As Aaron Judge Approaches Roger Maris' HR Record, MLB Announces They Will NOT Move Friday Night's Yankee Game Off Of Apple TV's Exclusive Shitty Broadcast
John Fisher. Getty Images.We are about to find out, because with Judge at 59 homers, he is staring at a Friday and Apple TV+ exclusive stream of the Yankees-Red Sox game with potentially historic implications.
If it happens, the booth of Stephen Nelson, Hunter Pence and Katie Nolan will have a chance to put their signature on the moment.
An MLB spokesman said there is no plan to change the broadcasting schedule.
It's September 20th and Aaron Judge currently stands at 59 homers on the season. Three more bombs and he'll have himself the historic AL record that's stood since 1961, as well as the non-steroid record. Every at bat now is basically must watch TV as he chases history. Hell, I was at a bar on Sunday and the biggest roars came when Judge made contact, not when a big play happened in the NFL. It's fucking crazy what he's doing and it's time more people started appreciating what we're watching.
This week the Yankees host on a six game home-stand with two against the Pirates and four versus the Red Sox. Judge can easily knock this out in these six games and that forces you to look at the broadcast schedule.
Tuesday and Wednesday you don't have to worry if you're a Yankees fan, YES has the call. Thursday night's game vs. Boston will be on FOX, but on Friday night Apple TV has the rights which presents a nightmare for basically everyone involved.
I don't think I'm alone in the slightest when I say the Apple TV's baseball broadcast this year has been an unmitigated disaster. Each week you just pray your team isn't on their schedule. The announcers are atrocious, lacking baseball knowledge as well as awareness in the game itself. For example last week the Orioles' Gunnar Henderson hit a solo homer with 2 outs in the 9th to make it 6-3 Blue Jays. The call for that one?
"Gunner Henderson silences the Rogers Centre!
Really silenced the Rogers Centre as all you could here were boos raining down from the stands. A solo shot to cut the lead to three with one out to go. Silenced. Fuck me.
Well, MLB is sticking to the schedule because I'm sure Apple paid them a fuck ton of money for these rights and it would be a tough financially to tell them to piss off, even though it's the right move for the sake of the moment. The broadcasters for Friday night will be Stephen Nelson, Hunter Pence and Katie Nolan. If he either ties Maris or breaks the record on Friday, you're going to have those three on the call every time you listen back for the remainder of time. Nightmare for us, jackpot for Apple TV. Dream scenario for them actually.
The other issue with Apple TV is pretty simple — the game will not be on normal television. You're knocking out more than 50% of your normal audience probably, if not more, by putting the game on there. What person over the age of 50 is going to figure this out? Good luck explaining to your parents how this all works. Not just that, what about bars? While you'd imagine a good amount have gotten the hint with Thursday Night Football now on Amazon Prime, I'm not sure how many have Apple TV ready to go for this. What a disaster that'd be especially with a lot of people out drinking to start their weekend.
Imagine what Michael Kay is thinking. You know he's had this call scripted and written out for months just begging for the opportunity to present itself. He wakes up everyday and rehearses it in front of his mirror before doing anything else. If this happens this week he's got Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday to get it done with Sunday's game on ESPN.
You know 61 or 62 is happening Friday and they're gonna totally fuck up the call. They'll probably say it was Oswaldo with the homer considering they've already mixed up the two before.
5'10" Oswaldo Cabrera and 6'7" Aaron Judge, basically the same. God help us all.
Every Yankee fan is obviously rooting for him to get it done in these next few days while Yankee haters are all in on the chaos. I don't like this one bit. If they had some decency they'd let YES also call the game at the same time for the sake of the local fans. This is BRUTAL.