It will be a lot easier to avoid A-Rod this baseball season. Just don’t turn the channel to ESPN2.
Alex Rodriguez will not be part of the regular “Sunday Night Baseball” booth this season, reports the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand. Instead, he’ll be the star of his own “ManningCast” with Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay.
That just sounds horrible, doesn’t it?
The ManningCast has been widely acclaimed this season, but the format isn’t intrinsically responsible for the telecast’s critical success. Peyton and Eli Manning are smart, funny and insightful.
A-Rod is neither of those three things. Kay is just insufferable.
Rodriguez and Kay are expected to work between 10-12 games, Marchand writes. ESPN is slated to broadcast 25 Sunday night games in 2022.
The traditional SNB booth will undergo a total overhaul. Longtime studio host Karl Ravech is expected to be on play-by-play alongside analysts David Cone and Eduardo Perez. The status of Buster Olney, who’s worked as the Sunday night dugout reporter, is unknown.
A-Rod reportedly didn’t want to commit to a full schedule, due to his new ownership role with the Minnesota Timberwolves He was part of the main SNB for four excruciating years.
While Rodriguez initially popped as a studio analyst for Fox Sports, he struggled as a traditional analyst. Most egregiously, he just didn’t seem prepared. It’s fitting that his final words on SNB were about how Gerrit Cole would win the Cy Young award in his second season with the Yankees, just as the Red Sox were wrapping up their resounding Wild Card win.
Cole is entering his third season in pinstripes.
But now, those mistakes will be Kay’s problem. The rest of us can be blissfully unaware.