A few weeks back I got an email from MASN inviting me to Orioles’ Blogger Night. I was told that I would get a tour of the broadcast booth, a trip to the O’s Xtra set and the production truck, and watch the game from the MASN suite.

What an event!

We met outside of Home Plate Plaza at 6 PM and were given our press credential. It was great catching up with some of the bloggers from my favorite sites. Duck from CamdenChat.com, Heath from Dempsey’s Army, and Neal from TheLossColumn.com were all in attendance.

We took the elevator to the press level and met the game announcers, Gary Thorne and Buck Martinez. They gave myself and the other bloggers a run through of their day and answered our questions. Thorne ended his comments by reminding us that at the end of the day “It’s a game.”

After meeting Thorne and Martinez, our group walked over to the set of O’s Xtra to watch the pre-game show. We then went back up to the club level and enjoyed the game from the MASN suite. It was a completely different way to watch a game. We were surrounded by big screen tv’s, crab cakes, and celebrities…not to brag… 🙂

Rick Dempsey and Jim Hunter stopped in, I watched most of the game outside but walked in to get food or drinks throughout the game.

Late in the game we ventured back downstairs to the MASN high definition broadcast truck. It is essentially a trailer that is a full control room for the game. Did you know that it is one person’s job to create the pitch track for every pitch? Pretty crazy!

There was so much going on at one time in the truck, I just tried to stay out of the way.

We finished watching the game upstairs in the MASN suite and were asked to fill out a questionnaire about the quality of MASN. From their game broadcasts, to MASNSports.com, and O’s Xtra, they asked about it all.

Hats off to MASN for not only acknowledging the Orioles’ bloggers, but for engaging us as fans. It feels great to be recognized, but I appreciate MASN getting us all together and legitimately asking us for our opinion on their work.