'This Week in Baseball' returns with Wantagh's Kait Maniscalco as host

How about that!

Mel Allen’s legendary catchphrase is back this season as MLB Network has relaunched the classic “This Week in Baseball” with several twists for a new generation of baseball fans.

The first twist is the platform: "TWIB," as the weekly highlights show is affectionately known, premieres every Friday at noon on X.

And the host is Kait Maniscalco, a 26-year-old MLB Network host and social media personality from Wantagh.

The original "TWIB" ran from April 1977 until 1998 as a 30-minute show highlighting the previous week on the diamond with Allen as the main host before his death in 1996 at age 83.

The show was revived in 2000 (initially featuring a Claymation version of Allen opening and closing the show) and lasted until 2011.

The current iteration is shorter in length — less than 10 minutes — but features the same format, graphics and instantly recognizable theme music as the original.

Each episode begins with a nod to Allen as Maniscalco enters the Mel Allen recording booth at MLB Network’s studios in Secaucus, New Jersey. A picture of the Hall of Fame broadcaster is on the door.

Maniscalco gained fame as a social media content creator with her “Baseball for Baddies” series, which she describes as an effort to “grow the game to women, casual and new fans.”

When she was approached to host TWIB, “I was super excited,” Maniscalco said in a telephone interview. “I think it's very similar to the current content that I produce now for Major League Baseball. It's a lot of explainer videos. It's a lot of trying to grow the game to a different type of audience.

"I thought it was amazing that they would come to me for such a prestigious show and something that fans loved so dearly. I was really excited that they were bringing it back. Again, I'm 26, so I wasn't familiar with the early stages of TWIB, but after I did more research, I saw how beloved the show was, how beloved Mel Allen was, so I was really excited . . . It’s really big shoes to fill.”

Maniscalco started her career in a behind-the-scenes role at YES Network.

“I quickly realized that television behind the scenes was not for me,” she said. “I definitely wanted to be in front of the camera and focus more on storytelling.”

Maniscalco also hosts MLB Network’s “Play Ball,” a weekly Saturday morning program designed to educate young fans about the game that features portions of the previous day’s TWIB episode.

“It's very interesting because I always say that a lot of my content was geared towards a new fan, definitely a younger generation,” she said. “But starting TWIB, I was actually getting a whole different demographic of people that they'll message me and say, ‘Oh my gosh, this was my childhood. I watched this every single Saturday morning. This was my favorite show.’ ”

The current reboot was developed and led by MLB Studios with production support from MLB Network. Once it was decided to bring it back, the next step was to decide on a host and then which platform would carry it.

“We've been working with [Maniscalco] on smaller things and different engagements, some sponsored things, over the last couple of years,” said Alex Cadicamo, MLB vice president of media business development and strategy. “I think for anyone that consumes her content on social media, she knows baseball, she's very smart, she's very engaged with the sport and she's wonderful at explaining things. We felt like she was somebody that would resonate with the fans on X and beyond, with a younger generation of fans as well as an older generation of fans.”

The episodes premiere on the official @MLB account on X.

“There's a kind of a diversity of audience on the X platform for something like this, which is great, and so we're seeing it resonate with Gen Z,” said Mitchell Smith, X’s global head of content partnership. “But then you're seeing actually some millennials and even Gen X on the platform who are finding that nostalgia, really excited to see it relaunched, even just the little nuances, like the music and the logo. So I think that's what's great, is that you're building it both for the preexisting audience that would find something compelling about the authority of the [show] and then for a new audience.”