and if something happened where a
(23:55):
camera operator wasn't, you would hear about it, but you
wouldn't really necessarily see it. And now we've reached a
point where we've got this proliferation of cameras and this
amazing way of recreating a moment, and also just that
idea of leveraging data that quickly and that effectively. That really,
(24:16):
to me is one of those amazing instances of the
actual implementation of a big data solution. So now having
this real time approach to making use to enormous amounts
of data that's streaming in constantly from all these different sources,
that to me is really kind of a snapshot of
how amazing technology has advanced over the past decade. But
(24:39):
I am also curious if if you could maybe walk
us through to kind of get an idea of what
this looks like, uh, in your regular jobs at Truman.
I'll start with you, if you could talk about a
project like a big tech implementation you've worked on with
MLB and kind of go through the point of ideation
(25:01):
where the decision is made through the actual implementation process
to kind of give us an idea of scale and
timing on these sorts of things. Sure, yeah, I think
there's a really cool one. Actually. So you're talking about
big data, and we have lots of new big data,
but we also have old big data, and it's very
interesting to us because we have the historical archives of
(25:23):
baseball video footage going back into the fifties, and so
we took a look at this and we've you know,
we maintained it as an asset and there's wonderful things
in there, and it's you know, games, it's full games,
it's press pressors that you know, came out in the eighties,
and there's interesting content there, but it's been sort of
locked away on older media. And so we've had this
(25:46):
on a bunch of magnetic tape and sixteen millimeter film
and all these other technologies that are effectively aging, and
worse than that is there decaying, and so digitizing this
data making an availa or for fans, the true fans
of baseball that just love this stuff and they want
to see consolidated games or a clip from growing up
(26:07):
and they want to see they remember the game, but
they can't find it on you know, one of the
online platforms. The Song's team built something really cool which
is called film Room, and it lets fans pull up.
There's over three million clips in there right now, and
we're adding more. The intention is that all that data
is democratized and you can do whatever you want with it.
You can pull it up, you can create your own
clip and if there's things that you like, uh you
(26:30):
like to see home runs from this team, or you
like to see double plays, whatever that is, you sort
of build these yourself. So it's not just are curated content,
but we're effectively turning that over to fans to have
fun with. So the way this ties back in with
the data is we have decaying media, which we realized,
you know, as we started to pull through this content
and we realized that we needed to get all of
(26:52):
this such stuff digitized, make it available, and start to
move those assets into secure on prem and also in cloud.
Um monumental effort. And the size of this data is
north of forty peta bytes of data, so you know,
in terms of what that is, it's a large footprint
in a data center, and you can imagine moving that
(27:12):
over time into cloud. It you know, it takes takes
a lot of time. So um, you know, we scoped
it out as a project, we've invested in it, and
we've put a team together to even digitize some of
the old content. So they're rescanning in sixteen millimeter film
pulling this stuff in and it's just it's a really
cool The tech behind it is really interesting. But the
net result is that some footage that hasn't been seen
(27:33):
is going to be seen. Um, and that's just you know,
it really connects us back to the game. I love that.
I also love the idea that I can I can
watch the Braves win the world series over and over
in various ways, because I feel sometimes that's the only
way I'm going to be able to enjoy it. I'm
a I'm a hometown Atlanta boy, So let's say just
(27:56):
keep looping it. That's right, and I'll just be yelling
Braves wind, Braves win over and he again, that was
a great example the someth Do you have any other
sort of projects that that you've worked on personally that
you feel would be a great sort of example of
from beginning to implementation. Yeah, absolutely, So I will rip
off a little bit of what Truman talked about, Like,
(28:16):
you know, while he moves all of that to the
digitizing all the media, how do we provide an experience
to fans that is actually utilized. We have so much data,
So basically what it is is we use technology to
go through this digital media and cut every pitch. We
tagged every pitch programmatically with all the additional information as
(28:40):
a tool for fans. For example, you could say show
me all the place by Fernando Tattys in the seventh
inning on a fastball that resulted in a home run. Right.
So it's as detailed as that. So it has like
a twenty thirty different levels that you can pull and
precisely so if you want to build a narrative around
(29:01):
a player, you want to have dragging rights with your friends.
