When Perfection Isn't Attained

 

Consider this another in a long line of posts that could be called "It Happens."

Last night, I called an epic 13-inning game between Stamford and Waterford. The two teams of 13-year-old boys scratched and clawed for every hit, stolen base, defensive wizardry, and so on.

Over 30 strikeouts were amassed by the pitchers as the night went on.

Over three hours of baseball flew by.

In the end, unfortunately, it was an error that brought home the game-winner, and Stamford prevailed 4-3.

In the booth, I worked alone for the first five innings or so, with Shawn Sailer joining me later on.

But, all week, I've noticed that my MacBook Air -- the very computer I'm typing on right now -- had a USB port that was being grumpy. I use both USB ports on the computer. One serves to keep things charged up and the other serves as the conduit for the Zoom PodTrak P4 mixer and a connection to the iPhone that serves as our hotspot.

In this case, I struggled to keep the computer charged but I had a power brick that was actually working.

So, we survived.

Until last night.

Silly me, I thought a full charge on the computer would be fine. We'd survive.

Except...

Then the game spun past seven innings. Into the 8th. Into the 9th...

And I watched the battery drifting lower.

As it got close to 10%, I decided to plug in the brick. That would fix things, right?

Wrong. Like, really wrong.

First, it caused me to disconnect the mixer accidentally. Thus the mixer went dead and we were, by definition, off the air. But not really.

So I reconnected and tried to plug the power brick into the other USB slot, which had worked before. Except, tonight, it wasn't working.

Storm, meet perfection.

As I got the mixer reconnected and back on the air, I made a huge error.

This is on me. It's called Robcasting, after all.

Shawn checked that we were on the air. Yes, we were.

Except...

Now we were broadcasting through the microphone on the computer, and not the mixer. The headsets we wore weren't accomplishing anything.

This meant any background noise in the booth was being picked up. This meant the sound quality was unacceptable to my standards.

And it was my fault. Had I checked on my computer, or held my phone up to my ear, I would have known.

I grumbled as I drove home, exacerbated by the completely stopped traffic on I-95 near Darien. I uploaded the audio to the archive -- it's better than nothing, I suppose -- but I always feel like I've let the audience down by giving them an inferior product.

And to have it happen during a great game is just really unfortunate.

But it's all out there in some form.

Pitching that allowed seven runs, 14 hits, 11 walks, and 33 strikeouts. Pitching that also wiggled out of jams. A special note to Stamford's Jake Thielen who worked seven no-hit innings while striking out 14 in relief.

Hitting that struggled to find the big hit from the fourth inning until the very end.

Defense that most of the plays and some pretty spectacular ones. Stamford's Matt Coppola made a tumbling catch off of a backhand grab in right field on a sinking fly ball. Zach Rende, Michael Zinicola, and Owen Hodson turned a 4-6-3 double play like they were in the majors. 

Waterford's Jake Nenna struck out seven over five innings. So did teammate Christian O'Conner.

In the audience, we had members of Owen Hodson's family tuning in from Kentucky and Minnesota. They appeared to be enthralled.

I also received a note from a Waterford dad who couldn't make the games due to back issues. He said our broadcasts were "saving him."

So, despite whatever technical issues, it seems like the audience didn't really notice. Still, I'll stay true to my standards.

To that end, I came home, put it all behind me, and went to bed.

This morning, I sat at my desk, read about the USB ports, and did a suggested restart.

It worked.

With fingers crossed, we'll proceed tonight and onto the balance of these two weeks.

For the record, I have myriad backup plans if things don't work. Other computers, iPads, and even my phone would be involved.

So, yeah, it happened.

Onto tonight's game.