0:00

Before we begin, a reminder to please

0:02

rate and review our show. It helps new

0:04

listeners discover us and grow the program.

0:10

On this episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly, the

0:13

NBA and the NFL have lately tried to increase

0:15

fan access and enjoyment by making

0:17

up players. But perhaps no

0:19

sport is better suited for the miked up experiment

0:22

turned to entertainment revolution than

0:24

Major League Baseball. SI

0:26

stafford m A Bachelori joins me to discuss

0:28

the happy union of baseball players

0:30

and microphones and how surprisingly

0:34

there have been foul balls, but so

0:36

far no foul language. Yeah.

0:39

I'm your host, John Gonzalez from

0:41

Sports Illustrated and I heart Radio. This

0:45

is Sports Illustrated Weekly. E'm

0:49

a Bachelari. Welcome back to Sports Illustrated Weekly.

0:51

Happy to be back. You're always back. I feel

0:53

like you're always on. This is basically your podcast.

0:56

Now you've been on so many times. We're gonna add you to the

0:58

credits. We recently had you for

1:00

a baseball double header. I encourage people to

1:02

go back and listen to that. We discussed relievers

1:04

who have to run in from the bullpen for fights,

1:07

and of course Dodger dogs being the dominant

1:09

concession food. There's another baseball

1:11

story, Emma from your baseball

1:14

mind. Tell us about the tweet

1:16

two story pipeline that you have described

1:18

on Twitter and why you decided to

1:20

write about baseball players who are miked up

1:22

for Sunday Night Baseball. Yeah, this one

1:25

came together pretty easily while

1:29

watching From Day A Baseball a few weeks ago.

1:31

I we did it that. I was very

1:33

impressed with the fact that we had not had

1:35

a player caught cursing

1:38

or using other colorful language while

1:40

maped up in a game, just because you've

1:43

had a player maked up basically every single

1:45

game, sometimes multiple players, and

1:47

they just really stood out to

1:49

me. And one of ESPN's producer

1:52

pr people reached out to me and said, I

1:54

also am impressed that we haven't had someone caught

1:56

Curson yet, but if you'd like to talk to the people

1:58

who are doing this and write about it, you

2:01

can, and here's how to do it. And so I just took

2:03

that and ran with it. I'm

2:07

glad that you did because we're all the better for it.

2:09

It's a wonderful piece. I encourage everybody to read it on SI

2:12

dot com. And I want to talk about some of

2:14

those challenges to the broadcast,

2:17

but miking players up as sort

2:19

of a new phenomenon. The NBA has some

2:21

mics on coaches during timeouts and

2:23

halftime, some of that in the NFL.

2:25

But you think baseball is better suited for this than

2:28

any other sport. Yeah, Like,

2:30

as you said, we've seen more of this across sports

2:32

in huddles on benches from ley,

2:36

let's stay together, play again together. But

2:39

baseball where you have all of this kind

2:42

of yeah, downtime for fielders

2:44

because they're obviously engaged

2:46

in the work of standing

2:49

in the field and being ready to have

2:51

to jump into action if they need it. But it's

2:54

very structured, you know,

2:56

like the park of an at

2:58

bat. You can see what's thing, you can see what's

3:00

coming, and if you're a positioned, particularly

3:03

in the outfield, where you're just stuck

3:06

waiting for quite a bit of time and

3:08

you know, are functionally by yourself

3:11

quite a bit of distance from other fielders, it's

3:13

not just that you can be miked up

3:15

and the broadcast can get what

3:18

you were saying, you know, after the fact.

3:20

That's you can really hold an active conversation

3:22

with the people in the broadcast booth because the

3:24

structure of the game is such where you have that

3:27

kind of space, you have such discrete

3:30

pockets of action. Everything that I think

3:32

makes some people say baseball is boring also

3:35

lends itself really well to having conversations

3:38

in the moment in a way that you just can't really do and

3:40

in basketball or in football. Yeah,

3:43

the pace definitely lends itself to that. You mentioned

3:45

the outfield. That's where you start your piece with Orioles.

