Plans sure seem to be coming together quickly for ESPN’s alternate broadcast of Sunday Night Baseball. On Wednesday, Andrew Marchand of The New York Post reported that the baseball-centric Manningcast knock-off was merely a consideration. On Thursday, he reported that ESPN has already picked a partner to join Alex Rodriguez on the show.
Yankees play-by-play man Michael Kay is reportedly the choice. The name isn’t surprising, because Marchand had previously reported that part of the motivation for moving ARod out of the traditional Sunday Night Baseball booth was the former Yankee slugger’s desire to work with Kay and not Karl Ravech, who will be the new play-by-play man.
One of the things that made the Manningcast a unique presentation of Monday Night Football was that there was no experienced broadcaster leading the proceedings. It was just two brothers, who both won multiple Super Bowls, watching the game and talking about it with their friends and peers. What exactly will the baseball version be if ESPN is setting it up to include a play-by-play man and an analyst?
The argument could be that Rodriguez doesn’t have the charisma and natural comedic skills that Peyton and Eli do. That means the alternate baseball broadcast can feel similar to the Manningcast, but trying to be too similar would set ESPN up for failure.
Marchand writes that he expects there will be guests. Just how many of these alternate broadcasts we get is still up in the air. ESPN is set to carry 25 Sunday Night Baseball games in 2022. He speculates we could see somewhere between ten and twelve shows hosted by Kay and Rodriguez.
This would not replace Michael Kay’s other job. Assuming there is baseball in 2022, he will stay with YES calling Yankee games.
