September 9, 2022 • 11 mins
This is the first complete season that major leaguers have worn microphones on the field during Sunday Night Baseball. How's that going? We check in with SI's Emma Baccellieri and ask about the frolicking, folly, and inadvertent f-bombs that can come with a hot mic.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Before we begin, a reminder to please rate and review
our show. It helps new listeners discover us and grow
the program. On this episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly, the
NBA and the NFL have lately tried to increase fan
access and enjoyment by making up players. But perhaps no
sport is better suited for the miked up experiment turned
(00:22):
to entertainment revolution than Major League Baseball. SI stafford m
A Bachelori joins me to discuss the happy union of
baseball players and microphones and how surprisingly there have been
foul balls, but so far no foul language. Yeah. I'm
your host, John Gonzalez from Sports Illustrated and I heart Radio.
(00:44):
This is Sports Illustrated Weekly. E'm a Bachelari. Welcome back
to Sports Illustrated Weekly. Happy to be back. You're always back.
I feel like you're always on. This is basically your podcast.
Now you've been on so many times. We're gonna add
you to the credits. We recently had you for a
baseball double header. I encourage people to go back and
listen to that. We discussed relievers who have to run
(01:05):
in from the bullpen for fights, and of course Dodger
dogs being the dominant concession food. There's another baseball story,
Emma from your baseball mind. Tell us about the tweet
two story pipeline that you have described on Twitter and
why you decided to write about baseball players who are
miked up for Sunday Night Baseball. Yeah, this one came
together pretty easily while watching From Day A Baseball a
(01:30):
few weeks ago. I we did it that. I was
very impressed with the fact that we had not had
a player caught cursing or using other colorful language while
maped up in a game, just because you've had a
player maked up basically every single game, sometimes multiple players,
and they just really stood out to me. And one
of ESPN's producer pr people reached out to me and said,
(01:54):
I also am impressed that we haven't had someone caught
Curson yet, but if you'd like to talk to the
people who are doing this and write about it, you can,
and here's how to do it. And so I just
took that and ran with it. I'm glad that you
did because we're all the better for it. It's a
wonderful piece. I encourage everybody to read it on SI
dot com. And I want to talk about some of
(02:14):
those challenges to the broadcast, but miking players up as
sort of a new phenomenon. The NBA has some mics
on coaches during timeouts and halftime, some of that in
the NFL. But you think baseball is better suited for
this than any other sport. Yeah, Like, as you said,
we've seen more of this across sports in huddles on
benches from ley, let's stay together, play again together. But
(02:39):
baseball where you have all of this kind of yeah,
downtime for fielders because they're obviously engaged in the work
of standing in the field and being ready to have
to jump into action if they need it. But it's
very structured, you know, like the park of an at bat.
You can see what's thing, you can see what's coming,
(03:01):
and if you're a positioned, particularly in the outfield, where
you're just stuck waiting for quite a bit of time
and you know, are functionally by yourself quite a bit
of distance from other fielders, it's not just that you
can be miked up and the broadcast can get what
you were saying, you know, after the fact. That's you
can really hold an active conversation with the people in
(03:22):
the broadcast booth because the structure of the game is
such where you have that kind of space, you have
such discrete pockets of action. Everything that I think makes
some people say baseball is boring also lends itself really
well to having conversations in the moment in a way
that you just can't really do and in basketball or
in football. Yeah, the pace definitely lends itself to that.
(03:45):
You mentioned the outfield. That's where you start your piece
with Orioles. Right fielder Austin Haze, he goes springing after
a ball, he pulls up short because it's a found
Then he has this exchange with ESPN play by play
guy Karl Ravat. That would have been awesome right there
if I could have made a diving catch, you know,
on pitch right away. You know. And I forgot to
tell you, once you have committed to the earpiece of microphone,
every ball will be hit to you. Oh. I love that.
(04:07):
I want some action out here. That's why we play outfield.
