Solid video work from ESPN

ESPN.com recently posted a journalistic video regarding the New York Mets’ announcement that Willie Randolph will stay on as manager despite the team’s epic collapse over the last month of the baseball season. Truth be told, I loved the way the video was done. Just loved it. In a total of 46 seconds, without the voice of any reporter, ESPN allowed Willie Randolph, Omar Minaya (Randolph’s boss) and a lot of really good images to tell the story.

There was a caption atop the video that read “Randolph will remain Mets manager.” Beyond that, it was all speech and images. ESPN understands that those web surfers going to watch video at its site are largely more-than-casual sports fans who don’t need a ton of background information. Thus, the need for any sort of stage setting by a reporter was eliminated. There were two or three image cuts to Randolph and Minaya standing at the podium during the press conference for the announcement, and the rest of the video focused on images that perfectly encapsulated the Mets’ saga over the past month. Several different shots of players, fans and mascots were used, all depicting either the players screwing up or the reactions of various parties to the aforementioned on-field disaster. Audio from Randolph and Minaya ran throughout the video montage.

I have no complaints about the job ESPN did with this video. It was succinct and captivating both from an audio and visual standpoint. At ESPN.com, there was also a link to a text story about the Mets’ decision to retain Randolph, which, as predicted, delved into greater detail regarding the collapse itself and the history of Randolph’s tenure for the team. For a less knowledgeable fan in need of a bit more background information, the text story was the way to go. For the sports fanatic in need of a quick baseball fix before moving on to the next story in the world of professional athletics, the video did the job perfectly. Kudos to the folks at the Worldwide Leader for doing a great job on this one.