The FOX and the hounds

We received two newsroom memos today reminding our staff about using footage shot inside Jacobs Field during the ALCS games. In short, local stations are confined to taping shots of fans in between innings and that's pretty much it. No showing the scoreboard .. or fans cheering a specific play .. and don't even think about showing a player on the field. No going live to the field until the FOX National Broadcasters are in bed asleep with visions of Joe Torre as an analyst dancing in their heads.

This time of the year, everything about the game broadcast is National ... not local .. and everything this year is FOX. Rupert Murdoch paid big bucks for the rights to the game and its highlights, and he plans to protect them.

After just the first two games of the ALCS, non-FOX stations have already received written warnings that include stern statements that credentials to cover the games could be pulled if a station continues to violate any part of the policies -- even accidentally. I'm told the letters include references to specific reporters' stories. Rumors around town today were that one station had lost its credentials to be in the stadium tonight, but by show time that station was back inside.

Obviously, the restriction is understandable .. but I've never seen the competition scrutinized as much as they seem to be right now .. our coverage included. Writing from Akron, I'm not really in the middle of it, but seeing the email traffic flying, it's obvious that "covering" the playoff game means understanding the ground rules before ever heading to Jacob Field.