The latest collaboration between Major League Baseball and Google Cloud, known as the “Film Room,” is an invaluable tool for baseball fans. Unveiled on Tuesday, September 8th, the Film Room is a database filled with over 3.5 million video clips that users can edit together to create custom highlight reels.
Though it comes with a few notable limitations, the Film Room has the potential to change the way that baseball content is shared on social media. Following its launch, I explored the site to evaluate its overall usefulness. Below is a guide to the tool, from its most basic functions to its more surprising features.
How It Works
The Film Room feature that already has fans buzzing is the ability to cut together highlight reels based on customizable search criteria. Let’s say that you want to create a supercut of Jacob deGrom strikeouts on changeups from 2018 to the present. To make that idea come to fruition, all you have to do is enter deGrom’s name into the video search bar, go to the “Play” category, select “Strikeout” as your Hit Result, and then choose “Changeup” as your Pitch Type. When you run the search, you’ll be presented with over a thousand videos of deGrom fanning hitters that you can then select for your highlight reel.
The beauty of this feature is that you can be as specific or generic as you want with your search query. There are over 30 filters that users can select to narrow down their searches, including game type (day/night), pitcher handedness, primary fielding position, number of strikes on the batter, and number of outs in the inning. So if you love Jacob deGrom but only want to see him befuddle Freddie Freeman, you can select the proper filters to see all the swinging strikes he’s induced from the Braves superstar. Click here to see my film reel of deGrom flommuxing Freeman.
Of course, the customizable reels are not limited to individual players. If you are a fan of unusual baseball feats like triple plays, for example, the search tool allows you to view every such play from 2017 onward — as well as a select few from decades past. Users aren’t limited to just regular season moments either: they also have the option to search for events from past All-Star Games and postseason series. The specificity of the search feature creates countless possibilities for fans to relive their favorite baseball moments.
Other Features
In addition to its highlight function, the MLB Film Room offers various channels of themed content. These channels include Statcast highlights, Top Defensive Plays, Walk-offs, and Daily Recaps. There are also channels centered around MLB Network clips, Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, and highlights of talented up-and-comers (MLB Pipeline). While all of these channels are worth exploring, the MLB Vault earns my strongest recommendation.
Simply put, the MLB Vault is a treasure trove of clips sure to evoke nostalgic bliss among fans. These videos capture some of the most spellbinding and iconic images from baseball history, like Jim Bunning’s Father’s Day perfect game and Carlton Fisk’s home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. There are also retrospectives for star players that capture the first and last moments of their major league careers. My favorite videos in the vault focus on legendary father-son duos like Bobby & Barry Bonds and Felipe & Moises Alou; these clips beautifully illustrate how the game is passed from generation to generation.
No matter which team you root for, you’re sure to find content to whet your baseball appetite.
Limitations
As fantastic as the MLB Film Room is, its layout and overall usability could still be improved. The various search filters in the main library make it easy to find clips for inclusion in a highlight reel. However, while the MLB Vault has historical clips that date back to 1929, some fans may gripe that the video library only goes back to the 2017 season. Each highlight reel also comes with a five-clip maximum, which means that longer reels are impossible to create.
Another limitation of the tool is that the individual channels are not organized by subject matter, making it difficult to locate certain videos without first scrolling through dozens of pages. This problem could easily be solved by implementing a search feature — similar to the one in the main video library — on each of the channel pages.
Searle’s Final Say
The launch of the Film Room is an important first step in Major League Baseball’s quest to increase its social media presence and visibility. A frequent criticism of the league is that its stars are poorly marketed, that minor league highlights are virtually inaccessible, and that in order to watch a 15-second highlight on MLB.com, fans must first sit through 45-second advertisements. By democratizing the creation of highlight reels and the sharing of videos, baseball can potentially reach a wider, younger audience than it has in the past.