It's a great tool. J allows you to create reels
around it and share it on Twitter and all the
different social media. It's all just started as the Hackathon
project and now it's you know, it's a It's one
of the ways the beat writers and the writers use
clips together with is directly through this tool. I love
(29:22):
that too. I can think of endless conversations I've been
part of among other baseball fans where everyone's debating the
various aspects of one player versus another, and having a
tool where you can start like, no, no, I I
have evidence to back up my point. I'm just gonna
pull let me show you how hope dies in the
eyes of a batter when smalt took the mound. And
(29:45):
this also is just a great conversation to show how
data can have a truly incredible impact on people when
implemented and leveraged properly. I think that's that is like
the big business of the next century, right, It's the
technology enables it, but the data is what powers it. Well, then,
(30:07):
I am. I'm also very curious because obviously the songs
you alluded to this earlier obviously was a truly tumultuous
year had an enormous impact on live events in all industries. Uh,
how did you leverage technology during the pandemic in order
(30:28):
to keep things moving as smoothly as you possibly could. Yeah,
it was a pretty um roughier to say the least.
It's not just for MLB, but for everyone going through
it in so at the same time, we knew that
baseball we should, we have to have baseball, right this
is this is one avenue where people can come together
(30:51):
and despite all the craziness is going around in the
world to create create a sense of normalcy. And baseball
has always played the strong in history and we wanted
to continue to do that. UM, digital or technology became
a lot more critical at this point. So what became
relevant is how do you bring baseball to homes? Right?
So when we didn't have the season start in April,
(31:13):
what we did is we allowed people to watch all
the old opening day games and UH and we started
giving a lot more video on demand content for our
fans during the time. So that's one big push we did.
And the other one was if they're not going to
be at the ballpark, what can we do to help
them feel like they're they're right? So a couple of
(31:35):
things we did. We had we launched something called the
Cheer at the Ballpark, which is basically digital sharing UM,
and we had the Fake Noise you know, like it
or not, It was actually it was seemed like a
little normal. We had a lot of engagement with that
product because people are so craving for something at that point,
and the same thing even when if you couldn't be
(31:56):
at the ballpark, we allowed them to send a picture
and we will actually put up cut outs there. It
was actually created an emotional connection to people like it
matters to show up and be part of the community.
So I think, you know it accelerated our people watching
streaming products that we had significant demand for for that
and what we're seeing now is as we're coming out
(32:17):
of the pandemic, we're still seeing that engagement, that behavior
we've created continue. We have one of the best streaming
viewer viewership numbers and engagement numbers ever in the history. Well,
and as you point out the SOTH, I mean, one
of the big draws of any live event is that
that communal experience and that you are a part of
(32:39):
something and it elevates everything. Having a game where it
would just be dead silent would just be unnatural and unsettling.
And I think that that using technology to help address
that was a genius move, something that without that you
would have really felt like this just doesn't feel right.
And Truman, I I imagine that for your team, the
(33:01):
COVID probably caused an enormous pivot as well. Can you
talk about what was going on in for you and
your team? Yes. In January, the expectation was for all
of us too to come into the office, and we
had just built a brand new office for MLB, all
new technology. It was the first time that we brought
(33:22):
our tech teams and the rest of the Office of
the Commissioner together. A lot of new technology was just
being stood up, and we were expecting that we had
this runway of you know, three months to get ready
for opening day, and so this was infrastructure work that
lived in our building. It was getting out to all
the ballparks to install all new equipment. There was lots
of new projects that were landing. In March eleven, we
(33:45):
all went home and we were just trying to figure
out what does this mean for the game, and a
bunch of things happened. Firstly, we just I think people
are resilient and they just started to figure out how
do we take the technology that we have to a
and adapt. So even prior to baseball starting, there were
lots of press release related streaming and things that still
(34:09):
support the game of baseball, and we needed to have
this thing running. In March, we effectively ran our broadcast
operations over zoom so multi view, all these you know
panels for quality control and streaming. All of that was
being operated at people's houses at the venues. We had
such dedicated employees that wanted to get this thing stood up,
(34:31):
and yet there were a lot of restrictions on travel,
so you know, the ingenious solution was renting r vs,
and some folks ended up you know, putting themselves in
a bubble and driving ballpark to ballpark, which I wish
we actually had this stuff, you know, captured on video
because I think it would be like a wonderful experience,
like to just see what that what that was like
for them. But basically, the tech was midflight and we
(34:53):
had to adapt and so you know, using these tools
I think allowed us to really get through and get
the game going. Uh. I agree, Truman. I think that
the RV story would have made a phenomenal documentary look
at the amount of dedication and the amount of work
that went into ensuring that these initiatives could continue as
best they could under beyond trying circumstances. My conversation with
(35:25):
Truman and Bassant will continue in the next episode of
The Restless Ones. We covered a lot of ground and
I gained a deeper appreciation for how MLB integrates technology
into every aspect of baseball, from the experience of attending
a game in person to the fundamentals of the game itself.
