JR Radcliffe

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

I stepped out of the scoreboard operations area for two minutes and somehow missed the only Teddy of the game.

Atop the numerous monitors in the office at the end of the Miller Park press box hosting the scoreboard crew, there’s a digital counter, one that keeps track of all the instances in which a Brewers game featured a 2-ball, 2-strike, 2-out situation. When one pops up, everyone shouts “Teddy!” in honor of Teddy Herpel, a former scoreboard employee who passed away in 2014 but was known for keeping a season tally of such instances.

On Friday, Sept. 7, there was only one such 2-2-2 as the Brewers beat the Giants, 4-2. When I left to take a phone call, the counter was stuck on 403, where it had been all game. When I came back, it was 404.

It's a charming bit of scoreboard ops culture, one of many nuances I came to appreciate as I spent the game observing the machinations of the 27-person crew that keeps the scoreboards around the park humming.

Here’s a look behind the scenes:

5:45 p.m. – The pregame gathering examines a full rundown of the night’s events, and that includes seven printed pages of pregame script alone, as well as four gridded pages of in-game directions. Deron Anderson, director of video and audio production for the Brewers, leads the meeting after giving me the nickel tour of the control room, which includes a sensory overload of monitors and split screens.

7:09 – A 3-year-old boy named Andrew gives us “Play ball!” Of the 27 working the scoreboard (almost all of whom are part-time, seasonal employees), five are cameramen positioned around the park. Four are stationary, producing their own view of the game frequently alongside cameramen for FOX Sports. Jordan Curtin, meanwhile, spent the game roving throughout the park, and he was the guy filming any between-inning presentations involving fans, such as a contest or this "Play Ball" kid.

7:12 – Travis Shaw commits an error, and there’s a collective groan in scoreboard ops. They observe the game from behind sealed windows (well, everybody except the music guy, who gets an open window in his corner), and they make no bones about the fact that they’re rooting for the home team. There’s an enthusiasm in this room that you won’t find in the open-area press box, full of scribes and TV/radio folks aiming for neutrality.

7:18 – Lorenzo Cain steps to the plate to lead off the bottom of the first. Denise Terrell is in charge of getting Cain’s headshot and at-bat graphic onto the screen of the center field scoreboard, with a brief video clip preceding its arrival. RJ McLaughlin works in concert on the console next to her, updating graphics as necessary throughout the game so they’re ready to hand off to Denise.

7:25 – Ryan Braun hits a two-run homer to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead. Larry Buch, who started with the scoreboard team in 1980 and is one of the two longest-tenured members of this staff, punches in the buttons that update the score. Buch is in charge of balls, strikes and outs on the big board, using a console that looks a whole lot like the one you'd find at a slow-pitch softball tournament or anywhere else.

Melanie Buellesbach, the producer who’s in charge of the overall operation for the night, gets word from Statcast that the ball traveled 393 feet. Buch and Dennis Sell, who himself has been a part of the team since 1982, proceed to tell a funny story about the days when distances were determined by a printed-out stadium chart. Sell is in charge of the situational graphics on the centerboard; when it points out what the batter has done with two outs (because there are two outs at that moment), it’s Sell who selects a situational stat to display.

7:41 – It’s Name that Tune! Dean Rosko, who has been with the Brewers since 2003 and has played the organ as long as he can remember, plays "Don't Stop Believin'" until the contestant inevitably gets the correct answer. Over by his open window, Kyle Janowski is in charge of selecting the original Journey track, which transitions in as the organ fades out.

7:47 – Did I just hear some harmonica? Apparently, 1-ball, 1-strike, 1-out counts are given a “little noise” treatment in the area. The instrument belongs to Thomas Mann, whose job includes editing video clips. The next time Braun steps to the plate, you’ll see a brief clip of his home run from the first at-bat. That’s Mann's job. The ops area has access to both FOX and their own camera feeds and can use either.