That's right. It's those kinds of moments really that make
this effort, this endeavor to mic up players worthwhile. Yeah,
you're listening to this conversation that they're having with the
booth and then you see how they adapt they have
to go on the run if they're coming towards another player.
Just seeing them break up that conversation with the actual
(04:29):
action and then return back to the flow of conversation
has been really cool and I mean I've enjoyed it
just as a viewer this year. So what about we
talked about challenges, There are challenges from the broadcaster perspective too,
right because as journalists when we're talking to somebody interviewing
somebody that's in a controlled environment, this is happening real
(04:51):
time while a game is going on, and I would
imagine it's a fine line between talking to the players,
which is the whole point of this, and not over
talking to the players, which would be annoying, to stray
acting and sort of not only hurt the broadcast but
also complicate matters for the player. Yeah, I think it's
a pretty fine balance to strike. As you were saying, hey,
you're you're they're still calling a game. There's still action
(05:12):
happening even while they're talking to the player, So there's
that to balance. There's the fact that they know the
players doing their job that even if you know these
are all guys who are pretty good at what they
do and can multitask and have a conversation while they're
watching the hitter and potentially preparing to leap into action
if they have to. They're doing their job and they
(05:32):
can't be that distracted. But you're also trying to hold
a good conversation that is bringing something new to the
viewer and giving them something they couldn't get elsewhere. And
I think that's a it's a lot of competing things
to have to balance. They had experimented with this previously
in like spring training and All Star Games. Oh man,
this is what a treat this is for me. Usually
(05:53):
I'm not here talking to myself, so the people out
here they already know like that he's a little odd.
So this isn't even uh, this isn't even crazy to
them that I'm talking to myself out here. This is
the first full year of regular baseball where you're getting it,
and I think it seems like they're finding or footing
(06:15):
or a little more as the season goes on. Yeah,
it's been fun revealing. It's great for the fans and
the viewers. As you mentioned in media members, more access
is always positive. I wonder Ama, What about the players
do they enjoy this? Is this something that you know what,
give me the mic, put the mic on me. I'm
gonna have a blast with this. What do they make
of it? Because for a long time, baseball, especially in
(06:36):
the clubhouse, the environment of baseball can be sort of parochial, provincial,
protected incursions by us the media. That's not their favorite thing.
And now it's almost like they've joined the media in
a way. Yeah, I think there are a few factors
to this. One is that it's completely opped in that
(06:59):
the broadcast approaches the players, or more recently, some of
the players have approached the broadcast and said, hey, I
want to do this, but no one has to do this.
So there are certainly guys who maybe have more of
that old school mindset like you were describing, or just
a little more personally closed off just their personality. And
if that's the case, they're not going to be the
type that's going to do this. But the other factors,
(07:21):
I think just that as times have changed, as the
environment around baseball has changed, as guys have gotten more
active on social media, as there's been just more movement
towards keeping the game a little looser a little more
fun just being willing to let guys be themselves in
different environments. I think you see more guys who maybe
(07:42):
once upon a time would have been told pay turn
it down. You don't need to show so much of yourself.
You're seeing less of that. It's still there, as you said,
but it's less of a factor than it was, certainly
twenty or thirty years ago, but even five or ten
years ago. I think you're having a little bit of
movement there in general to let guys embrace being themselves,
whatever that looks like. And you know, this is a
(08:03):
pretty cool opportunity for the guys who are interested in
doing it to just talk to a new audience, show
kind of a side of yourself that you might not
get to show on social media or in any other
type of broadcast setting. So I think for the guys
who are into it, it's really something that is unlike
anything else you can do. I love I love talking
(08:26):
to people, so it's always fun, and you know, it's
cool to kind of see what they're saying. I spoke
to Boston Red Sox outfielder Alex where do you go?
You know, it's not as uh, what I guess sweet.
