It’s always fun when Jim Irizarry fills in on 960 AM WSBT Sports Radio‘s “Weekday Sportsbeat” in South Bend because that means I might get to do some radio with him. (An early-morning wake-up might not be so fun for Jim…)
That was the case on Thursday morning with the 2022 Major League Baseball season set to begin a few hours later. But rather than talk about the season at hand (Go Tigers! Go Mets!), Jim combined peanut butter with chocolate to discuss MLB’s new streaming TV deals with Apple TV+ and Peacock. Is this baseball embracing the future or making it more difficult for fans to find the product?
One update since we were on the air this morning: Apple TV+ did announce their broadcast teams for this week’s Friday Night Baseball doubleheader.
For Mets-Nationals, Melanie Newman is calling play-by-play with analysts Chris Young and Hannah Keyser. Very cool to have Newman on the mic, as she’s just the second woman to call a national MLB broadcast. And Keyser does great work for Yahoo! Sports. Very intrigued to hear what she’ll bring to TV.
For Astros-Angels, Stephen Nelson is on play-by-play with Hunter Pence and Katie Nolan providing analysis. Maybe a bit more traditional here, though Nolan adds something different. Will her social media and podcast audiences follow her to Apple TV+?
Thanks to Jim for having me on the radio. Hopefully, we’ll get to do so again soon.
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