Kevin Millar has been a member of the MLB Network talent roster for the last 15 years, primarily serving as the co-host of the popular afternoon television program Intentional Talk. Over the last two seasons, he has worked on the program alongside Siera Santos and Ryan Dempster, which brings consumers the latest baseball news and analysis in an entertaining and lighthearted manner. Miller recently made a guest appearance on Nothing Personal with David Samson where he was asked about the league-owned broadcast entity by Samson, the former president of the Miami Marlins.
Samson articulated that when he was in the executive ranks for the Major League Baseball franchise, he would watch the broadcast channel. Whenever someone said anything bad about the team, he mentioned that he would be on the phone to the league commissioner or Tony Pettiti, the former president and chief executive officer of MLB Network. Samson would ask them to “shut that guy up” and also voice that the Marlins should be the second highlight of the hour rather than 10th if they had a game. In his new role as a media member covering the game, he wondered how much of that still happened.
“Yeah, I get texts all the time,” Millar said. “I get good texts, I get funny texts, I get this text, but most of it’s, you know, are you going to get your feelings hurt? Of course you are. My job is not to hurt your feelings. I will hurt your feelings if it’s a lack of effort. I never am a result guy. I’m not going to get on a guy because he’s hitting .180 because a lot of different shows [go], ‘Well, oh he’s making $22 million, he’s hitting a buck 80.’ Well, that’s your fault, Dave, you signed him. Whose fault is it?”
Millar mentioned how feelings can get hurt when people do not look in the mirror every so often and talked about how the money in the game is astronomical. Within his discourse, he mentioned how New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto is being viewed as someone who should be “this perfect human being” who cannot have a brain lapse since he signed a 15-year contract reportedly worth $765 million. The only time that Millar will hurt people’s feelings, he explained, comes when the player does not respect the 90 feet, especially since he was a former player as well.
Millar expounded that he has a great relationship with MLB commissioner Robert D. Manfred Jr. and that a lot of what they cannot discuss comes from producers speaking in his earpiece. The show has established a reputation of having a signature mojo in which players who appear for an interview tend to hit home runs in their games mere hours later. In fact, Millar explained that this started with Giancarlo Stanton when he was playing for the Miami Marlins, and it continued to build from there.
“We don’t get in the nuts and bolts on analytics,” Millar said of the show. “We are getting into more of a locker room TV show, ‘I want to know who’s got a shower body that doesn’t look great,’ and, ‘I want to know who’s the cheapest dude that’s not picking up a steak dinner making $19 million. How many cheap multi-millionaires are out there that don’t play clubhouse guys to this day?’”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
