Carty: Q&A with “Clubhouse Confidential” host Brian Kenny
From Derek Carty at Baseball Prospectus on November 5, 2012, with SABR member Brian Kenny:
This weekend, I had the opportunity to chat with MLB Network star Brian Kenny, in-season co-host of the Emmy-award-winning “MLB Tonight” and off-season host of one of my personal favorites, “Clubhouse Confidential,” television’s first sabermetrically-slanted baseball program. “Clubhouse” debuted last offseason and will return for season two tonight at 5:30 p.m. ET, airing weekdays at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. EST. Last year, I spoke with Brian ahead of the premiere and reviewed the show after the first week on the air. Today, I give you my most recent chat with Brian about what we should expect for season two, how they expect to take more curmudgeons to task, and how they’ll look to further the sabermetric dialogue.
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Derek Carty: I take it since “Clubhouse” is back for another offseason that it was deemed a success, which didn’t seem like a given at this time last year since it was a bit of a high-concept show. I, for one, am thrilled to see it back again. What kinds of feedback have you gotten from people about the show, either positive or negative?
Brian Kenny: Feedback has been very positive from anyone who saw the show or was even a casual baseball fan. For me, I thought it was a winning concept from the beginning, and I’m glad to see it succeed. I think there has been a real void and a real opportunity for a show like this for years. It seemed natural that it would be great and that people would like it. The one thing that I wasn’t sure about was whether the hardcore community, if people who study sabermetrics and who write at places like Baseball Prospectus, would embrace it. As you know, on TV you don’t have the opportunity to go as in-depth on a topic as you might be able to in, say, a BP column, but I’m very pleased to see this sector of fans like the show. I think we found a good middle ground between the casual fans and the hardcore types.DC: Is there anything starkly different we should expect from “Clubhouse” this year?
BK: I wouldn’t expect it to be exactly the same, but I think it’s going to evolve naturally. We’ll follow it down the path we’re going and what seems logical. I think it’s been a winning show to this point, so we don’t want to make too many changes, but you may see the gloves come off a bit this year. You’ll see us show more analysis, looking at how analytics are covered and going after the more nakedly aggressive critics of sabermetrics. There’s still very much a war on logic and information, and we see ourselves addressing that.
Read the full article here: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=18779
Related link: Brian Kenny is a featured speaker at the 2013 SABR Analytics Conference. Learn more at SABR.org/analytics.
Originally published: November 6, 2012. Last Updated: November 6, 2012.