8:09 – Janowski, whose computer is organized into palettes of audio selections based on the situation in the game, taps on a Super Mario sound effect that plays when a Giants player strikes out to end the fourth inning. Janowski said he has pretty free reign to implement whatever clips he hears into the software, although a good chunk of the catalog is supplied by Los Angeles-based DJ Politik, who has a relationship with the Brewers front office. The Brewers are licensed by ASCAP-BMI, which means they can use any music licensed by those organizations.

8:10 – Brin Riley laughs at some fan behavior on the monitor – not the screen showing on the scoreboard, but one option as a possible next shot. She points out it’s never to your advantage to do weird stuff at the ballpark; somewhere, a technician in the scoreboard area is laughing at you.

8:16 – Gary Wright, who has also been here since 1980, does his best “The Count” impersonation from Sesame Street – “Three balls, ah-ah-ah; two strikes, ah-ah-ah; one out, ah-ah-ah; I love to count!” Is there any potential count arrangement that doesn’t have some sort of celebration attached?

8:24 – Between innings, fan “lookalikes” are posted on the big board. A printout before the game provides a collection of celebrity faces that the cameramen are searching for, unless they find a better match. Frequently those fans are pre-recorded so they don’t get up to leave during the break. Christian Yelich is shown side-by-side with Pete Davidson – kind of an easy one, in my opinion. But the fan recorded as an Elon Musk lookalike? Remarkably spot-on.

8:39 – A bizarre promo plays between innings featuring Christian Yelich’s head on the body of Kenickie in “Greased Lightning,” and I find myself laughing out loud. “Grease Night” was the following night at the park. The Brewers have two fulltime graphics producers on staff – motion graphics designer Steve Armendariz and Matt Morell, who as audio/video coordinator is the guy who puts together packages like this and the pregame hype video.

8:53 – Brewers announcer Bill Schroeder is celebrating his birthday down the hall. It is announced in the scoreboard area that there will be no cake, however.

9:15 – It’s “Take Me Out To the Ballgame” and “Roll Out the Barrel” time. Sitting at the biggest production board in the room, Keith Renk is in charge of cutting from camera view to camera view on the big board – between the stationary robotic cameras and the manned cameras, he has nine options on his massive split screen.

9:25 – It’s a critical spot in the seventh inning of a tie game, and the Giants want to talk about it on the mound. Diane Tenuta is in charge of tracking mound visits, which are limited to six per team per nine innings by new MLB edict in 2018. Tenuta is also inputting the basics of the game to the scoreboard outside the stadium (facing Highway 94) so passersby know what’s going on inside the park.

9:31 – With two still on but two out, Jesus Aguilar delivers a two-run double that puts Milwaukee ahead for good at 4-2. Troy Jakubowski updates the score on the ribbon boards around the stadium, which require separate inputs from those that control the main scoreboard.

10:00 – A strikeout looking means Jeremy Jeffress is one out away from a save. I have done terribly on my baseball bingo card; most everyone in scoreboard ops has been playing. Nobody leaves with a bingo.

10:02 – A ground ball to Orlando Arcia is the final out of the game. Riley quickly drags a “Brewers win!” graphic over what’s playing on the center field scoreboard – live video of the Brewers celebrating their 4-2 triumph.

Thanks to Anderson and Aleta Mercer (senior director of broadcasting and entertainment) for letting me hang out for the game, and Shaun Tatz, manager of electronic displays, who also helped me get oriented in a room of many bells and whistles.

One last thing – I did ask about replays and when they’re 'allowed' to show them

MLB rules bar replays from clearly showing the umpire was wrong, and since the dawn of replay, the scoreboard team also must refrain from replays any time a manager’s hand goes up (as they wait to determine whether they want to issue a review).

The scoreboard team must use the FOX feed – the feed available to managers and the replay team in New York – if they show a play under review so as to not grant an angle that could sway opinions in another direction.

More than that, it wouldn’t look great if MLB ruled one way and the alternate angle – the one that wasn’t available in the immediate aftermath of the play – showed something else and got replayed over and over.

Once a replay challenge is initiated, the scoreboard team takes the Fox feed and can show it over and over as much as it wants.