People think like there's a lot of F bombs and
you know, pro banity, I guess be said out there
all right, So we have to talk about one of
the big foul mouth elephant challenges in the room, the
(08:49):
hot mic. Emma. We're always told in this business in
particular that every mic is hot, watch what you say.
But we are professional media members baseball players famously not
so careful with what they say. I would imagine gin
that there's some consternation stress level from ESPN side about
potential agree justus FCC violations for language, Like what's the
(09:09):
plan here? How do they do they have like a
drop button? How does that work? Yes, this was my
original question here what set me off down this line
of questioning with the original tweet? And they do have
a way to drop the mic for just a few
seconds where you're not dropping all of the audio, You're
just cutting off access to the player or the players
around him, but you still have the booth going. So
(09:31):
they do have that is something that they can do
if they need to. Um but everyone said like they
have not had to do it yet, that everyone has
been a ball behaved and kept it clean. I gotta
be honest, with you. I wish they weren't a little disappointed.
You know, let one fly every now and again, keep
(09:52):
Carl Ravage and ESPN on their toes. Uh, just see
how it goes. If you're talking about getting authentic experience
for viewers, I I agree, like that is the way
to do it. I spoke to ESPM producer Phil Orleans
your microphone. Any awareness that comes with its talking to
a national audience is a is a pretty wonderful governor
(10:15):
on player's choice of language. So you know, if you
want to say it makes it a little bit less authentic.
They don't curse their way through. We want authenticity. Mike
up everyone and everything. More exposure is better reader on
us I dot com. It's an excellent story. We literally
mic her up every chance we get. Am a bachelory
as always, thank you for this, Thank you. Sports Illustrated
(10:43):
Weekly is a production of Sports Illustrated and I Heeart Radio.
For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
favorite shows. And for more Sports Illustrated its best stories
and podcasts, visit SI dot com. This up Sota Sports
Illustrated Weekly was produced by Jordan Rozzieri, Jessica Rmoski and
(11:03):
Isaac Lee, who was also our sound engineer. Our senior
producers are Dan Bloom and Harry sward Out. Our executive
producers are Scott Brody and me John Gonzalez. Our theme
song is by Nolan Schneider.
Before we begin, a reminder to please rate and review
our show. It helps new listeners discover us and grow
the program. On this episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly, the
NBA and the NFL have lately tried to increase fan
access and enjoyment by making up players. But perhaps no
sport is better suited for the miked up experiment turned
(00:22):
to entertainment revolution than Major League Baseball. SI stafford m
A Bachelori joins me to discuss the happy union of
baseball players and microphones and how surprisingly there have been
foul balls, but so far no foul language. Yeah. I'm
your host, John Gonzalez from Sports Illustrated and I heart Radio.
(00:44):
This is Sports Illustrated Weekly. E'm a Bachelari. Welcome back
to Sports Illustrated Weekly. Happy to be back. You're always back.
I feel like you're always on. This is basically your podcast.
Now you've been on so many times. We're gonna add
you to the credits. We recently had you for a
baseball double header. I encourage people to go back and
listen to that. We discussed relievers who have to run
(01:05):
in from the bullpen for fights, and of course Dodger
dogs being the dominant concession food. There's another baseball story,
Emma from your baseball mind. Tell us about the tweet
two story pipeline that you have described on Twitter and
why you decided to write about baseball players who are
miked up for Sunday Night Baseball. Yeah, this one came
together pretty easily while watching From Day A Baseball a
(01:30):
few weeks ago. I we did it that. I was
very impressed with the fact that we had not had
a player caught cursing or using other colorful language while
maped up in a game, just because you've had a
player maked up basically every single game, sometimes multiple players,
and they just really stood out to me. And one
of ESPN's producer pr people reached out to me and said,
(01:54):
I also am impressed that we haven't had someone caught
Curson yet, but if you'd like to talk to the
people who are doing this and write about it, you can,
and here's how to do it. And so I just
took that and ran with it. I'm glad that you
did because we're all the better for it. It's a
wonderful piece. I encourage everybody to read it on SI
dot com. And I want to talk about some of
(02:14):
those challenges to the broadcast, but miking players up as
sort of a new phenomenon. The NBA has some mics
on coaches during timeouts and halftime, some of that in
the NFL. But you think baseball is better suited for
this than any other sport. Yeah, Like, as you said,
we've seen more of this across sports in huddles on
benches from ley, let's stay together, play again together. But
(02:39):
baseball where you have all of this kind of yeah,
downtime for fielders because they're obviously engaged in the work
of standing in the field and being ready to have
to jump into action if they need it. But it's
very structured, you know, like the park of an at bat.
