Major League Baseball launched its publicly accessible Film Room on Tuesday. The platform lets users search a database of more than 3.5 million highlights with more than 30 filters to grant fans access to the sport’s history.
Every pitch since the start of the 2017 season is included, and select clips dating back to 1929 are also available. The video repository is powered by Google Cloud, which signed a deal earlier this year to become MLB’s official data and analytics partner. Film Room enables fans to create custom clip reels that can be shared on social media.
For example, a user can select a scenario in which a lefty pitcher throws a two-seam fastball to a right-handed hitter, who then hits into a triple play—and, within seconds, the reel is created. (This array of filters produced only one result: poor Jefrey Marte can relive his nightmarish at bat against Aldaberto Mejia.) Other options include searches for specific players, teams and runner-on-base situations.
“We want to build a next generation baseball video product that makes it easy for fans to find, watch, create and share baseball videos,” said Vasanth Williams, MLB’s chief product officer. “We don't want baseball to be an aberration but rather in line with how they already consume media and video.”
