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Speaker 1: Before we begin, a reminder to please rate and review

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Speaker 1: our show. It helps new listeners discover us and grow

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Speaker 1: the program. On this episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly, the

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Speaker 1: NBA and the NFL have lately tried to increase fan

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Speaker 1: access and enjoyment by making up players. But perhaps no

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Speaker 1: sport is better suited for the miked up experiment turned

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Speaker 1: to entertainment revolution than Major League Baseball. SI stafford m

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Speaker 1: A Bachelori joins me to discuss the happy union of

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Speaker 1: baseball players and microphones and how surprisingly there have been

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Speaker 1: foul balls, but so far no foul language. Yeah. I'm

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Speaker 1: your host, John Gonzalez from Sports Illustrated and I heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: This is Sports Illustrated Weekly. E'm a Bachelari. Welcome back

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Speaker 1: to Sports Illustrated Weekly. Happy to be back. You're always back.

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Speaker 1: I feel like you're always on. This is basically your podcast.

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Speaker 1: Now you've been on so many times. We're gonna add

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Speaker 1: you to the credits. We recently had you for a

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Speaker 1: baseball double header. I encourage people to go back and

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Speaker 1: listen to that. We discussed relievers who have to run

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Speaker 1: in from the bullpen for fights, and of course Dodger

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Speaker 1: dogs being the dominant concession food. There's another baseball story,

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Speaker 1: Emma from your baseball mind. Tell us about the tweet

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Speaker 1: two story pipeline that you have described on Twitter and

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Speaker 1: why you decided to write about baseball players who are

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Speaker 1: miked up for Sunday Night Baseball. Yeah, this one came

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Speaker 1: together pretty easily while watching From Day A Baseball a

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Speaker 1: few weeks ago. I we did it that. I was

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Speaker 1: very impressed with the fact that we had not had

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Speaker 1: a player caught cursing or using other colorful language while

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Speaker 1: maped up in a game, just because you've had a

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Speaker 1: player maked up basically every single game, sometimes multiple players,

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Speaker 1: and they just really stood out to me. And one

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Speaker 1: of ESPN's producer pr people reached out to me and said,

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Speaker 1: I also am impressed that we haven't had someone caught

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Speaker 1: Curson yet, but if you'd like to talk to the

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Speaker 1: people who are doing this and write about it, you can,

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Speaker 1: and here's how to do it. And so I just

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Speaker 1: took that and ran with it. I'm glad that you

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Speaker 1: did because we're all the better for it. It's a

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Speaker 1: wonderful piece. I encourage everybody to read it on SI

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Speaker 1: dot com. And I want to talk about some of

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Speaker 1: those challenges to the broadcast, but miking players up as

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Speaker 1: sort of a new phenomenon. The NBA has some mics

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Speaker 1: on coaches during timeouts and halftime, some of that in

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Speaker 1: the NFL. But you think baseball is better suited for

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Speaker 1: this than any other sport. Yeah, Like, as you said,

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Speaker 1: we've seen more of this across sports in huddles on

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Speaker 1: benches from ley, let's stay together, play again together. But

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Speaker 1: baseball where you have all of this kind of yeah,

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Speaker 1: downtime for fielders because they're obviously engaged in the work

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Speaker 1: of standing in the field and being ready to have

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Speaker 1: to jump into action if they need it. But it's

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Speaker 1: very structured, you know, like the park of an at bat.

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Speaker 1: You can see what's thing, you can see what's coming,

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Speaker 1: and if you're a positioned, particularly in the outfield, where

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Speaker 1: you're just stuck waiting for quite a bit of time

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Speaker 1: and you know, are functionally by yourself quite a bit

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Speaker 1: of distance from other fielders, it's not just that you

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Speaker 1: can be miked up and the broadcast can get what

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Speaker 1: you were saying, you know, after the fact. That's you

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Speaker 1: can really hold an active conversation with the people in

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Speaker 1: the broadcast booth because the structure of the game is

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Speaker 1: such where you have that kind of space, you have

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Speaker 1: such discrete pockets of action. Everything that I think makes

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Speaker 1: some people say baseball is boring also lends itself really

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Speaker 1: well to having conversations in the moment in a way

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Speaker 1: that you just can't really do and in basketball or

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Speaker 1: in football. Yeah, the pace definitely lends itself to that.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned the outfield. That's where you start your piece

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Speaker 1: with Orioles. Right fielder Austin Haze, he goes springing after

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Speaker 1: a ball, he pulls up short because it's a found

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Speaker 1: Then he has this exchange with ESPN play by play

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Speaker 1: guy Karl Ravat. That would have been awesome right there

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Speaker 1: if I could have made a diving catch, you know,

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Speaker 1: on pitch right away. You know. And I forgot to

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Speaker 1: tell you, once you have committed to the earpiece of microphone,

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Speaker 1: every ball will be hit to you. Oh. I love that.

