FOX Sports will broadcast the 2024 MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday night, the 25th time it has had the rights to televise the event in network history. The Midsummer Classic features a compelling pitching matchup between Baltimore Orioles starter Corbin Burnes and Pittsburgh Pirates rookie phenom Paul Skenes. Inside the broadcast truck though, Pete Macheska will be working his 20th MLB All-Star Game and ensuring that the presentation of the contest maintains tradition while also embracing innovation.
Macheska, a veteran producer at FOX Sports, has been with the company for several decades and worked across its coverage of the NFL and Major League Baseball. Although the MLB All-Star Game is purely an exhibition contest rather than being used to determine home-field advantage in the World Series, it is still among the marquee sporting events in the summer.
Whereas it used to be “the big summer event on FOX,” the network recently concluded its “Summer of Soccer” with broadcasts of the UEFA EURO 2024 and Conmebol Copa América. The soccer tournaments garnered stellar viewership, taking place two years ahead of FOX Sports broadcasting the FIFA World Cup 2026 hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico. Even so, the MLB All-Star Game is still an important part of its summer programming within its MLB rights deal that also features the World Series, a league championship series and two division series.
“It’s a fun thing to be a part of,” Macheska said. “It’s much different to do this year than it [was] 20 years ago when I first started – [in] some ways, it’s more challenging – but it’s still a big event for FOX, and we cherish doing it.”
The MLB All-Star Game has endured several iterations over the years. At the moment, its structure renders it conducive to various broadcast elements that differentiate itself from a typical MLB on FOX broadcast, bringing fans closer to their favorite players. This year’s introduction to the game at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas will have a Western ambience with horses roaming the outfield and people entering on a stagecoach to throw out the first pitch.
“They’re making it more as a show for the people in the stands and everything, so it’s just a nuance that you just adapt to,” Macheska said. “You don’t normally see at a baseball field six horses running across the field, so if you’re going to say that’s a challenge, I don’t know if it’s a challenge, but it’s interesting – let’s put it that way.”
The broadcast team of play-by-play announcer Joe Davis, analyst John Smoltz and reporters Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci need to be concise and thorough with their commentary because of the hastened pace within the contest. Even before the implementation of the pitch clock the All-Star Game still moved quickly. The team has subsequently reduced the amount of preparation and elements it utilizes, instead focusing on what will make the broadcast and leaving room for adaptation.
“The game is completely different than any game you’ll do,” Macheska said. “Joe Buck and I used to say this is the toughest game to do when he did it because we’re pulled in so many directions [and] there’s so many changes. It’s not like the All-Star Game that we watched when I was a kid where Willie Mays played nine innings or eight innings.”
Macheska had worked with Buck during the baseball season and Kevin Burkhardt within the football calendar before Buck’s move to ESPN in 2022. Davis ended up taking both the primary MLB announcing job and filled Burkhardt’s position concurrent with his move to the No. 1 NFL on FOX broadcast booth. In working with Davis throughout the season, Macheska observes that he is a total professional and has built chemistry with Smoltz.
“It has been a pleasure to work with them,” Macheska said. “They’re easy to get along with, and not everybody’s like that, so it’s been, I’d say, as easy a transition as it possibly could be, and I wouldn’t have not thought that is the way it is.”
Macheska will work alongside director Matt Gangl for the FOX broadcast. The synergy within the broadcast production team has been cultivated over several years, and there is a collective understanding of what the group is trying to execute. Macheska recognizes that these broadcasts took place long before he arrived and will persist after his departure, all infused with collaboration and passion.
Ahead of the game, the broadcast will receive intel on when players will enter the game, allowing FOX Sports to finalize their plans with interviews and live microphone segments. For example, the plan heading into the game is to speak with three members of the Philadelphia Phillies in the second inning. The team finished the first half of the season with the best record in the league and features Bryce Harper, Trea Turner and Alec Bohm in the National League All-Star starting lineup.
“We’re trying to get a pitcher and catcher mic’d from maybe the same team, [which] is something that worked very well when two Yankees did it a couple of years ago,” Macheska said, “so you set out a plan, and we hope it works or we hope it’s [a] set pattern, but then you adapt if, ‘Okay, well, this guy didn’t play very long, so he’s out.’”
There have been criticisms levied against a lack of competition and intrigue pertaining to All-Star exhibitions in other sports, but Macheska still feels that baseball has the most legitimate game. Even though managers are trying to get everyone in the game, the pitchers are still trying to prevent the opposing hitters from reaching base. While he is not sure if the contest is as appealing on television, the team at FOX Sports is trying to make the contest as interesting as possible.
“I think we hope – and you don’t root – but we do hope that the bigger teams with the best stories get into the World Series, like the Yankees or Dodgers or Phillies,” Macheska said. “Not that we don’t love the Arizonas of the world when they get in, but I just think it’s like everybody else. If you’re a football fan, you’re probably rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs to get there again – you know what I mean? It’s just they’ve got a bigger following, and again, we don’t root that way. We’ll do whoever, but it certainly makes it more appealing when more people are watching like anything else.”
