It's time to end MLB player in-game interviews on broadcasts
Pete Alonso. Credit: Getty Images/Al Bello
There are too many sports documentaries made these days to be able to watch them all, so many good ones fall through the cracks.
But there is one that I would absolutely, positively make time for on my calendar if it were produced:
ESPN sends out its top sports journalism team – looking at you, Jeremy Schaap – to scour North America in search of the baseball fan who enjoys in-game interviews with players.
This person presumably does exist, because MLB and its media partners are committed to this gimmick, so they must be convinced there is a demand for it.
I would start with yurts in Idaho or maybe a remote jungle cabin on the big island of Hawaii, because no one in or near anywhere I ever have lived is in this category.
As for the rest of us, allow me to offer a constructive suggestion: Stop! Please. Stop now. We find this distracting and uncomfortable.
I would never root for an athlete to get injured. But I was rooting for the Mets’ Pete Alonso to boot a ground ball at first base on Sunday night.
This was in the second inning of the Little League Classic against the Mariners, and ESPN had Alonso wired for audio so he could answer questions.
While working as a corner infielder. In a Major League Baseball game.
Cue Little League player Connor “Polar Bear” Smith, who asked Alonso about their mutual nickname as Alonso spoke of someday taking a “dream trip” to Alaska to see polar bears.
Seconds later, Mark Vientos fielded a ball at third base but overthrew Alonso for an error. The fault primarily was with Vientos, not Alonso, but the first baseman did say this:
“I should have came up the line a little bit better. I didn’t get the best of reads on that ball.”
Hmm. Is it possible his thoughts were elsewhere in the moments leading up to the play?
The most infamous in-game interview incident occurred last season on Apple TV+ when Dodgers third baseman Kike Hernandez made an error on a ball hit by the Yankees’ Gleyber Torres.
Yikes.
If anyone asked permission to talk to one of my players during a game I was managing, I would tell them to get lost. And it’s slow-pitch softball. In a 50-and-over league.
For MLB to do this is nutty regardless of position, but even more so for infielders than for outfielders, and even more so on the corners.
As inane as interviews with coaches and managers during breaks in play generally are, they are mostly harmless. Same goes for mic’d up players in the dugout to capture their banter or even in-game interviews with starting pitchers who are not playing that day.
It is a way for national networks to show us how cool they are and how much access their money buys, and for . . . well, now that I think about it, that is all they are good for.
But why players who are in action? MLB and the players’ association think it is good for the game, because they are the ones funding the $10,000 players get for these appearances. That’s a lot of dough for most of us but tip money for offseason caddies for most of these guys.
The idea is to give viewers insights into the game (rarely) and into players’ personalities (sometimes) and enhance the overall experience.
But it sends a bad message that feeds into baseball stereotypes. Thinking it’s OK to have Alonso answer questions is essentially treating him like a tee-baller blowing on dandelions in rightfield, not paying attention to the action, because after all baseball is a sleepy sport, right?
Doing that sort of thing in most other sports would be absurd. (Sure, players in other sports often are mic’d up, but usually for later replay and not live, interactive interviews.)
Don’t “get off my lawn” me on this matter, please. Plenty of my complaints about life and sports fall into that category. Not this.
Hating in-game interviews is the rare topic that brings us together as a nation, crossing generational, educational, gender, racial, income, geographical and political boundaries.
Oh, and Pete, if you do find yourself confronting a polar bear in Alaska someday, I strongly recommend not distracting yourself with a live interview while doing so.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
