We could see a huge shakeup on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball this year, which will probably be welcomed by many after a few years of things getting close to unwatchable. Though I’m not so sure the reported route ESPN is considering is the way to go.
From Andrew Marchand:
NEW COLUMN: David Cone is a leading candidate for a potential new SNB booth with Karl Ravech on play-by-play and Eduardo Perez as the other analyst, The Post has learned.https://t.co/zBUA1nDKTv
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) January 5, 2022
A Ravech-Cone-Perez booth could work out reasonably well, though the alternate A-Rodcast is what will get most of the attention:
ESPN has had great success with Peyton and Eli Manning commenting on “Monday Night Football.” While the brothers have added more shine to the MNF series, their broadcasts on ESPN2 are dwarfed by the main crew of Steve Levy, Louis Riddick and Brian Griese’s audience on the main ESPN channel.
A-Rod, 46, fashions himself as a sort of media personality/entrepreneur with his co-ownership of the Minnesota Timberwolves, “Shark Tank” appearances, Fox MLB studio analyst role and Barstool Sports podcast.
He has been in the ESPN booth for four years, but has been better in Fox’s MLB studio. This is partly why some ESPN executives think an “A-Rodcast” might work.
The look and feel of a potential “A-Rodcast” may not exactly mirror what Peyton and Eli do. ESPN has been doing alternative broadcasts for many years, so A-Rod’s shows could have their own wrinkles.
Alex Rodriguez draws mixed reviews on his broadcasts, as he’ll often intermingle some genuinely charismatic storytelling with absolutely bizarre opinions. I suppose I could see how it’s POSSIBLE that could play better in an alternative, more-off-the-cuff broadcast, but can he really carry it in the same fun and informative way the Mannings do?
A lot of Cubs fans don’t think of Rodriguez too fondly because of some things he said about Yu Darvish on a Sunday Night broadcast a few years ago when Darvish was on the IL. It was BS at the time, and it was made to look all the more unacceptable once it was revealed just how much pain Darvish was privately dealing with.
Personally? I’m lukewarm on A-Rod. When he is in the studio or doing one-off segments, he can be really interesting and engaging. When he’s doing color in a live game, though, I’m not sure he adds quite enough. Again, maybe an A-Rodcast would be enough of a different animal to work.