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Speaker 1: I want some action out here. That's why we play outfield.

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Speaker 1: That's right. It's those kinds of moments really that make

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Speaker 1: this effort, this endeavor to mic up players worthwhile. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you're listening to this conversation that they're having with the

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Speaker 1: booth and then you see how they adapt they have

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Speaker 1: to go on the run if they're coming towards another player.

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Speaker 1: Just seeing them break up that conversation with the actual

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Speaker 1: action and then return back to the flow of conversation

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Speaker 1: has been really cool and I mean I've enjoyed it

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Speaker 1: just as a viewer this year. So what about we

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Speaker 1: talked about challenges, There are challenges from the broadcaster perspective too,

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Speaker 1: right because as journalists when we're talking to somebody interviewing

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Speaker 1: somebody that's in a controlled environment, this is happening real

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Speaker 1: time while a game is going on, and I would

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Speaker 1: imagine it's a fine line between talking to the players,

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Speaker 1: which is the whole point of this, and not over

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Speaker 1: talking to the players, which would be annoying, to stray

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Speaker 1: acting and sort of not only hurt the broadcast but

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Speaker 1: also complicate matters for the player. Yeah, I think it's

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Speaker 1: a pretty fine balance to strike. As you were saying, hey,

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Speaker 1: you're you're they're still calling a game. There's still action

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Speaker 1: happening even while they're talking to the player, So there's

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Speaker 1: that to balance. There's the fact that they know the

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Speaker 1: players doing their job that even if you know these

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Speaker 1: are all guys who are pretty good at what they

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Speaker 1: do and can multitask and have a conversation while they're

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Speaker 1: watching the hitter and potentially preparing to leap into action

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Speaker 1: if they have to. They're doing their job and they

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Speaker 1: can't be that distracted. But you're also trying to hold

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Speaker 1: a good conversation that is bringing something new to the

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Speaker 1: viewer and giving them something they couldn't get elsewhere. And

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Speaker 1: I think that's a it's a lot of competing things

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Speaker 1: to have to balance. They had experimented with this previously

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Speaker 1: in like spring training and All Star Games. Oh man,

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Speaker 1: this is what a treat this is for me. Usually

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Speaker 1: I'm not here talking to myself, so the people out

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Speaker 1: here they already know like that he's a little odd.

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Speaker 1: So this isn't even uh, this isn't even crazy to

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Speaker 1: them that I'm talking to myself out here. This is

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Speaker 1: the first full year of regular baseball where you're getting it,

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Speaker 1: and I think it seems like they're finding or footing

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Speaker 1: or a little more as the season goes on. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's been fun revealing. It's great for the fans and

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Speaker 1: the viewers. As you mentioned in media members, more access

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Speaker 1: is always positive. I wonder Ama, What about the players

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Speaker 1: do they enjoy this? Is this something that you know what,

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Speaker 1: give me the mic, put the mic on me. I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna have a blast with this. What do they make

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Speaker 1: of it? Because for a long time, baseball, especially in

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Speaker 1: the clubhouse, the environment of baseball can be sort of parochial, provincial,

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Speaker 1: protected incursions by us the media. That's not their favorite thing.

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Speaker 1: And now it's almost like they've joined the media in

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Speaker 1: a way. Yeah, I think there are a few factors

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Speaker 1: to this. One is that it's completely opped in that

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Speaker 1: the broadcast approaches the players, or more recently, some of

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Speaker 1: the players have approached the broadcast and said, hey, I

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Speaker 1: want to do this, but no one has to do this.

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Speaker 1: So there are certainly guys who maybe have more of

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Speaker 1: that old school mindset like you were describing, or just

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Speaker 1: a little more personally closed off just their personality. And

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Speaker 1: if that's the case, they're not going to be the

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Speaker 1: type that's going to do this. But the other factors,

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Speaker 1: I think just that as times have changed, as the

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Speaker 1: environment around baseball has changed, as guys have gotten more

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Speaker 1: active on social media, as there's been just more movement

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Speaker 1: towards keeping the game a little looser a little more

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Speaker 1: fun just being willing to let guys be themselves in

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Speaker 1: different environments. I think you see more guys who maybe

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Speaker 1: once upon a time would have been told pay turn

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Speaker 1: it down. You don't need to show so much of yourself.

