MLB Opening Day Sparks Baseball Memories and Aspirations at Watchfire

On Thursday, March 29, 2018, all thirty Major League Baseball teams will have their season opener on the same day. The last time it happened was 1968, and Watchfire had been in business for 36 years. In fact, we have been making quality outdoor signage during more than eight decades of baseball history.

1932
Watchfire Signs originally opened its doors as part of Sangamo Electronics in 1932 and has been an industry leader ever since. Back then, we manufactured rugged sign flashers that animated Broadway in New York City. Later, under the name Time-O-Matic, we pioneered the incandescent time and temperature displays that lit up main streets throughout the country. It was the same year that Babe Ruth hit his “called shot” home run. Plus, those Watchfire lights shining on Broadway were seen by the fans of the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers.

1951
Watchfire revolutionized electronic information in 1951, when we invented the first sign that displayed both time and temperature with the same bank of bulbs. From that day forward, our work shaped the look of many Main Street landscapes, and the proud tradition continues today. That wasn’t the only big hit in 1951. The New York Giants took the National pennant when Bobby Thompson hit his famous “Shot Heard ‘Round the World”.

1968
Watchfire continued to lead the way in innovation and engineering. When America had its last 30-team MLB Opening Day in 1968, Watchfire was building electronic teletype‐controlled message centers.

1998
Watchfire Signs made a splash in the market in 1998, when we began to engineer LED Electronic Message Centers (EMCs). EMCs can still be seen in many American ballparks today. They are used at ticket windows, for wayfinding and for engaging fans. 1998 also marked the year that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa engaged in a historic chase to break Roger Maris’ homerun record.

2003
Watchfire built its first color video display in 2003. It displayed video at an astounding 30 frames per second and had a color palette of 281 trillion colors. With our commitment to durability and service, sports teams and facilities flocked to Watchfire for the best-looking video boards on the market. It was the same year that Barry Bonds stole his 500th career base, becoming the only member of baseball’s 500 home run/500 stolen base club.

2018 and Beyond
This year, baseball is taking a fresh approach to Opening Day, one full of focused energy. Watchfire is doing the same thing. In 2018, we are developing new products that better serve our sports market.

• We’ve extended our outdoor video displays and virtual scoreboards to include new choices engineered just for indoor use. These smaller pitch displays are ideal for basketball and volleyball courts.
• We offer a new line of traditional fixed-digit scoreboards. When paired with a Watchfire video display, they offer a new way to boost fan experience and generate revenue.
• We offer proprietary software that puts live video, instant replay and crowd-pleasing animations at your fingertips.
• We acquired HD Sports Boards, a nationally recognized designer and integrator of scoreboards and sports video displays.
• We added more sport experts to our team to better serve our customers.

After 86 seasons of baseball memories, our new, focused efforts make it feel like a new kind of Opening Day for Watchfire Sports. Let’s play ball.