ESPN Wants A Rod To Replace Aaron Boone In The Sunday Night Baseball Booth And That Would Suck So Much

Sporting News- ESPN is looking to drop an A-Bomb on its chief rival by stealing Alex Rodriguez away from Fox Sports. The Worldwide Leader in Sports is trying to lure the former Yankees superstar and current MLB analyst away from his present media employer, multiple sources tell Sporting News. ESPN would even be willing to “share” A-Rod with Fox, but Fox is not interested in such an arrangement involving the three-time American League MVP and 2009 World Series champion, who signed a multiyear contract with the Los Angles-based network before last season.

“ESPN wants A-Rod badly,” said a source with knowledge of the talks, “but Fox, in general, is not good about sharing talent.”

Fox, ESPN and Rodriguez’s media representative declined to comment. The ESPN deal is not done, and the Miami-based A-Rod would have to think twice about leaving Fox. He has been brilliant on TV ever since debuting in the 2015 MLB postseason. His performance has helped him rehabilitate his steroids-tainted image.

FUCK THATTTT. A Rod is a perfect fit for Fox Sports and how they cover baseball. Bringing him over to the fun sponges at ESPN would be horrible for baseball and horrible for A Rod in general. Carrabis and I were actually wondering yesterday who would take over for the departing Dan Shulman and Aaron Boone in the Sunday Night Baseball booth. But A Rod is not who we had in mind. It’s not bad for A Rod to hop in the Sunday Night Baseball booth during the regular season. But it’s horrible for the postseason coverage because ESPN has zero rights past the Wild Card game. There was nothing better the last two postseasons flipping over before and after the games to hear A Rod, Big Papi, Keith Hernandez, Pete Rose (two years ago), and Frank Thomas talking baseball. Nothing. A Rod taking his talents to ESPN would absolutely stink and ruin all of that.

It sounds like ESPN would be okay with sharing A Rod while Fox Sports is not. No thanks if that’s not on the table. The other downside to A Rod hopping in the booth would mean listening to the audio of the telecasts would be a must, which also means I’d have to deal with Jessica Mendoza chiming in. That’s maybe the worst part of all of this and it makes me sick inside already. She may be the worst on-air personality in all of sports and I’d be willing to bet she’s part of the reason Shulman left ESPN as a whole.

Another interesting hold up according to the Big Lead is that A-Rod wants to have his say in the new play-by-by announcer for Sunday Night Baseball.

“A-Rod is demanding input as to who does play-by-play on the ESPN broadcasts, according to our sources. Over the weekend, McCarthy reported that Jon “Boog” Sciambi was the “lead candidate” to replace Dan Shulman on play-by-play. However, A-Rod’s preferred broadcaster in this spot is Matt Vasgersian, whom he called a game with at FOX last year.”

Sciambi is wallpaper and just another random name, but Vasgersian would be AWESOME. I’d still be bummed as fuck about A Rod leaving Fox’s postseason coverage, but bringing over Vasgersian and A Rod would be a big time move. If I get to hear “Santa Maria” after every big homer I guess I could deal with Mendoza’s nonsense.

I still hope A Rod stays at Fox Sports where he belongs. It’s wild how good this group is together

Also we could never have moments like these ever again