Be sure to tune into our next episode, where we'll
(35:45):
learn about some of the emerging technologies that will lead
to a variety of experiences at both parks that appealed
to a broad spectrum of baseball fans. Thanks for listening.
I'm Jonathan Strickland. Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission.
(36:09):
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and the status quo no longer cuts it when it
comes to helping businesses evolve and grow. That's why T
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So you're talking about big data, and we have lots
of new big data, but we also have old big data.
And it's very interesting to us because we have the
historical archives of baseball video footage going back into the fifties,
but it's been sort of locked away on older media
and so digitizing this data making it available for fans,
(00:21):
true fans of baseball that just love this stuff. The
intention is that all that data is democratized and you
can do whatever you want with it. So it's not
just our curated content, but we're effectively turning that over
to fans to have fun with. Welcome to the Restless Ones.
I'm Jonathan Strickland. I've spent more than a decade really
(00:42):
learning about technology one makes it tick, and then describing
and explaining that to my audience. But it's the conversations
with the world's most unconventional thinkers, the leaders at the
intersection of technology and business that fascinate me the most.
In partnership with Team Mobile for Business, I explore the
unique set of challenges that see I o S and
(01:05):
c t o S face from advancements in cloud and
edge computing, software as a service, Internet of Things, and
of course five G we are often left wondering how
the leading minds and business continue to thrive. Let's find out. Today.
(01:26):
We have two guests from Major League Baseball or MLB
on the show. We're honored to have the Sons Williams,
Chief Product Officer and e VP of Product and Engineering,
as well as Truman Boys, s VP of Infrastructure. When
it comes to high tech, the game of baseball might
not leap to mind right away. The fundamentals of the
(01:47):
game have had relatively few changes over the years, but
as it turns out, sophisticated technology underlies every aspect of
the modern MLB organization, from establishing high speed connections between
the thirty baseball parks and the home offices to creating
unforgettable fan experiences. Technology is a core element in modern baseball.
(02:13):
The sant and Truman walked me through how MLB is
making use of technology and the challenges the organization faces
to make certain that the experiences they want to share
with the fans have the technological support to make them possible.
It turns out there's a lot to talk about, and
so our conversation will span two episodes, because well, I've
(02:34):
got to be honest there's just too much great information
to edit it all down. I started off asking each
of them about their own backgrounds. Thank you for both
being on the show. The sant I'd like to start
off by learning how you first became interested in technology.
So my background, I started as a chemical engineer, so it's, uh,
(02:58):
it's very different from what I'm doing right now. But
as I finished my undergrad and one of the things
I did during my grad was to be an intern
at a chemical factory. And that's when internet was taken out,
is the late ninety mid nineties, ninety nineties. I'm dating
myself here, and I was starting to double in technology
and computers, and I was comparing myself my internship but
(03:21):
as a chemical factory, which you know, these are factories
that are built fifty years ago or thirty years ago,
and you're looking at oh, we got to change the boiler,
which is now you have this, and I'm looking at
software and computers and it was so nascent at the time,
and I was like, this is exciting, things changing every
six months every year. And so that's when I said, okay,
(03:44):
you know what, I'm going to get myself more uh
into computers, and I did my masses and computer science.
I went straight from chemical injuring undergrad two masses and
computer science. And here I am right, so I could
have been working in a chemical factory. Uh right now,
but what I am I have to admit I did
not expect to hear that kind of a journey from
(04:05):
chemical engineering to working in computer science with MLB. That
is a phenomenal start to this conversation. Uh. And I'll
probably want to dive into that more in a second.
But Truman, I would also like to know from you,
how did you first get interested in tech? So I
got interested in online services prior to the Internet. So
(04:28):
you know, early services in the eighties actually compu Serve
and Prodigy and all of these really you know, predating
the Internet services. And I was completely enthralled by it.
I ended up, you know, as a teenager, actually making
early bulletin board systems, connecting them up to other bulletin
board systems, and I just knew at that point how
(04:49):
important all of this would be. UM connecting with information,
connecting with other people. Early email, that was just mind
blowing that you could actually you could communicate with people
when you'd get sponses back and at nineteen, I started
working at a small I s P with some friends.
