Royals scoreboard is a vision of the future

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They have had six months of preparation and at least one “rehearsal,” but there are still minor glitches. Nothing major, but one person familiar with new boards like this says it usually takes about four months of game use before the controllers feel comfortable.

One of the controllers, for instance, didn’t know that replays could be shown on just the top half of the board between batters.

“The unfortunate thing about baseball is you have to be on your A-game the very first day of the year,” DeRuyscher says. “Not that we wouldn’t anyway, but our Super Bowl is the first game of the year.”

At least for now, it is the biggest high-definition video screen in the world, replacing the one at the University of Texas’ football stadium, which replaced the one at the Dolphins’ NFL stadium.

They were all built by the same company, Daktronics. The Crown Vision board took about two months to finish and is the first to go more vertical than horizontal.

That different setup means all sorts of unique challenges, from how the camera guys shoot to how the people in this room put it all together.

To hang out in this room is to pick up on a whole different set of jargon. The most-used words are “double” and “check,” which is how they realized just in time that someone forgot to pick up a sandwich and chips to show off for the camera when they gave away some Gates.

This must be similar to what it feels like in an air traffic control tower, with the added bonus that it’s far less dangerous.

It is a constant direction of cameras — stand by six, dissolve to six…stand by three, transition three — and computer-generated graphics that require 30-some hands working on 40-some computer screens.

This is still very much a work in progress and will be for a while. But one day into it, DeRuyscher says he’s happy so far.

“We are going to get better, every game,” he says, before laughing at himself. “Listen to me, I sound like I’m a player here talking, but I think we’re going to get better and better every game.”

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To reach Sam Mellinger, national baseball reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4365 or send e-mail to smellinger@kcstar.com.