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Speaker 1: You're seeing less of that. It's still there, as you said,

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Speaker 1: but it's less of a factor than it was, certainly

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Speaker 1: twenty or thirty years ago, but even five or ten

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Speaker 1: years ago. I think you're having a little bit of

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Speaker 1: movement there in general to let guys embrace being themselves,

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Speaker 1: whatever that looks like. And you know, this is a

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Speaker 1: pretty cool opportunity for the guys who are interested in

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Speaker 1: doing it to just talk to a new audience, show

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Speaker 1: kind of a side of yourself that you might not

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Speaker 1: get to show on social media or in any other

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Speaker 1: type of broadcast setting. So I think for the guys

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Speaker 1: who are into it, it's really something that is unlike

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Speaker 1: anything else you can do. I love I love talking

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Speaker 1: to people, so it's always fun, and you know, it's

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Speaker 1: cool to kind of see what they're saying. I spoke

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Speaker 1: to Boston Red Sox outfielder Alex where do you go?

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Speaker 1: You know, it's not as uh, what I guess sweet.

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Speaker 1: People think like there's a lot of F bombs and

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Speaker 1: you know, pro banity, I guess be said out there

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Speaker 1: all right, So we have to talk about one of

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Speaker 1: the big foul mouth elephant challenges in the room, the

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Speaker 1: hot mic. Emma. We're always told in this business in

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Speaker 1: particular that every mic is hot, watch what you say.

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Speaker 1: But we are professional media members baseball players famously not

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Speaker 1: so careful with what they say. I would imagine gin

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Speaker 1: that there's some consternation stress level from ESPN side about

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Speaker 1: potential agree justus FCC violations for language, Like what's the

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Speaker 1: plan here? How do they do they have like a

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Speaker 1: drop button? How does that work? Yes, this was my

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Speaker 1: original question here what set me off down this line

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Speaker 1: of questioning with the original tweet? And they do have

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Speaker 1: a way to drop the mic for just a few

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Speaker 1: seconds where you're not dropping all of the audio, You're

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Speaker 1: just cutting off access to the player or the players

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Speaker 1: around him, but you still have the booth going. So

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Speaker 1: they do have that is something that they can do

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Speaker 1: if they need to. Um but everyone said like they

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Speaker 1: have not had to do it yet, that everyone has

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Speaker 1: been a ball behaved and kept it clean. I gotta

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Speaker 1: be honest, with you. I wish they weren't a little disappointed.

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Speaker 1: You know, let one fly every now and again, keep

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Speaker 1: Carl Ravage and ESPN on their toes. Uh, just see

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Speaker 1: how it goes. If you're talking about getting authentic experience

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Speaker 1: for viewers, I I agree, like that is the way

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Speaker 1: to do it. I spoke to ESPM producer Phil Orleans

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Speaker 1: your microphone. Any awareness that comes with its talking to

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Speaker 1: a national audience is a is a pretty wonderful governor

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Speaker 1: on player's choice of language. So you know, if you

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Speaker 1: want to say it makes it a little bit less authentic.

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Speaker 1: They don't curse their way through. We want authenticity. Mike

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Speaker 1: up everyone and everything. More exposure is better reader on

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Speaker 1: us I dot com. It's an excellent story. We literally

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Speaker 1: mic her up every chance we get. Am a bachelory

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Speaker 1: as always, thank you for this, Thank you. Sports Illustrated

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Speaker 1: Weekly is a production of Sports Illustrated and I Heeart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

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Speaker 1: favorite shows. And for more Sports Illustrated its best stories

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Speaker 1: and podcasts, visit SI dot com. This up Sota Sports

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Speaker 1: Illustrated Weekly was produced by Jordan Rozzieri, Jessica Rmoski and

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Speaker 1: Isaac Lee, who was also our sound engineer. Our senior

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Speaker 1: producers are Dan Bloom and Harry sward Out. Our executive

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Speaker 1: producers are Scott Brody and me John Gonzalez. Our theme

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Speaker 1: song is by Nolan Schneider.