We basically created a dial up I s P for
New Jersey and New York, and you know, we just
(05:11):
started building things and I just kept going. Um, loved
building networks, loved connecting people, and you know, from there
it was just a journey into technology and just loving
every minute of it. This is so interesting. So we
have Massan who you went into an industry where it
was heavily dependent upon legacy systems that had not really
(05:33):
changed for decades, and was just entering into that revolutionary
transformational period where you start seeing more software implementations and automation,
and that sparked your interest. And then Truman with you,
we have someone who got into online service providers, the
predecessors to I s p s, and really cutting your
(05:56):
teeth in that world. It's interesting how that ex variants,
that encountering of technology really was what set you on
this pathway. I'm very curious of the Truman, what actually
brought you over to MLB? Where were you before that
and how did you move over here? So I was
at a financial services technology organization and was working on
(06:20):
a whole different set of problems ultra low latency trading,
you know, market data, all the fintech components embargoed data,
and it's a massive shift to transition from that world
to this other world. I think there's kind of two
common things that in terms of career and passion, just
making sure that I'm doing things that feel like they
(06:40):
have value one of them. You know, from the financial
services side, you know, market transparency I think is really
important just holistically across the world, and that's what brought
me into that world. And then making people happy is baseball.
So I had an opportunity to uh come in and
are working in the infrastructure space, which was greatly needed
(07:03):
at the time. As we were, you know, MLB itself
was transitioning um parts of its staff and technologies had
moved to another organization, and so it was a bit
of a rebuilding exercise and for me it was a challenge,
and I was looking for a wonderful set of challenges
with organization and technology and a good mix of both.
(07:23):
So in a way, you were coming into MLB while
it was going through its own transformational stage. It's so
fascinating to me when we see these organizations that have
incredible histories behind them and the amount of work and
effort it takes in order to reinvent these various industries
so that they can keep pace with the times the
(07:45):
steenth What about you, I'm very curious how the chemical
engineer ended up over at MLB. The chemical engineer was
at Microsoft and just before coming to MLB, I was
at Amazon for five years prior to that, right, so
um at Amazon, I was running the product and technology
for one of the fastest growing business which was the
(08:06):
online advertising technology there and it was going great. That's
when MLB reached out to me. And at that time,
and you know, I use this framework called them regret
minimization framework, right, So what that is is effectively, what
would you regret not doing ten or twenty years from now,
but I regret leaving Amazon, and or would you regret
(08:29):
not working for one of the top sports leagues that
really brick that brings people together, creates communities. And that's
was very simple. At that point, was talking to the
commissioner and Chris Mannach at at the league. They said, hey, look,
we're at the inflection point right sports media and things
that we need to do. You know, it's it's a
(08:49):
green field you know, you get to come into rematch
and what we could do to get as a sports league.
We tend to get caught up when you're in a
particular role or particular organ station, like you know what's next?
What are you pushing so important to this organization? But
using the regret minimization framework, we really take a step back.
It becomes very clear I would definitely regret not joining
(09:13):
the league. That's what brought me to MLP and my
role here. That's also a really interesting approach to sort
of risk assessment, right, the idea of well, I'm measuring risk,
but I'm also measuring is this going to be the
thing that a month from now I'm going to wake
up and say, why didn't I try that? That could
have been a challenge that really energized me and I
(09:35):
could have made a real impact there. Well. Normally, at
this point I would ask my guest to describe their
job as if they were trying to tell someone in
a casual setting what it is they do. However, since
I have two of you, I have the unique opportunity
to make you try and do that to each other.
(09:56):
So the scent, could you try and tell me what
Truman's job is Yeah. Absolutely, So Truman is a counterpart
to me. Truman brands are infrastructure. Think about every thing
that technology infrastructure that from the ballpark to the MLB offices,
all the thirty ballparks across the country, the WiFi to
(10:20):
the systems, the security systems to the cybersecurity, all the
base infrastructure that we need to have to execute things
on top of it. My digital products does not exist
if Truman does not do his job. And that's not
just at all the thirty ballparks, but also all our
offices and all of the infrastructure. So he's really a
(10:43):
critical and important partner to me. Well, Truman, the Santh
really talk to you up, so it's now your job
to tell me what the SANS job is all about.
And and and likewise, phenomenal collaboration between the SANTH and
I and the SANTH coming in and running product and
engineering has completely transformed the way that we build products.
