Alex Rodriguez Was a Disaster in the Booth During Yankees-Red Sox

[Diamond_Dog]

Here are four words no baseball fan ever wants to hear: The game’s on ESPN.

MLB’s do-or-die wild-card playoffs should be the most exciting games of the year, but they aren’t when Matt Vasgersian and Alex Rodriguez are on the call. The pair (accompanied by reporter Buster Olney) are a chore to listen to on Sunday Night Baseball during the regular season. Those broadcasts feel like a baseball talk show competing with the game being played on the field, but the lack of focus on the game itself isn’t the fault of the guys in the booth. (It’s a production decision made by the higher-ups at ESPN.) What really makes those games unbearable is A-Rod’s uncanny ability to repeatedly say some of the weirdest things imaginable.

Whether he’s talking about “even leads versus odd leads,” not scoring insurance runs to let your struggling closer prove himself or slipping into Shark Tank mode to refer to a team’s rebuild as a “leveraged buyout,” you can always count on A-Rod to say something that will make your head spin. That’s why, even though I’m a Yankees fan and they play plenty of Sunday night games every year, I rarely watch. It’s also why I was grateful that ESPN had the Statcast-focused alternate broadcast with Jason Benetti, Eduardo Pérez and Mike Petriello on ESPN2 on Tuesday night. Anybody who did listen to the primary broadcast on ESPN was treated to some real drivel from A-Rod.

https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2021/10/06/yankees-red-sox-espn-alex-rodriguez-lowlights

[underpants]

1. Twitter ridiculed him as well

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/alex-rodriguezs-bizarre-red-sox-yankees-al-wild-card/472lomtlxvhh1occlrtedc1j1

[Diamond_Dog]

2. Heh

You couple A-Rod’s blathering with the producer’s decision to show split screen interviews that are nothing but a distraction plus all the other sports news being run across the bottom of the screen and it’s just a mess. How about focusing on what’s happening in the GAME?

[underpants]

3. Branding. It's all about branding to him I think

Look at me!!

Plus this was the big stage after his break up with J Lo. He might have gone with the “just keep talking” thing.

[samnsara]

4. i didnt like him when he was a Mariner..

[CanonRay]

5. I hate when announcers do that, either baseball or football

Just shut the hell up and call the game. Do your job. They should all be forced to listen to 100 hours of Vin Scully as a training tool.

[Auggie]

6. My $2.99 solution to over-produced, inane network/cable baseball audio: MLB Audio

$2.99 a month gives access to audio produced by the teams playing. Watch the broadcast on ESPN, FOX, or TBS but without dumbed-down play-by-play, A-Rod, Rod Darling, irrelevant side-line reporting and features, and overtly loud ambient crowd noise.

I caught every 2010, 2012, 2014 postseason Giants game this way and every 2016 Indians game. Insights are more informative because they come from announcers who've been following the team all year. The Giants' flagship station KNBR announcers are exceptional, but I can understand Dodgers fans wanting to listen to their local folks. Same with Astros, Red Sox, etc.

Sure beats Joe Buck.

Controls allow you to pause audio so you can sync to the broadcast (important if you stream the broadcast).

Try it. $2.99 is cheaper than a latte at Starbucks, for crying out loud.

[The Polack MSgt]

8. Does it sync with the broadcast TV?

I've tried listening to KMOX (AM Radio, Cardinals flagship station) for the Cardinals game when it's on national TV and it's hit or miss.

Sometimes there is 2 or 3 seconds delay in the video feed

[Auggie]

9. Not always ...

but if your set-up is right you can adjust to sync perfectly.

If MLB audio is ahead you can pause it and sync to the video broadcast.

If the video broadcast is ahead you pause this instead, but I've found a caveat: only works if your streaming device allows you to pause recordings. If watching live broadcasts over the air you're out of luck.

I like to watch with audio ahead of the video by 3-5 seconds. If I know a big play is coming I'll be more focused on how it develops.

Got my subscription this morning after trying to listen to the TBS broadcast last night (couldn't stand it).

Sorry about the Cards. I was pulling for them.

[Dave in VA]

7. I agree

The statcast on ESPN2 was more enjoyable to watch.