SVG Sit-Down: YES Network s Bob Lorenz, Jack Curry, and David Cone

Bob Lorenz, who has won 10 Emmy Awards at YES, is the network's primary studio anchor. He is the host of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets pre- and post-game shows, as well as the network's Yankees Baseball Tonight and Forbes SportsMoney programs. He also has play-by-play credits to his name at YES, including Yankees regular-season and Spring Training telecasts, Staten Island Yankees games, and Ivy League football.

David Cone, the strikeout artist who endeared himself to New York Yankees fans for his gutsy clutch performances and for hurling a perfect game in 1999, returned to his current YES Network post as a Yankees analyst for the 2011 season. Upon his retirement from the game, he joined the YES Network team during its inaugural year in 2002, later returned to YES for the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

Jack Curry, who covered the New York Yankees and Major League Baseball at the New York Times for nearly 20 years as its Yankees beat writer and most recently as its national baseball writer, joined the YES Network in February 2010 as Yankees studio analyst, reporter, and program contributor, as well as a columnist on YESNetwork.com.

SVG sat down with the Lorenz, Cone, and Curry - just before the latest Derek Jeter news broke - to discuss their preparation for the pre- and post-game shows, what they're looking for during the game, and how checking Twitter can transform a missed play into a scoop.

It's three hours until game time. Where are you in terms of preparation?

Bob Lorenz, YES Network studio anchor

Bob Lorenz: We're really just reading, going over notes, maybe putting some notes on our rundowns. The real meat of what we discuss is going to come when we meet with Jared [Boshnack, coordinating producer, studio] and fine-tune the thoughts that David has in his head. Jack [Curry] will add his two cents' worth, and then I kind of figure out how I sort of traffic-cop it all and make sure that they get their comments in that they want to get in.

David Cone: He's the only one who knows what he's doing. (Laughs)

BL: That's the beauty of these guys. Because they're prepared, it makes my job easy because I can just ask them anything and I don't have to feel like I'm hanging them out to dry. I [asked] David on the postgame last night about [Yankees starter] Ivan Nova - what he saw, where his breaking ball was - and he's paying attention to all of that during the game. Again, it makes my job easy, I'm not throwing him a curve ball, and he's left staring at the camera going, I don't know what to say. He's always prepared.

Former Yankees pitcher David Cone, YES Network analyst

DC: Bob has so much experience hosting the show; he calls himself a traffic cop. Jack, [after] two decades with the Times, we're watching the game, we'll think of a story, Jack will look up a story he wrote 15 years ago. Bob's got his perspective, and whatever player's in here can throw in their perspective, so it really is a teamwork situation. It's a good mix.

During the game itself, what are you looking for? What really stands out to you guys?

BL: We sit here and watch trends, certainly how the starting pitcher's pitching. For example, tonight, we'll talk about Andy Pettitte on the pregame; we want to see if what we've said basically comes to life: whether he's pitching a certain way, is he as good as he's been lately, what's made him good lately, and is he taking it into this game? And then can the offense do what it's been doing, which is score more runs?

DC: I'm always looking, for my angle, for something that you may not have heard or seen before, some little nugget from a pitching standpoint that maybe could tell you something that you don't know. I try to really narrow my focus, [keep it] mostly pitching-centric.

Jack, with your journalism background, do you find that you're now watching the game in a different way?

Jack Curry: I don't think that I watch the game any differently than when I was a newspaper writer, but I think that's a plus. When you're at the game sitting in the press box, you're constantly thinking, what's my story going to be in this game? You go into a game [where maybe] CC Sabathia is pitching against [the Red Sox'] Jon Lester, [and] you think, well, this is going to be a game about pitching.

Reporter/Studio Analyst Jack Curry

In the second inning, Lester [could] get hit on the hand and replaced by a reliever. I'm an information guy, and I'm a preparation guy, so I want to see everything that happens. We'll rewind; we have the ability to check replays: if there's something we want they can call it up for us. I don't think I've changed from being a newspaper guy, but again, I think that that's a positive because [I have] tunnel vision on what's going on in the game.

Where do you draw the line between relying heavily on stats and numbers and telling the story of what happened during the game?

BL: I don't want to say less is more, because people like stats, but I think people can get too bogged down by stats. The story is the story, and it can be supported by stats, but I don't think the numbers are always the story, unless a guy has a crazy game.

DC: I love the numbers. I love the data. But I'm still learning how to taper it down and not go overboard with it, so I try to pick a few [stats] that are simple and, once again, just kind of narrow it down and try to fit it in.

BL: See, I say less is more, and he says more is more. (Laughs) So that's good; we found a nice balance.

Throughout the game, do you rely more on your own knowledge or outside sources?

DC: I think all the resources, whether it's baseball-reference.com, fangraphs.com, there's so much data out there. Even T

LINK:	http://sportsvideo.org/main/blog/2013/09/svg-sit-down-yes-networks-bob...
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