(11:03):
So I would say that the SANS job is basically
to plot out what it is that we want to
build from a product perspective, taking a look at existing
products that we already have that you have to life cycle,
continue to mature, that's where the fans are, that's where
all of our user bases. Finding ways to build and
invest in those properties, and then you know, to run
(11:24):
a team that continues to add features and connect back
with the market. What do they want? What are they
looking for? And that's what his team is embraced and
we've see in phenomenal you know impact there around engagement
around uh, you know, gaming opportunities, Um, you know what
we're doing in terms of second screen experiences, just getting
(11:44):
even advertising right, you know, how do we insert the
right personalized add into media streams? And all of that
falls into the sans work. So I view it as
it's a really hard problem to solve, which is always
knowing what people are looking for and and building it. Well,
then this is really fortunate for me to be able
to talk with two people whose work complements one another,
(12:07):
that the one enables the other, and there's sort of
a feedback loop going on where you are able to
determine what is it that the organization needs and then
how do you meet those needs both from infrastructure and
from an experience. Well, what is something about your job
that you suspect the average person is not aware of?
(12:28):
Someone who perhaps is even an ardent fan and goes
to baseball games and things, but doesn't really get that
this is part of what you do. And Truman, I
guess we'll start with you. I'd say most people don't
know that some of the hardest work is happening during
the off season. So you know, when baseball is not
(12:48):
being played, that's when we're going out to ballparks. We're
installing new cameras, we're refreshing all our infrastructure, we're building
applications and getting ready to release them. So there's so
much that's happening in the off season. And so i'd say,
you know, November through March, we're busy, very busy. Every
time that we think of a project, it's always times
thirty and sometimes you know, if it has to go
(13:10):
out to minor league ballparks or or other areas that
we're investing in in other leagues. Um, you know, there's
there's quite a bit that goes into that travel schedule,
and so, um, you know, it's just every task is
a big task, right the soth What about you? What
is something that about your job that people just aren't
aware of? One is how much fun it is, even
(13:33):
the toughest day at at Major League Baseball is fun
And at any point do you feel frustrated. You just
go to a game and you feel you'll know that
your reason why you exist. So it's uh, it gives
a man sense of satisfaction, so that on an everyday basis.
The other thing about the job an average UH fan
or a person may not know is UH how much
(13:57):
tracking that happens on the field. In a single play
each player at any instant, we're at tracking eighteen points
of the player. We're tracking the spin on the ball.
We're tracking u at a at a frame rate that
high fidelity that never existed before, and we provided back
to these players, back to these clubs so so they
can leverage this information for better coaching or injury prevention.
(14:22):
So what seems like a regular baseball game, we generate
petabytes of data that we pass back to the club
and we're making sure each of the data is accurate.
Is what a lot of my teams do. Every hardcore
fan of baseball I know is a statistics junkie. And
as you say, that's going to lead us to some
pretty cool conversations a little bit later in this episode
(14:43):
to talk about ways to to leverage that both behind
the scenes and for the fan experience as well. Well,
then I'll follow that up, Truman, What is something about
your job you find just really exciting, like the thing
that gets you out of bed in the morning. I
think it's it's, you know, similar to the points that
this ath is raising, which is really around the connection
(15:06):
to the game. So it's taking technology, bridging it and
just seeing how it directly impacts what we're doing. And
many times, you know, technology is just you know, kind
of the mundane. You know, here's how we all like
log in, we check our email. This thing actually has
a direct impact on the experience and so it makes
the fans happy. And you know things in point being
the accuracy of calls, making sure that a replay review
(15:29):
can happen within a minute. How do you do that, Well,
you have to have lots of cameras and lots of
bandwidth and send that back to New York and have
operators that know how to pull up those angles very quickly,
increasing the pace of the game itself. Historically, you know,
baseball is a long game, and you know, how do
you keep it relevant and how do you keep it
you know, something that people want to enjoy and watch
(15:50):
a you know, a two and a half three hour game.
So you know, finding ways to build products that allow
us to do that, you know, consolidated games, catch up games,
just all of the attech. But it makes people happy.
I would say the number one thing is tech makes
people happy because it's you know, improving the experience. And
and Basant, I think you kind of touched on this
in your last answer, but is there anything else about
(16:12):
your job that really excites you that you think of
as this. I'm so glad when I did that regret
minimization approach, that that I took this choice. Yeah, absolutely right.
One thing I can tell you is no two seasons
are the same, right, No even two months are the same.
In baseball, it's exciting the constant pace of change, not
(16:33):
just what's happening on the field, but also what we're
seeing now with a fan base, like the way they
consume baseball, the way they engage with baseball is changing
fast than ever before. And you don't think about it
is it's, oh, it's a hundred twenty year old spot,
but rather thinking about the changes that are happening in
real time. You know, last year was not a great change,
(16:56):
but still there was a lot of change. So and
I think it's just going to continue to act the
right thing. And that to me is exciting about this
job and it gets me up every day. Uh. And
I have to say most people who work in tech
fields in businesses, they don't get to hear their consumers
burst out into a standing ovation when something truly amazing
shows on the screen, or when they're able to augment
(17:20):
the already incredible experience of being at a baseball game
through technology. So that has to be pretty astounding. Absolutely. Yeah,
it's been fun. I've been here to years and it's
every day it's been fun. I gotta say that's great.
