Wainwright may have a future in the broadcast booth after he retires from playingGETTY IMAGES
MLB Cardinals P Adam Wainwright "showed some potential in his Fox Sports game analyst debut this week, but he represents how hard it is to find MLB's Tony Romo," according to Andrew Marchand of the N.Y. POST. During Braves-Marlins NLDS Game 1, Wainwright "had some nice moments, none more so than when he touted" Braves C Travis d'Arnaud's "sneaky power before d'Arnaud broke the game open with a three-run bomb." When Wainwright decides to retire, he "figures to be a candidate for local and national networks, but he may not want to make the full-time commitment as ... he wants to be home with his wife and kids." If it "were possible, he'd be interested in a 'pick your schedule' type of commitment" (N.Y. POST, 10/9). In St. Louis, Ben Frederickson wrote Wainwright has "got as long of a career in broadcasting available to him after he retires, if he wants it." Frederickson: "Funny. Has respect of peers. Knows the game as well as anyone. He can take viewers inside the game -- if he's willing to not pull some punches" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 10/8).
QUESTIONABLE TIMING: In Chicago, Jeff Agrest writes in-game player interviews "have become more prevalent this season as MLB tries to connect fans with players." But interviewing players in games that matter is "out of place." Even with all the downtime during a game, "asking players to carry on a conversation while the ball is live is asking a lot, even if they're willing to cooperate, which MLB and the players' union have pushed." The broadcasters are "trying to interview the player without distracting him, the player is trying to listen to and answer questions while playing and the viewer is trying not to cringe at all of it" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 10/9).
Former Fox Sports execs and longtime collaborators Ed Goren (l) and David Hill (r), shown in '05Getty Images
FOX & MLB, AN ORAL HISTORY: As Fox begins its coverage of the MLB postseason for the 25th consecutive year, SBJ looks back at how a renegade network and a sport in need of change formed a relationship in the first place. For the cover story of SBJ's Oct. 12 issue (available Monday), staff writer Eric Prisbell spoke to the people who took the partnership from idea to execution, up through the first year of Fox' deal in '96. In this exclusive online snippet, former Fox Sports execs Ed Goren and David Hill recount how just two years later, Fox found itself with the opportunity to cover Mark McGwire's quest to break Roger Maris' single-season home run record. There was only one problem. Goren: "David was running primetime for the network. It was July when I went to him and said, 'Mark McGwire may set a home run record this year and we have to figure out how to broadcast that game.' He said, 'How are you going to figure that out? Wait a minute, I have a new primetime lineup on the network that we are spending a lot of money promoting, and you want me on a whim to drop one of our new shoes and put a Cardinals' game on? ... That's not going to happen, get the hell out of here.'"