You can see what's thing, you can see what's coming,
(03:01):
and if you're a positioned, particularly in the outfield, where
you're just stuck waiting for quite a bit of time
and you know, are functionally by yourself quite a bit
of distance from other fielders, it's not just that you
can be miked up and the broadcast can get what
you were saying, you know, after the fact. That's you
can really hold an active conversation with the people in
(03:22):
the broadcast booth because the structure of the game is
such where you have that kind of space, you have
such discrete pockets of action. Everything that I think makes
some people say baseball is boring also lends itself really
well to having conversations in the moment in a way
that you just can't really do and in basketball or
in football. Yeah, the pace definitely lends itself to that.
(03:45):
You mentioned the outfield. That's where you start your piece
with Orioles. Right fielder Austin Haze, he goes springing after
a ball, he pulls up short because it's a found
Then he has this exchange with ESPN play by play
guy Karl Ravat. That would have been awesome right there
if I could have made a diving catch, you know,
on pitch right away. You know. And I forgot to
tell you, once you have committed to the earpiece of microphone,
every ball will be hit to you. Oh. I love that.
(04:07):
I want some action out here. That's why we play outfield.
That's right. It's those kinds of moments really that make
this effort, this endeavor to mic up players worthwhile. Yeah,
you're listening to this conversation that they're having with the
booth and then you see how they adapt they have
to go on the run if they're coming towards another player.
Just seeing them break up that conversation with the actual
(04:29):
action and then return back to the flow of conversation
has been really cool and I mean I've enjoyed it
just as a viewer this year. So what about we
talked about challenges, There are challenges from the broadcaster perspective too,
right because as journalists when we're talking to somebody interviewing
somebody that's in a controlled environment, this is happening real
(04:51):
time while a game is going on, and I would
imagine it's a fine line between talking to the players,
which is the whole point of this, and not over
talking to the players, which would be annoying, to stray
acting and sort of not only hurt the broadcast but
also complicate matters for the player. Yeah, I think it's
a pretty fine balance to strike. As you were saying, hey,
you're you're they're still calling a game. There's still action
(05:12):
happening even while they're talking to the player, So there's
that to balance. There's the fact that they know the
players doing their job that even if you know these
are all guys who are pretty good at what they
do and can multitask and have a conversation while they're
watching the hitter and potentially preparing to leap into action
if they have to. They're doing their job and they
(05:32):
can't be that distracted. But you're also trying to hold
a good conversation that is bringing something new to the
viewer and giving them something they couldn't get elsewhere. And
I think that's a it's a lot of competing things
to have to balance. They had experimented with this previously
in like spring training and All Star Games. Oh man,
this is what a treat this is for me. Usually
(05:53):
I'm not here talking to myself, so the people out
here they already know like that he's a little odd.
So this isn't even uh, this isn't even crazy to
them that I'm talking to myself out here. This is
the first full year of regular baseball where you're getting it,
and I think it seems like they're finding or footing
(06:15):
or a little more as the season goes on. Yeah,
it's been fun revealing. It's great for the fans and
the viewers. As you mentioned in media members, more access
is always positive. I wonder Ama, What about the players
do they enjoy this? Is this something that you know what,
give me the mic, put the mic on me. I'm
gonna have a blast with this. What do they make
of it? Because for a long time, baseball, especially in
(06:36):
the clubhouse, the environment of baseball can be sort of parochial, provincial,
protected incursions by us the media. That's not their favorite thing.