(17:44):
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Set mobile dot Com next. I wanted to learn more
about how MLB is using technology today, and I was
(19:12):
shocked to learn that MLB took the concept of big
data and cranked it up to eleven. Can you sort
of explain in what ways MLB now is really leaning
on technology, both in the ballparks and also like within
the office. Is kind of give us an idea of
your job is dealing with infrastructure, What does that actually encapsulate. Sure. Well,
(19:36):
first of all, it's it's a lot of data. So
there's there's constantly streaming data from statistics and video that's
coming out of all thirty ballparks and on some days
you know, it's coming out of fifteen of those ballparks
at the same time. So the way which we lean
on technology, it's really at every layer. It's from production,
it's from being able to have highly accurate replay and
(20:01):
really highly accurate understanding of what's happening on the field.
And so with all of that technology which we've invested
in at all of the ballparks to create a common platform,
we now have a uniform way to address what actually happened,
what is playing out on that field, you know, describing
how detailed it is. It also provides a way for
us to take that data and provide it back for coaching,
(20:23):
so you see over time that not only is the
game being affected you know, that's currently being played, but
that there's this feedback loop to give back to UMP,
to the replay team and also two coaches so that
they're able to over time you have just better calls
and better players. I think overall, the way that technology
is affecting it is that we're having a better experience
(20:44):
for the fans, but we're also providing a better experience
for the game itself. And we're improving just the way
that everything comes together, and we start to have better
on field dynamics. And I think the next piece that
you know, to kind of tease together is what is
it like to experience the game of baseball in a ballpark.
We don't really have that opportunity last year, and and
as people are returning, you know, this year and the
(21:06):
numbers have been phenomenal, it's how do we make this
more frictionless? You know, the long lines that's going to
go away, and how do we get to a place
where it's easy to get in, it's easy to sit down,
get your food, watch a game, and leave. And so
we're interested in all the technologies that would allow that
to happen. And I love that this is also a
(21:27):
way of leveling the playing field across different ballparks and
very different regions that they all have access to this
same sort of technological infrastructure so that you are able
to have that experience no matter where a game is
being played and bassans, so we touched on a little
bit about this technology gathering up all this data. This
(21:48):
is I think the very definition of big data, the
idea of of collecting enormous amounts of information. So I
assume that that part of your responsibility also is figure
out ways of leveraging all that information and actually finding
meaning and usefulness out of that. Is that an accurate representation? Yeah? Absolutely,
(22:09):
So there's two aspects to this, right. So there we
talked about the data collection on the fear right, we
installed the new tracking system Truman's team a clear and
help do all of that across all the thirty Major
League ballparks. So basically now we track every movement on
the field with such high fidelity. So we got a
lot of the data. So what do we do with this?
(22:29):
There's two ways to think about it, right. One is
how could we use to better the game itself? Right?
So so we uh, that's we give this data to
the clubs. We give this data to the players to
help them refine the game. You know, you can see
that a lot of them as leveraging that pretty significantly,
and you know pictures are getting better and better with
that information. And then there's the second aspect to it.
(22:50):
What can we do from a fan perspective? Can we
take this data and showcase and provide fans and experience
that they're never used to get before. Right. So a
one use case that we have been dabbling with is
because we have so much data, we can literally recreate
the game from any angle you want. We launched the
(23:11):
first generation of that called field vision, which basically being
able to see the game from an angle there was
there was where there's no camera. So can we provide
an experience to fans that is kind of fun? Like
let's say from the ice of Mookie bat when he's
sliding in into first space, right, So can you see
that what was he seen when at that point in time?
(23:35):
So we're trying to step take a step back and
see how could we take this data and use this
in a way that it's kind of fun for fans
to immerse themselves into the game. We're in early stages
of that, but for folks, you should just go look
up field vision. I think back to when I was
watching baseball growing up, and if something happened where a
(23:55):
camera operator wasn't, you would hear about it, but you
wouldn't really necessarily see it. And now we've reached a
point where we've got this proliferation of cameras and this
amazing way of recreating a moment, and also just that
idea of leveraging data that quickly and that effectively. That really,
(24:16):
to me is one of those amazing instances of the
actual implementation of a big data solution. So now having
this real time approach to making use to enormous amounts
of data that's streaming in constantly from all these different sources,
that to me is really kind of a snapshot of
how amazing technology has advanced over the past decade. But
(24:39):
I am also curious if if you could maybe walk
us through to kind of get an idea of what
this looks like, uh, in your regular jobs at Truman.
