With much of the sports world grinding to a screeching halt, all eyes were on Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby on Monday night as the only game in town. Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh continued his storybook 2025 campaign by becoming the first catcher to win the event.
It’s an event that ESPN has televised for decades. But something was off for plenty of baseball fans and casuals that tuned in on Monday night. Simply put, there was an appalling inability to actually see the home runs.
For much of the contest, ESPN showed a split screen camera angle showing the balls flying out of the yard in one box and the batter and pitcher in another. That led to some instances of the announcers talking in awe and wonder about home runs that viewers simply couldn’t see.
“Watch this one! Look at that go!”
If only ESPN viewers could. #MLB #HomeRunDerby pic.twitter.com/0GET3bcTQI
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 15, 2025
And unfortunately, that was a pattern for much of the night with fans taking to social media with complaints that they couldn’t see the home runs in the literal Home Run Derby.
“What if we took the Home Run Derby and made it completely unwatchable” pic.twitter.com/hSrYHv5qO1
— Mariner Muse (@MarinerMuse) July 15, 2025
And now @ESPN with this terrible split screen where you can barely see the flight of the ball… and why would you want to see that in a #HomeRunDerby? https://t.co/39RIKkBIG6 pic.twitter.com/7URvPINBnJ
— Jake Oakman (@jakeoakman) July 15, 2025
The concept of Home Run Derby should be the easiest thing for ESPN to pull off. It’s easier than a regular game.
Just show us the home runs.
Somehow, they can’t do this.
— Chris Klemmer (@ChrisKlemmer) July 15, 2025
Me trying to understand why half the screen is the pitcher instead of the just batter and the field #HomeRunDerby pic.twitter.com/AuRA9Oxvpo
— Pizza Dad (@Pizza__Dad) July 15, 2025
I like how this camera angle for the HR derby doesn’t show you where they hit it or if it is even a home run.
Ideal for a home run derby
— B.W. Carlin (@BaileyCarlin) July 15, 2025
This @espn broadcast of the @MLB home run derby is maybe the worst television viewing experience in sports history…split screen, you can’t see anything, the follow cameras aren’t focus, it’s just a giant blur. What are we doing?
— Maxx Tissenbaum (@8_Maxx) July 15, 2025
This camera angle is a travesty to the event. Shoot from an angle we can see the hits. Who wants to see the pitcher view during the #HomeRunDerby ? pic.twitter.com/x45yT4MVZa
— Justin Breitfelder (@JB_ATLien) July 15, 2025
I’ll take ESPN’s word for it that James Wood just hit 14 homers, cause you sure couldn’t tell the way they broadcast it.
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) July 15, 2025
The split screen is perfect so you can’t see either side well
— Razzball (@razzball.bsky.social) July 14, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Sadly for ESPN it’s another marquee event this summer where its coverage has been called out by fans following what was at times a disastrous NBA Finals for the network. But unlike the NBA Finals pregame coverage or halftime show, the dilemma facing ESPN may come from the format of the event itself.
It’s a tough situation for ESPN to be in because in some way, the rapid format hampers the ability to properly broadcast the event. With a running clock, batters are taking as many swings as possible so they are already onto the next swing before the last ball has reached its final destination. A split screen seems like the only way to solve the issue, but that turned out to be unsatisfactory as well.
Baseball’s pitch clock has worked wonders for regular season games and MLB has made a ton of progress with fans thanks to the innovation and faster games. But with the Home Run Derby being a unique event, maybe it would be better to go retro and slow it down so that fans in the stands and at home can admire the long balls just a little bit more.
About Matt Yoder