ESPN presented two different broadcasts of Monday night’s T-Mobile Home Run Derby from Major League Baseball All-Star Week in Seattle, Wash. No matter which one you tuned into, they were outright horrible, according to 92.3 The Fan afternoon host Nick Wilson. Taking the air on Tuesday afternoon, Wilson and his co-host Dustin Fox had no idea that Toronto Blue Jays infielder Vladimir Guerrero Jr. captured the Derby title last night, largely because they felt the broadcast was unwatchable.
Whenever it pertains to one of the accompanying All-Star Week events in any sport, such as All-Star Saturday Night in basketball or the Derby in baseball, Wilson turns it on his television and requires it to keep him engaged and interested. While he feels baseball has perfected the Home Run Derby in terms of the format and engrossing the crowd, the broadcast did not live up to the same expectations.
“The broadcast now does not match what’s happening on the field,” Wilson said. “….They just suck. It was Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez on one, and then the other one.”
The traditional broadcast paired with the Statcast-driven telecast on ESPN2 featuring Kevin Brown, Jessica Mendoza and Mike Petriello. On both fronts, Wilson conveyed that the broadcasts were treating it too much like a genuine event than an exhibition contest.
“No sport has needed their own Pat McAfee the way baseball needs [its] own Pat McAfee,” Wilson said. “Just a big-mouthed, opinionated [analyst].”
Fox replied by suggesting that ESPN could consider putting McAfee on a surfeit of its sports coverage including Major League Baseball. After all, the company inked him to a lucrative multiyear, multi-million dollar contract to bring his eponymous digital program, The Pat McAfee Show, to its platforms. Because of this, Fox assumes the company may explore broadening the scope of coverage McAfee provides, accentuated by recent layoffs of niche talent. Yet the exclusivity associated with certain commentators makes them all the more appealing, impeding a palpable and comfortable situation.
“See that’s a problem,” replied Wilson. “When Pat McAfee’s on college football; the NFL; Major League Baseball; the NBA – he does lose some of his luster.”
When Fox asked Wilson if the broadcast would have been better with Stephen A. Smith, he profoundly shot that possibility down and referred to it as “even worse.” Wilson then suggested future broadcasts implement rhapsodic broadcasters such as Dallas Braden of NBC Sports California or Kevin Millar of MLB Network. Conversely, Wilson was tired of listening to Ravech, who is frequently utilized across ESPN’s baseball coverage, for much of the night.
“Baseball is, every year, just a leaky ship trying to make it from one point to another,” Wilson said. “They finally sprung the biggest leak of all – it sucked; it was boring and they’ve changed it. They’ve made changes that were necessary for about 25 years and they finally did it. Then you watch the products and you’re like, ‘Oh, now it’s the announcers that are the problem.’”
In order to make the game more conducive to fan interest, the show suggested the league adopt the model popularized by the Savannah Bananas and “Bananaball,” intriguing fans and adding entertainment value to the sport. Wilson thought of a team obvious to take on the comedic routine – the Oakland Athletics – and believes the NBA would have been better off with the Harlem Globetrotters 30 years ago.
“Make them the Las Vegas Bananas – steal the bit,” Wilson said. “Then make Pat McAfee the play-by-play guy.”
After reading a quote from Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), Tony Clark, regarding an adjustment of the pitch clock in the postseason, Wilson made a vehement assertion. Essentially, he believes that if baseball was to shave as much as one second off of the pitch clock, it would presumably admit defeat and lose a barrage of fans. Across the board, the average length of a nine-inning contest is down by 26 minutes, engendering rises in league-wide attendance (8.1%) and a three-year dip in the median age of people purchasing tickets (43) – all year-over-year.
“I think baseball is more watchable,” Wilson said. “I think the in-game product feels fresher, so kindly to Tony Clark, ‘Bleep off.’”