I'll start with you, if you could talk about a
project like a big tech implementation you've worked on with
MLB and kind of go through the point of ideation
(25:01):
where the decision is made through the actual implementation process
to kind of give us an idea of scale and
timing on these sorts of things. Sure, yeah, I think
there's a really cool one. Actually. So you're talking about
big data, and we have lots of new big data,
but we also have old big data, and it's very
interesting to us because we have the historical archives of
(25:23):
baseball video footage going back into the fifties, and so
we took a look at this and we've you know,
we maintained it as an asset and there's wonderful things
in there, and it's you know, games, it's full games,
it's press pressors that you know, came out in the eighties,
and there's interesting content there, but it's been sort of
locked away on older media. And so we've had this
(25:46):
on a bunch of magnetic tape and sixteen millimeter film
and all these other technologies that are effectively aging, and
worse than that is there decaying, and so digitizing this
data making an availa or for fans, the true fans
of baseball that just love this stuff and they want
to see consolidated games or a clip from growing up
(26:07):
and they want to see they remember the game, but
they can't find it on you know, one of the
online platforms. The Song's team built something really cool which
is called film Room, and it lets fans pull up.
There's over three million clips in there right now, and
we're adding more. The intention is that all that data
is democratized and you can do whatever you want with it.
You can pull it up, you can create your own
clip and if there's things that you like, uh you
(26:30):
like to see home runs from this team, or you
like to see double plays, whatever that is, you sort
of build these yourself. So it's not just are curated content,
but we're effectively turning that over to fans to have
fun with. So the way this ties back in with
the data is we have decaying media, which we realized,
you know, as we started to pull through this content
and we realized that we needed to get all of
(26:52):
this such stuff digitized, make it available, and start to
move those assets into secure on prem and also in cloud.
Um monumental effort. And the size of this data is
north of forty peta bytes of data, so you know,
in terms of what that is, it's a large footprint
in a data center, and you can imagine moving that
(27:12):
over time into cloud. It you know, it takes takes
a lot of time. So um, you know, we scoped
it out as a project, we've invested in it, and
we've put a team together to even digitize some of
the old content. So they're rescanning in sixteen millimeter film
pulling this stuff in and it's just it's a really
cool The tech behind it is really interesting. But the
net result is that some footage that hasn't been seen
(27:33):
is going to be seen. Um, and that's just you know,
it really connects us back to the game. I love that.
I also love the idea that I can I can
watch the Braves win the world series over and over
in various ways, because I feel sometimes that's the only
way I'm going to be able to enjoy it. I'm
a I'm a hometown Atlanta boy, So let's say just
(27:56):
keep looping it. That's right, and I'll just be yelling
Braves wind, Braves win over and he again, that was
a great example the someth Do you have any other
sort of projects that that you've worked on personally that
you feel would be a great sort of example of
from beginning to implementation. Yeah, absolutely, So I will rip
off a little bit of what Truman talked about, Like,
(28:16):
you know, while he moves all of that to the
digitizing all the media, how do we provide an experience
to fans that is actually utilized. We have so much data,
So basically what it is is we use technology to
go through this digital media and cut every pitch. We
tagged every pitch programmatically with all the additional information as
(28:40):
a tool for fans. For example, you could say show
me all the place by Fernando Tattys in the seventh
inning on a fastball that resulted in a home run. Right.
So it's as detailed as that. So it has like
a twenty thirty different levels that you can pull and
precisely so if you want to build a narrative around
(29:01):
a player, you want to have dragging rights with your friends.
It's a great tool. J allows you to create reels
around it and share it on Twitter and all the
different social media. It's all just started as the Hackathon
project and now it's you know, it's a It's one
of the ways the beat writers and the writers use
clips together with is directly through this tool. I love
(29:22):
that too. I can think of endless conversations I've been
part of among other baseball fans where everyone's debating the
various aspects of one player versus another, and having a
tool where you can start like, no, no, I I
have evidence to back up my point. I'm just gonna
pull let me show you how hope dies in the
eyes of a batter when smalt took the mound. And
(29:45):
this also is just a great conversation to show how
data can have a truly incredible impact on people when
implemented and leveraged properly. I think that's that is like
the big business of the next century, right, It's the
technology enables it, but the data is what powers it. Well, then,
(30:07):
I am. I'm also very curious because obviously the songs
you alluded to this earlier obviously was a truly tumultuous
year had an enormous impact on live events in all industries. Uh,
how did you leverage technology during the pandemic in order
(30:28):
to keep things moving as smoothly as you possibly could. Yeah,
it was a pretty um roughier to say the least.
