Are We About To Get A "Manningcast" For Sunday Night Baseball Featuring Alex Rodriguez?
It was only a matter of time before other sports took after the "Manningcast" idea and made their own booth, that sounds like it may happen with Alex Rodriguez and Sunday Night Baseball. The New York Post is reporting that A-Rod may be getting his own "Manningcast" type broadcast with ESPN shaking up their Sunday Night Baseball crew. Is it the worst idea I've heard from baseball this week? Absolutely not. Is A-Rod the perfect person for it? Probably not. Would he be entertaining? Maybe, but if you're expecting a baseball version of what we see every Monday night you're in for a rude awakening. ESPN has done similar alternate broadcasts before and they aren't too bad, but something tells me it would be difficult to pull off week after week. There is no way they could replicate the success and good natured fun that they have between Eli and Peyton, just no way. If this does happen that obviously means Rodriguez is out of the normal Sunday Night Baseball booth and into a broadcast of his own. They are still tossing around names that could fill the traditional SNB booth, including names like David Cone and Jon Sciambi. Both really good announcers who would be good for Sunday Nights. There are just so many questions about Rodriguez fitting into the Peyton Manning role.
He doesn't have the sense of humor or charisma that Peyton has, everything with Rodriguez seems calculated and forced. Sometimes it's like he's not even watching the game. There was the classic clip from last year where he was trying to interview Jose Ramirez while he was supposed to be on deck. Sometimes he has word vomit and it just keeps on coming out and it ends up like Michael Scott where he starts a sentence and has no clue where it's going. I don't think he should be the top guy for a role like this, but there are worse options. Someone who I think would be great at this is CC Sabathia. His podcast is great, he's witty and very funny. He probably can't use the language he wants to use on cable TV, but I think he'd be awesome. Same with Adam Jones. Those guys wouldn't beat around the bush and would be very fun to watch and listen to.
Obviously with A-Rod you have a massive name. People will watch just for him, but it will be a much different draw than Monday Night Football. Every Monday night it is a spectacle, it's a giant production. Sunday Night Baseball is just another baseball game. There is no real buzz around a big Sunday night baseball game, it doesn't carry the same weight. Will they be doing it for the full season? How many games is it going to be for? Even with Eli and Peyton we only got about 10 games, they can't run A-Rod and his crew out there for 6 months straight. One of the pros is that A-Rod will only have to work with about 10 different teams, we all know Sunday night baseball is a mixture of the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Braves, Dodgers, Padres, Mets, and that is about it. It's not even close buzz wise to Monday night football. It would be cool for a few games, but I don't think it has the staying power that Peyton and Eli have. And that isn't anything against Alex, it's just the game itself. It will be interesting to see how they pull this off if it's given a go, I have a feeling people will be very quick to jump all over Alex and anyone in his booth.