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There are 40-some screens in here, most of them showing four smaller displays. Operating the Royals’ new $8.3 million Crown Vision scoreboard requires a staff of 17, a beautiful and hectic symphony of button pushing and barked commands and language you’d want to keep your small child away from.
It happens behind the metal door at the end of a hallway on the fourth floor. The first man you see here gives you a warning.
“Be careful,” he says. “It’s a buzz saw in there.”
Chris DeRuyscher is the Royals’ director of game entertainment, and from the looks of it, you could replace “game entertainment” with “four hours of the new 8,900-square foot high-definition video board” and be more accurate.
Someone asked DeRuyscher last week what he would be thinking at 3:10 Tuesday afternoon, when the first pitch was scheduled at the Royals’ home opener. He said something about being able to relax, being relieved that he and his staff had made it that far. But right now the scoreboard clock reads 3:10, and there is no relief in sight.
Certainly no sense of relaxation.
“Somebody press that ‘easy button,’ ” one of the controllers says.
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Longtime Royals scout Art Stewart sat in the Buck O’Neil seat on Tuesday and was one of the first to be shown on the new board — 105 feet high and 85 feet wide of high-definition glory.
“Boy, you could see birthmarks and everything there, huh?” he says. “It picks up everything.”
John Buck is the Royals’ catcher, and goodness knows he has enough going on during games. He needs distractions like Amy Winehouse needs a keg and usually does a pretty good job of avoiding them.
Not on Tuesday.
“I’ve got to admit,” he says, “it was like it was coming down my throat. On a couple of the warm-up pitches, I found myself peeking up there. I’ve never done that, but it feels like it’s right in my lap.”
The square footage is roughly equivalent to two mansions, so there is more than enough room for detailed information. The in-game display has line score, pitch counts, radar gun, defensive alignment, offensive lineup, extended stats and room left over for personal information and pictures.
Some fans learned that “LOB” stands for men left on base, and several wondered out loud what “OPS” means — it’s on-base plus slugging percentage.
Trevor Hamilton took off early from work to catch the Royals’ home opener and said the giant video board made sitting in the cold a little more comfortable, and dealing with the minor inconveniences of the ongoing renovation a little easier.
He says the picture was clearer than he expected, but wanted to request that the Royals stop doing the “Kiss Cam” because “it’s gross” in enormous HD.
He was kidding.
“I can’t believe how cool it is,” he says. “I’d say it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, but that would make me sound like a loser, wouldn’t it?”
•••
It’s the fifth inning now, though DeRuyscher could swear it’s the eighth or ninth.
“To tell you the truth,” one of his coworkers says, “I wasn’t expecting to get this far. There’s just so much going on.”
The video control room has two levels and is about as big as a decent-sized living room. The logistics of running the new board means there will be 10 more people in here this year than last year.
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