It's not just for MLB, but for everyone going through
it in so at the same time, we knew that
baseball we should, we have to have baseball, right this
is this is one avenue where people can come together
(30:51):
and despite all the craziness is going around in the
world to create create a sense of normalcy. And baseball
has always played the strong in history and we wanted
to continue to do that. UM, digital or technology became
a lot more critical at this point. So what became
relevant is how do you bring baseball to homes? Right?
So when we didn't have the season start in April,
(31:13):
what we did is we allowed people to watch all
the old opening day games and UH and we started
giving a lot more video on demand content for our
fans during the time. So that's one big push we did.
And the other one was if they're not going to
be at the ballpark, what can we do to help
them feel like they're they're right? So a couple of
(31:35):
things we did. We had we launched something called the
Cheer at the Ballpark, which is basically digital sharing UM,
and we had the Fake Noise you know, like it
or not, It was actually it was seemed like a
little normal. We had a lot of engagement with that
product because people are so craving for something at that point,
and the same thing even when if you couldn't be
(31:56):
at the ballpark, we allowed them to send a picture
and we will actually put up cut outs there. It
was actually created an emotional connection to people like it
matters to show up and be part of the community.
So I think, you know it accelerated our people watching
streaming products that we had significant demand for for that
and what we're seeing now is as we're coming out
(32:17):
of the pandemic, we're still seeing that engagement, that behavior
we've created continue. We have one of the best streaming
viewer viewership numbers and engagement numbers ever in the history. Well,
and as you point out the SOTH, I mean, one
of the big draws of any live event is that
that communal experience and that you are a part of
(32:39):
something and it elevates everything. Having a game where it
would just be dead silent would just be unnatural and unsettling.
And I think that that using technology to help address
that was a genius move, something that without that you
would have really felt like this just doesn't feel right.
And Truman, I I imagine that for your team, the
(33:01):
COVID probably caused an enormous pivot as well. Can you
talk about what was going on in for you and
your team? Yes. In January, the expectation was for all
of us too to come into the office, and we
had just built a brand new office for MLB, all
new technology. It was the first time that we brought
(33:22):
our tech teams and the rest of the Office of
the Commissioner together. A lot of new technology was just
being stood up, and we were expecting that we had
this runway of you know, three months to get ready
for opening day, and so this was infrastructure work that
lived in our building. It was getting out to all
the ballparks to install all new equipment. There was lots
of new projects that were landing. In March eleven, we
(33:45):
all went home and we were just trying to figure
out what does this mean for the game, and a
bunch of things happened. Firstly, we just I think people
are resilient and they just started to figure out how
do we take the technology that we have to a
and adapt. So even prior to baseball starting, there were
lots of press release related streaming and things that still
(34:09):
support the game of baseball, and we needed to have
this thing running. In March, we effectively ran our broadcast
operations over zoom so multi view, all these you know
panels for quality control and streaming. All of that was
being operated at people's houses at the venues. We had
such dedicated employees that wanted to get this thing stood up,
(34:31):
and yet there were a lot of restrictions on travel,
so you know, the ingenious solution was renting r vs,
and some folks ended up you know, putting themselves in
a bubble and driving ballpark to ballpark, which I wish
we actually had this stuff, you know, captured on video
because I think it would be like a wonderful experience,
like to just see what that what that was like
for them. But basically, the tech was midflight and we
(34:53):
had to adapt and so you know, using these tools
I think allowed us to really get through and get
the game going. Uh. I agree, Truman. I think that
the RV story would have made a phenomenal documentary look
at the amount of dedication and the amount of work
that went into ensuring that these initiatives could continue as
best they could under beyond trying circumstances. My conversation with
(35:25):
Truman and Bassant will continue in the next episode of
The Restless Ones. We covered a lot of ground and
I gained a deeper appreciation for how MLB integrates technology
into every aspect of baseball, from the experience of attending
a game in person to the fundamentals of the game itself.
Be sure to tune into our next episode, where we'll
(35:45):
learn about some of the emerging technologies that will lead
to a variety of experiences at both parks that appealed
to a broad spectrum of baseball fans. Thanks for listening.
I'm Jonathan Strickland. Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission.
(36:09):
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