When you watch Ken Rosenthal report from the dugout on FOX or FS1, he is usually wearing a unique bowtie that represents a signature charity. The MLB insider has been wearing bow ties during games for a decade, but it wasn’t always his decision to do that.
On the latest episode of the Starting 9 podcast with Barstool Carl and Jake Arrieta, Rosenthal said that it was the higher-ups at FOX that ordered him to start wearing bowties in October 2012:
“I wasn’t inspired. I was ordered. FOX ordered me. I believe it was the 2012 NLCS (Giants-Phillies) and the order came down from the highest power on FOX Sports. They said they wanted me in a bow tie for the World Series. I had never worn one in my life. I started wearing them for the World Series with the help from some people at FOX, who would tie them for me because I did not know how to tie them.”
After that season, Rosenthal said he ran into a former football player who had a non-profit organization that asked Rosenthal to wear the bowties for different causes and it allowed him to make the best of the situation.
“That winter, a former football player named Dhani Jones approached me and he had this non-profit foundation called The Bowtie Cause. What they do is design bowties in partnership with various charities and he wanted me to be the person that represented them. At first, I was resistant. I didn’t want to wear the bowties ever again, but then I had a rare revelation. You know what, FOX is going to make me do this again, so I might as well get control of it.”
Rosenthal mentioned that FOX wanted him to wear the bow ties so he would be noticeable when people watched on TV. While the network ended up proven right, he wanted his work to do the talking, not the outfit.
“The idea that the people at FOX had initially was to make me stand out and that was the purpose of it. I hated that. To me, it’s the work that’s supposed to make you stand out….They ultimately were proven right because it does make me stand out and we turned it into a good thing for good causes.”
As for his reporting, Rosenthal prefers writing stories over breaking news because it’s not going to be something that another writer can confirm. However, he told the duo he understands people go to Twitter to see what news he’s going to break next.
“Over the years, I have done the breaking news and I’m sort of known for that as well. Yet, as more time goes by, the value of that seems to be less. Even if I break the biggest story I can think of today, that story will be mine for 2 minutes maybe before somebody else confirms it and the whole world has it. I still do it and there are certain kinds of stories that you can write that maybe no one else can touch and that’s a good break because it’s not a transaction.”
“There are a lot of people who follow on Twitter and that’s what they want, so that’s part of the job too.”