And now it's almost like they've joined the media in
a way. Yeah, I think there are a few factors
to this. One is that it's completely opped in that
(06:59):
the broadcast approaches the players, or more recently, some of
the players have approached the broadcast and said, hey, I
want to do this, but no one has to do this.
So there are certainly guys who maybe have more of
that old school mindset like you were describing, or just
a little more personally closed off just their personality. And
if that's the case, they're not going to be the
type that's going to do this. But the other factors,
(07:21):
I think just that as times have changed, as the
environment around baseball has changed, as guys have gotten more
active on social media, as there's been just more movement
towards keeping the game a little looser a little more
fun just being willing to let guys be themselves in
different environments. I think you see more guys who maybe
(07:42):
once upon a time would have been told pay turn
it down. You don't need to show so much of yourself.
You're seeing less of that. It's still there, as you said,
but it's less of a factor than it was, certainly
twenty or thirty years ago, but even five or ten
years ago. I think you're having a little bit of
movement there in general to let guys embrace being themselves,
whatever that looks like. And you know, this is a
(08:03):
pretty cool opportunity for the guys who are interested in
doing it to just talk to a new audience, show
kind of a side of yourself that you might not
get to show on social media or in any other
type of broadcast setting. So I think for the guys
who are into it, it's really something that is unlike
anything else you can do. I love I love talking
(08:26):
to people, so it's always fun, and you know, it's
cool to kind of see what they're saying. I spoke
to Boston Red Sox outfielder Alex where do you go?
You know, it's not as uh, what I guess sweet.
People think like there's a lot of F bombs and
you know, pro banity, I guess be said out there
all right, So we have to talk about one of
the big foul mouth elephant challenges in the room, the
(08:49):
hot mic. Emma. We're always told in this business in
particular that every mic is hot, watch what you say.
But we are professional media members baseball players famously not
so careful with what they say. I would imagine gin
that there's some consternation stress level from ESPN side about
potential agree justus FCC violations for language, Like what's the
(09:09):
plan here? How do they do they have like a
drop button? How does that work? Yes, this was my
original question here what set me off down this line
of questioning with the original tweet? And they do have
a way to drop the mic for just a few
seconds where you're not dropping all of the audio, You're
just cutting off access to the player or the players
around him, but you still have the booth going. So
(09:31):
they do have that is something that they can do
if they need to. Um but everyone said like they
have not had to do it yet, that everyone has
been a ball behaved and kept it clean. I gotta
be honest, with you. I wish they weren't a little disappointed.
You know, let one fly every now and again, keep
(09:52):
Carl Ravage and ESPN on their toes. Uh, just see
how it goes. If you're talking about getting authentic experience
for viewers, I I agree, like that is the way
to do it. I spoke to ESPM producer Phil Orleans
your microphone. Any awareness that comes with its talking to
a national audience is a is a pretty wonderful governor
(10:15):
on player's choice of language. So you know, if you
want to say it makes it a little bit less authentic.
They don't curse their way through. We want authenticity. Mike
up everyone and everything. More exposure is better reader on
us I dot com. It's an excellent story. We literally
mic her up every chance we get. Am a bachelory
as always, thank you for this, Thank you. Sports Illustrated
(10:43):
Weekly is a production of Sports Illustrated and I Heeart Radio.
For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
favorite shows. And for more Sports Illustrated its best stories
and podcasts, visit SI dot com. This up Sota Sports
Illustrated Weekly was produced by Jordan Rozzieri, Jessica Rmoski and
(11:03):
Isaac Lee, who was also our sound engineer. Our senior
producers are Dan Bloom and Harry sward Out. Our executive
producers are Scott Brody and me John Gonzalez. Our theme
song is by Nolan Schneider.
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