Image credit: © Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Over the course of last season, I watched three home games for all 30 teams and wrote about the viewing experience. The main focus was on the stadium and the broadcast booth, of course. But I also catalogued minutiae like the color of outfield advertisements, the presence of business-to-business ads (which I will never understand in this context), and the features of the score bugs on the screen. I knew that the bugs were going to change, given the dissolution of FanDuel Sports Network (née Fox Sports Networks and then Bally Sports) and its owner, Main Street Sports Group (née News Corporation and then Diamond Sports Group).
In just one season, though, the biodiversity of the score bug has shrunk. Here’s an example of the emerging dominant strain, from Saturday’s Mariners-Rays game. This is Cal Raleigh batting against Griffin Jax in the top of the first on the Tampa Bay broadcast.
