The iPhone 17 Pro will be used to broadcast a crucial Major League Baseball game

If you've never been to a major live sporting event, they're usually broadcast using big, bulky TV cameras. That won't entirely be the case in Friday night's matchup between the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox.

The game, which will be broadcast nationally starting at 7:10 p.m. ET for Apple TV+ subscribers, will be the first professional live sporting event to be (partially) broadcast using iPhones, per MLB.com. Specifically, there will be four iPhone 17 Pro cameras set up throughout Fenway Park in Boston that will occasionally be used when appropriate. According to MLB, there will be a "special overlay" on-screen to let viewers know when they're looking at something that was shot on an iPhone.

Apple did a test run of this last week during a Los Angeles Dodgers game, but tonight's game will be the first live fire drill for public consumption. It couldn't come at a better time, either. If you aren't typically a baseball person, you should know that this Red Sox-Tigers game has massive implications for the upcoming MLB playoffs. Both of these teams are scratching and clawing to stay in the race, especially the Tigers, who have been in the middle of a historic late-season collapse after holding the best record in baseball earlier in the year.

In other words, both teams are good and full of star players to go along with the minor technological innovation happening behind the scenes. Should be a good one!