3:47

Right fielder Austin Haze, he goes springing after a

3:50

ball, he pulls up short because it's a found

3:52

Then he has this exchange with ESPN

3:54

play by play guy Karl Ravat. That

3:56

would have been awesome right there if I could have made a diving

3:58

catch, you know, on pitch right away.

4:00

You know. And I forgot to tell you, once you have

4:03

committed to the earpiece of microphone, every

4:05

ball will be hit to you. Oh. I love that. I

4:07

want some action out here. That's why we play outfield.

4:09

That's right. It's those kinds of moments

4:12

really that make this effort,

4:15

this endeavor to mic up players worthwhile.

4:18

Yeah, you're listening to this conversation that they're

4:20

having with the booth and then you see how they

4:23

adapt they have to go on the run if

4:25

they're coming towards another player. Just

4:27

seeing them break up that conversation with the actual

4:29

action and then return back

4:32

to the flow of conversation has been really

4:34

cool and I mean I've enjoyed it just as a viewer

4:36

this year. So

4:39

what about we talked about challenges, There

4:41

are challenges from the broadcaster perspective

4:43

too, right because as journalists

4:45

when we're talking to somebody interviewing somebody

4:47

that's in a controlled environment,

4:50

this is happening real time while a game is

4:52

going on, and I would imagine it's a fine line between

4:54

talking to the players, which is the whole point of

4:56

this, and not over talking to the players, which

4:58

would be annoying, to stray acting and sort of not

5:01

only hurt the broadcast but also complicate

5:03

matters for the player. Yeah,

5:05

I think it's a pretty fine balance to

5:07

strike. As you were saying, hey,

5:10

you're you're they're still calling a game. There's still action

5:12

happening even while they're talking to the player, So

5:14

there's that to balance. There's the

5:17

fact that they know the players doing

5:19

their job that even if you know these are all

5:21

guys who are pretty good at what they do and can multitask

5:23

and have a conversation while

5:25

they're watching the hitter and potentially

5:28

preparing to leap into action if they have to.

5:31

They're doing their job and they can't be that distracted.

5:34

But you're also trying to hold a good conversation

5:36

that is bringing something new

5:39

to the viewer and giving them something they couldn't get

5:41

elsewhere. And I think that's a it's

5:44

a lot of competing things to have to balance.

5:46

They had experimented with this previously in like spring

5:49

training and All Star Games. Oh man, this

5:51

is what a treat this is for me. Usually

5:53

I'm not here talking to myself, so the people out

5:55

here they already know like that he's

5:59

a little odd. So this

6:02

isn't even uh, this

6:04

isn't even crazy to them that I'm talking

6:06

to myself out here. This is

6:08

the first full year of regular

6:11

baseball where you're getting it, and I

6:13

think it seems like they're finding or footing or a little

6:15

more as the season goes on. Yeah,

6:17

it's been fun revealing. It's great

6:19

for the fans and the viewers. As you mentioned in media members,

6:22

more access is always positive. I

6:24

wonder Ama, What about the players

6:27

do they enjoy this? Is this something that

6:29

you know what, give me the mic, put the mic on me. I'm

6:31

gonna have a blast with this. What do they make of

6:33

it? Because for a long time, baseball,

6:36

especially in the clubhouse, the

6:38

environment of baseball can be sort of

6:40

parochial, provincial, protected

6:43

incursions by us the media. That's

6:45

not their favorite thing. And now

6:48

it's almost like they've joined the media

6:50

in a way. Yeah, I think

6:52

there are a few factors to this.

6:55

One is that it's completely opped

6:57

in that the broadcast

7:00

approaches the players, or more recently, some of the players

7:02

have approached the broadcast and said, hey, I want to do this,

7:04

but no one has

7:06

to do this. So there are certainly guys who maybe

7:09

have more of that old school mindset like you were describing,

7:11

or just a little more personally closed

7:13

off just their personality. And if that's

7:15

the case, they're not going to be the type that's going to do

7:18

this. But the other

7:20

factors, I think just that as

7:23

times have changed, as the

7:25

environment around baseball has changed,

7:28

as guys have gotten more active on social media,

7:30

as there's been just more movement

7:32

towards keeping the game a little looser

7:35

a little more fun just being willing

7:37

to let guys be themselves in different environments.

