If you have been to a thousand baseball games, played in several hundred, coached nearly a hundred, watched baseball on TV religiously since you were in diapers, and written about baseball for nearly 5 decades – would you consider yourself a pretty good judge of character when it comes to baseball stuff? Cool, I would agree and also put myself in that category of being a pretty good judge of character when it comes to baseball stuff. So, I have to sound off a bit on the newest entertainment and media fascination – the “in game, live action, while the player is in the field” interview.

Here is the setup, as I see it playing out from a fan’s perspective. It is announced during the pre-game that a player in the starting lineup, a popular player with a lot of fans and fan appeal, has agreed to wear a microphone with an earpiece and chat with the announcers. And the bonus for us fans? He will be wearing the microphone and chatting with us while he is playing his position in the field. A pre-selected inning is announced and the anticipation of the interview rises with each subsequent inning. Then, with the camera following him, the fan favorite player with his microphone clipped to his jersey and an earpiece inserted into one ear, jogs out to his position, fields a few ground balls or plays catch with another outfielder, and then gets ready for the network announcer to start chirping in his ear. As a fan, I am sooooo eager to hear from the player while he is out in the field trying to help his team win a ball game. Oh, and not get temporarily distracted and blindsided by some screaming line drive up his nose.

So, the game is live and the player is now in position and the split screen opens up on TV showing the batter/pitcher matchup and the player giving the in game interview. All the while, the mic’d up player is focusing on the batter in the batter’s box – a Major League Baseball hitter who is capable of 100+ MPH exit velocity baseball projectiles – and the very real potential for the baseball to be hit his way. The announcer lobs a few softball (no pun intended) questions like “hey what’s it like playing SS for Orioles?” or “what’s your favorite color?” or “what does it mean to make the All-Star team?” And the player answers back while getting into playing position for each play, kicking the dirt a bit, trying to act calm and collected with the best answers they can come up with at the time. Some players have baseballs hit in their direction. I’ve seen some players mic’d up that actually make catches and field ground balls and make plays. Mic’d up Infielders watch baseballs hit into the outfield and follow their normal routine – cover the bag, backup a play, get into a cutoff position. Same can be said for Outfielders who are mic’d up – they watch an infielder field a ground ball, back up a play, etc. The inning ends with the third out and the mic’d up player sprints towards the dugout, thanks the announcers, and then hands the earpiece to the network’s technician in the dugout. Phew, glad that’s over. (That’s me talking not the player.)

So, what did we learn and gain by this exercise? Did we get a greater insight into how the player positions himself against a dead pull right handed batter? Or how hard he throws a baseball to an awaiting second basemen on a double play opportunity? Or when do take two steps closer to second base because it’s two strikes on a batter who hits up the middle 84% of the time with 2 strikes? Or did we learn what the player’s favorite color was or what his favorite ice cream was? Did the player look comfortable out there answering questions at shortstop against a heavily stacked right handed hitting lineup against your off speed left handed pitcher? Did the mic’d up player look calm and collected when the ball was hit to the right side, even though it was hit to his nearby teammate and third baseman? Did the player sprint to the dugout for a glass of water or a chug of Gatorade or to get the earpiece out of his ear as soon as possible? Your opinion matters to me so when I’m finished, you can let me know your thoughts. But here is how I see it, as a fan watching the live in-game interviews and the player’s reactions…

I think they look uncomfortable. I think they look anxious. I think they look like someone forced them to do something they really didn’t want to do. Their body language is twitchy and anxiety driven. They know full well they are on TV and they can’t swear or diss anyone or talk a lot of smack about something to do with Major League Baseball. So, their answers are plain and simple and quite frankly, boring. They get paid, if you didn’t know this already, to do these in game interviews. Pretty well, to be honest. Again, my opinion, as a fan, the interviews are not interesting and not informative and to be totally honest, not necessary. Not to mention the safety aspect of it. Can you imagine the horror if a mic’d up player, not paying 100% attention to a play because he is distracted by some inconsequential Q and A gets hurt? What if it was the best player on your favorite MLB team and he was out for the year because of this incident? How pissed would you be? I know, as a fan, I would be pissed.

I can only think of one thing worse – the in game interviews with the managers. The managers are even more put out than the players, especially if they are getting beaten up in the game. Announcers and side line reporters ask the managers to sum up their team’s performance, G-rated of course, when their team is down 11-0 in the 2nd inning. I can literally see the smoke coming out of their ears when they are trying to be nice and answer as G-Rated as they can. If it were up to this fan, I would get rid of the in game interviews baseball altogether. No players, no managers, in my opinion, want to discuss their favorite movie during a game against a division rival or worse – in a game they are losing.

Historically speaking, post game baseball interviews are awesome. They are the stuff of legends when it comes to hilarious comments, verbal tirades, and just going completely off the rails against the media. How about we broadcast more of and focus more on the post game interviews after the players have played the entire game and the managers have managed the final outs? If it were up to this fan, I would permanently shut off the microphones and store them and the earpieces for these in game, live action MLB player, manager interviews in a vault and throw away the key!!!

Feel free to comment or object or agree – send me your thoughts below: