A-Rod joins ESPN’s ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ team
Alex Rodriguez attends the 38th Sports Emmy Awards at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 9, 2017. Credit: Getty Images / Jamie McCarthy
Fourteen years after he replaced Aaron Boone as the Yankees’ third baseman, Alex Rodriguez will replace Boone as an analyst in the ESPN “Sunday Night Baseball” booth.
ESPN announced on Tuesday that Rodriguez will succeed the new Yankees manager alongside returning analyst Jessica Mendoza and new play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian for its weekly prime time showcase.
Rodriguez, who has gotten good reviews for his work as a Fox studio analyst over the past three years, will continue to work for that network during the postseason.
“I’m looking forward to this new chapter in my broadcasting career,” Rodriguez said in a news release. “It’s an exciting time in baseball, and now I get that front row seat to tell that story every Sunday night on ESPN as well as calling my fourth postseason on Fox, where I started this journey.”
ESPN had to overhaul its Sunday night team after Boone departed to manage the Yankees and play-by-play man Dan Shulman decided to step away from the job.
In 2003, Boone hit the ALCS-clinching home run against the Red Sox, then suffered a severe left knee injury playing basketball in the offseason, prompting the Yankees to acquire Rodriguez. Rodriguez last played for the Yankees in August of 2016.
The new announcing team will debut on March 29 to call an Opening Day game between the Dodgers and Giants.
ESPN said Rodriguez also will appear in several upcoming ESPN specials, serving as an executive producer of them.
“I am incredibly excited to work with both Alex and Matt,” Mendoza said. “Matt has been a friend for a long time and someone whose work I’ve long admired. Alex’s achievements as a player speak for themselves, and I’ve been greatly impressed by the passion and dedication he has put into his broadcasting career. We’re going to have a lot of fun.”
Jon “Boog” Sciambi, a longtime ESPN voice, widely had been considered a logical choice for the play-by-play job, but Vasgersian it shall be.
“Jon [Miller] and Dan set the bar super high for ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ play-by-play, so it’s a real thrill for someone who still remembers his first minor league bus trip in 1991 to have a chair like this one,” Vasgersian said in the news release. “I know firsthand how passionate both Alex and Jessica are about baseball, and I can’t wait to get started with them.”
Vasgersian primarily has worked for MLB Network. ESPN senior vice president Stephanie Druley thanked the MLB Network and Fox for being “more than willing to collaborate in order to serve Major League Baseball fans.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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