7:39

I think you see more guys who maybe

7:42

once upon a time would have been told

7:44

pay turn it down. You don't need to show so much of yourself.

7:47

You're seeing less of that. It's still there, as you

7:49

said, but it's less of a factor than it

7:51

was, certainly twenty or thirty years

7:53

ago, but even five or ten years ago. I think

7:55

you're having a little bit of movement

7:57

there in general to let guys embrace being

8:00

themselves, whatever that looks like. And you

8:02

know, this is a pretty cool opportunity

8:05

for the guys who are interested in doing it to just

8:08

talk to a new audience, show kind

8:10

of a side of yourself that you might not get to show on

8:13

social media or in any other

8:15

type of broadcast setting. So I think for the

8:17

guys who are into it,

8:19

it's really something that is unlike

8:21

anything else you can do. I

8:25

love I love talking to people, so it's

8:27

always fun, and you know, it's cool to kind

8:29

of see what they're saying. I spoke to Boston

8:31

Red Sox outfielder Alex where do you go? You

8:33

know, it's not as uh, what I

8:35

guess sweet. People think like there's a lot of

8:38

F bombs and you know, pro banity,

8:40

I guess be said out there all

8:43

right, So we have to talk about one of the big foul

8:46

mouth elephant challenges in the

8:48

room, the hot mic. Emma. We're

8:50

always told in this business in particular that every

8:52

mic is hot, watch what you say. But

8:54

we are professional media members baseball players

8:56

famously not so careful with what they say.

8:59

I would imagine gin that there's

9:01

some consternation stress

9:03

level from ESPN side about

9:05

potential agree justus FCC violations for

9:08

language, Like what's the plan here?

9:10

How do they do they have like a drop button?

9:12

How does that work? Yes, this was

9:15

my original question here what set me off

9:17

down this line of questioning

9:19

with the original tweet? And they do have

9:21

a way to drop the mic for just a

9:23

few seconds where you're not dropping all of the audio,

9:25

You're just cutting off access to the player

9:28

or the players around him, but you still have the booth

9:30

going. So they do have that is

9:32

something that they can do if they need to. Um

9:35

but everyone said like they have not had

9:37

to do it yet, that everyone has been a

9:40

ball behaved and kept it clean. I

9:43

gotta be honest, with you. I wish they weren't

9:49

a little disappointed. You know, let one

9:51

fly every now and again, keep Carl

9:53

Ravage and ESPN on their toes. Uh,

9:56

just see how it goes. If

9:58

you're talking about getting authentic experience

10:01

for viewers, I I agree, like that is

10:03

the way to do it. I spoke to ESPM

10:05

producer Phil Orleans your

10:07

microphone. Any awareness that comes with its

10:10

talking to a national audience is

10:13

a is a pretty wonderful governor on

10:16

player's choice of language. So

10:19

you know, if you want to say it makes it a little bit less authentic.

10:22

They don't curse their way through. We

10:25

want authenticity. Mike up everyone

10:27

and everything. More exposure is better reader

10:29

on us I dot com. It's an excellent story. We

10:31

literally mic her up every chance we get. Am

10:34

a bachelory as always, thank you

10:36

for this, Thank you. Sports

10:43

Illustrated Weekly is a production of Sports Illustrated

10:45

and I Heeart Radio. For more podcasts

10:47

from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio

10:50

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

10:52

you get your favorite shows. And

10:54

for more Sports Illustrated its best stories and podcasts,

10:57

visit SI dot com. This up

11:00

Sota Sports Illustrated Weekly was produced by Jordan Rozzieri,

11:02

Jessica Rmoski and Isaac Lee, who

11:04

was also our sound engineer. Our

11:07

senior producers are Dan Bloom and Harry sward

11:09

Out. Our executive producers are

11:11

Scott Brody and me John Gonzalez.

11:14

Our theme song is by Nolan Schneider.