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Mets Director Responsible for Bringing Cinema to Baseball Departs From SNY

John DeMarsico made sure Mets games gave viewers an experience like none other in baseball.
Tyler Lauletta|
A Mets broadcast overlays the full moon with the night’s baseball action.
A Mets broadcast overlays the full moon with the night’s baseball action. | @JohnDeMarsico / X

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In sports, the role of a director is often similar to that of an official—the way you know they are having a great game is where you barely notice them.

Given that the style of broadcasting a baseball game have been established over decades of television, becoming aware of the game’s director likely meant that a replay had been missed, or a bad camera angle had been used.

But John DeMarsico decided to change that with the way he broadcast the Mets. Over the past few years, DeMarsico has brought some cinematic elements over to the baseball world, with artful transitions and layered shots that gave viewers a brand new experience.

But it appears that DeMarsico’s time bringing his flair and whimsy to baseball in Queens has come to an end. In a statement on social media, DeMarsico shared that after 17 seasons with the Mets, he was looking for his next act.

“I was incredibly fortunate to help tell the story of this team for nearly half my life—after a lifetime of fandom that made the opportunity feel almost impossible when it began,” DeMarsico wrote. “From the very start, I believed deeply in the idea that baseball is cinema. I poured myself into that belief, grateful for the trust to take creative risks in service of the game and the fans who embraced them.

“Over time, as the broadcast continued to evolve, it became clear that its future was moving in a different creative direction. Coming to terms with that hasn’t been easy—especially when the work mattered this much, and felt so deeply tied to who I am.”

DeMarisco’s take on broadcasting baseball was not for everyone, but it was as ambitious as anything we’ve seen in the medium in recent memory. Online, many fans congratulated DeMarsico on his run, and shared their disappointment to see him go.

Plenty of movie directors have their singular styles, from the in your face “this is my signature” shots of Wes Anderson and Tarantino to the more subtle perfections of a Spielberg or Scorsese.

In most sports broadcasts, its difficult to convey such a vision—the voices in the broadcast booth are the signatures of the medium, while the workers in the production van are there to mostly set the scene. But DeMarsico had a vision, and brought it to Mets broadcasts in exciting new ways.

Hopefully he lands at another sports gig—it would be thrilling to see what type of ideas he could bring to an outdoor NFL stadium—but no matter where he goes next, expect to see some extremely cool shots of the moon.

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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.

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