Fox Sports' Alex Rodriguez said he has not given his MLB TV analyst role "any more thought past this year," according to Neil Best of NEWSDAY. Rodriguez is a "studio analyst savant, with just the right mixture of preparation, presentation and personality." He is back on air after working with Fox last postseason, and he is "as sharp as ever." Fox' studio panel of Kevin Burkhardt, Pete Rose, Frank Thomas and Rodriguez has "developed a quirky chemistry that gained traction." The "mostly serious Rodriguez and mostly goofy Rose have played well off each other" (NEWSDAY, 10/25). SI.com's Richard Deitsch noted Fox Sports last week posted a short video of Rose giving "hitting instructions (and telling batting stories)" to Rodriguez and Thomas. Fox Sports was "rewarded with unheard-of social metrics for a studio show clip," as the video recently "passed 10.8 million views on Facebook and 143,000 shares." Fox Sports VP/Production Bardia Shah-Rais said, "It kind of just happened. Where we got lucky is that we always roll on what these guys say because you never know if there will be a moment like that" (SI.com, 10/24).
