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Broadcasters Bringing Tampa Bay To The World

News Channel 8 photo by PETER BARNARD

The control room at Tropicana Field is sending out the World Series to 229 countries.

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By PETER BERNARD and RAY REYES

News Channel 8 and The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 22, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Broadcasters from around the world have converged on Tropicana Field to cover Major League Baseball's marquee event, the Tampa Bay Rays' charmed run to the World Series and the foreign-born players on both squads.

As Japanese broadcasters cover Aki Iwamura's every at-bat and announcers from Latin American countries call the game in Spanish, St. Petersburg gets introduced to an international audience, MLB officials and broadcasters say.

"We are here because of Iwamura," said Go Egawa, chief director of Japanese network NHK. "But we are here because the Tampa Bay Rays have come here to the World Series."

And because baseball is as big a pastime in Latin American countries as it is in the United States, viewers in Mexico and will get a feed from Major League Baseball International with their own announcers providing play-by-play analysis, said executive producer Russell Gabay.

"Baseball is a big tradition sport in Mexico," said Albert Sosa of MLB International Mexico. ""We've been transmitting the World Series four years ago. So yeah, there are a lot of fans in Mexico."

MLB International is producing a parallel broadcast to the one shown on FOX Sports, broadcasting the World Series in 229 countries and in 13 languages, Gabay said.

There are four separate high definition and standard video feeds in the media compound outside the Trop, and several feeds for radio going to China, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, Japan and other countries, he said.

"Over 26 percent of our major league players are foreign-born," Sosa said. "So there is a tremendous allegiance to coverage of that player."

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