It was the rare unfettered glimpse inside the mind of a pro athlete in a high leverage spot. With runners on second and third in the bottom of the fourth against the Yankees Sunday night, viewers at home were able to hear Kiké Hernandez verbally think through his plan in real time.
“Fast guy at third. Slow guy at second,” he said to himself in center field. “If he gets a base hit to me, I’m gonna throw him out at home — maybe.”
Sure enough, on the next pitch, Anthony Rizzo smashed a line drive to left-center. “Here it is. Oh no!,” Hernandez yelped to himself as he chased down the ball. Once Hernandez scooped it up, he flung it towards home plate — just like he promised.
In other words, he almost called his shot. Eduardo Pérez immediately knew the moment made for great TV.
“The most important product of us telecasting the game is the players. It’s not us,” he told WEEI.com. “We add a part to it, but if the fan can be involved directly with the player, that’s gold.”
It was the second straight home run for “Sunday Night Baseball” in the mic’d-up game. The revamped broadcast, which now features Karl Ravech on play-by-play and David Cone and Pérez as analysts, is mic’ing one player during each telecast. For Opening Day, it was Reds slugger Joey Votto, who held a conversation with Braves star Ozzie Albies while he was standing on first base — in earshot of baseball fans around the country. When it came time for Votto to sign off, he elected Hernandez to rock the mic next time.
The Braves play on “Sunday Night Baseball” this week, so naturally, Hernandez chose Albies for an encore performance. The players are buying in, which makes the segment work.
“Do you really want to be the first player to say ‘no?,’” said Pérez. “The players know the players well. The players will talk amongst each other. They want the product to be good, so they’re gonna make sure it’s going to be somebody who’s in the action.”
For years, MLB stars have been dogged with complaints about their lack of personal flair in comparison to their peers in the NFL or NBA. And during previous mic’d-up experiments, they’ve largely played to the stereotype. The most entertaining moment of the on-field interviews during last year’s All-Star Game came when Liam Hendricks ignored Joe Buck, and proceeded to swear like a sailor.
But already this season, players appear more loose, and willing to play the schmoozing game. As a whole, MLB seems to finally understand the demographic crisis that it faces. A myriad of rule changes are on the docket for 2023, including a pitch timer, ban on infield shifts and bigger bases. All of those measures are expected to improve the pace of play, which last season dragged to its worst level yet. Fans had to wait, on average, four minutes and seven seconds between each ball in play.
Changing rules could help usher in a different culture. As Pérez points out, Hernandez was 0-for-the-season heading into Sunday’s game. Faced with a frustrating slump, some idiosyncratic players may have opted out of the broadcast shenanigans. But Hernandez was playful and affable, even cracking jokes about his hitting approach.
Kiké: “I go the other way by accident.”🤔 pic.twitter.com/fCqlLcLl2W
— Fred Landers (@fredlanders101) April 11, 2022
"We got Kiké Hernandez when he had yet to have a hit in the season, and he was still really good on TV,” Pérez said. “That’s the other thing I told him: “Just imagine if we would’ve gotten you when you were 3-for-3 in that game, instead of 0-for-2 with a walk?’”
(For what it’s worth, Hernandez has gone 4-for-9 with a home run over the last two games. Maybe being mic’d-up jumpstarted him.)
As a 13-year vet himself, Pérez knows how players behave during games. Much like chess players, they’re constantly thinking through scenarios, sometimes out loud. The key is to capture these moments without being intrusive. It helps to have 30 years of playing experience in the booth, along ESPN’s foremost baseball broadcaster.
“Not a lot of fans know — they say the game is slow — but if you listen to that inning of Kiké, where the first ball that was hit was in the gap, he had to run out and you heard him huffing and puffing, and then him talking to himself. We do that as baseball players,” Pérez said. “We talk to ourselves all the time.”
Except now, they’re allowing fans to eavesdrop on their inner-dialogue, at least for half an inning.
“It was really cool, because after the game I spoke to Kiké — texting to him — ‘so how did it feel?’ He’s like, ‘it actually felt a lot better than I thought it was going to feel,’” Pérez said. “A lot of people are afraid that we’re going to disrupt their rhythm. But he actually liked it even more than he thought he was going to like it.”
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Red Sox losing the PR game: This week, we’ve learned the Red Sox and Rafael Devers are more than $100 million apart in negotiations, and even more damningly, that they only offered Xander Bogaerts an additional year. Without counter explanations, we’re left to believe the Red Sox needlessly low-balled two of their best homegrown players, ala Jon Lester.
Chaim Bloom may be bringing “Tampa Bay sensibilities” to the front office, but that doesn’t mean he can’t read the market. Offering Bogaerts only one more season at $30 million, when he’s probably looking for a contract north of $200 million, is counterproductive.
Chaim Bloom admitted on "The Greg Hill Show" Thursday the Red Sox "didn't align" with Bogaerts and Devis. But there must be an explanation, right?
Degrading Haskins takes: The degrading takes about Dwayne Haskins in the immediate aftermath of his tragic death speak to one of the most toxic aspects of pro sports: we don’t see athletes as people. It is dehumanizing.
There is a world outside of the gridiron. Sometimes when you’re too close to the game, you lose all perspective.
Get on the Celtics bandwagon: Are the Celtics entering the NBA playoffs as — gulp — favorites? It looks that way. Even Charles Barkley, a notorious Celtics hater, said there’s “no way” he sees them losing to the Nets.
What a difference a year makes. This postseason will go a long way towards redeveloping the national narratives about Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. That’s for sure.
