This isn’t exactly Bronx Zoo material, but it will do.
Since January, Yankees brass knew their TV outlet, the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network, was hiring Carlos Beltran as one of its new analysts. Standard operating procedure includes a network getting the blessing of team brass before it signs a new voice.
Previously Beltran, who played for seven teams including the Mets, Astros and Yankees (he also worked in the Bombers front office), was also named in a report filed by commissioner Rob Manfred as mastermind of the Astros 2017 cheating scandal. Yet when YES suits stated their intentions to hire Beltran, Brian Cashman, the veteran GM, gave his blessing. It was Beltran who was reluctant about taking the gig, which will have him appearing in 36 telecasts. When he was told TV could be a bridge back to baseball, he decided to take the job.
Beltran has already participated in a 45-minute “rehearsal” game with YES play-by-play voice Michael Kay. A well-embedded mole said Beltran deserved a solid “B” for his initial effort. “He said some very interesting things,” the insider said. Everything seemed copacetic. Then Thursday came, with Cashman telling The Athletic he was tired of his organization being hammered for not making a World Series appearance since 2009.
Cashman blamed the Astros sign-stealing scandal for the Yankees losing the 2017 ALCS in seven games and not making it into the Fall Classic.
“The only thing that stopped us was so illegal and horrific,” Cashman said, “so I get offended when I start hearing we haven’t been to the World Series since ‘09…The only thing that derailed us was a cheating circumstance that threw us off.”
Yet, unless he had a change of heart, this didn’t stop Cashman from signing off on Beltran. While Cashman has bigger fish to fry, it’s reasonable to wonder how much attention he will be paying to Beltran’s booth stylings, including his take on the 2017 sign-stealing caper. It’s ironic — funny too — that Beltran, a symbol of something “so illegal and horrific,” will be prominently featured in the aggrieved organization’s broadcast booth.
Cashman won’t have to wait long to figure out where Beltran is coming from.
Monday might as well be named “Carlos Beltran Day,” only on YES. At noon, YES will air an hour-long special edition of Center Stage featuring Beltran and Kay. That will lead right into a Yankees-Phillies spring training tilt with Beltran in the analyst role. Monday evening, the Beltran Center Stage will air again on YES.
No doubt Beltran will use the YES airtime to answer questions about his role in the cheating scandal. (We believe his bitterness and anger over how he was scapegoated has not totally subsided.) And once the season starts, we wonder how Cashman will react to whatever Beltran has to say. Like if the Aaron Judge contract issue lingers. Or first/second-guessing Aaron Boone’s moves.
The YES booth gives Beltran the opportunity, despite Cashman harping on 2017, to become a fan favorite, a sympathetic figure. Beltran’s mere presence will bring a double dose of controversy to the proceedings.
At least that’s the signal we’re getting.
GET ME GUS!
Monday night it’s down to three — Jim Nantz, Grant Hill, Bill Raftery.
Those voices will call the men’s basketball championship on TBS.
As usual it’s taken a small army of yakkers to reach the final game. All came to the microphones with good intentions. Some got suspect results. Yet among all these voices there was not a Gus Johnson to be found. No out-of-the-blue contender to challenge the man who thrilled the Free World, often catching tournament lightning in a microphone.
Read this as a not-so-subtle hint of our belief Fox’s Gus Johnson belongs on the CBS/Turner roster of Final Four preachers.
In a time where there’s little to no network exclusivity, there should be a spot for Johnson. On the current roster, Nantz has the big event voice that is synonymous with the tournament. Johnson has the same type of gravitas. He also takes a back seat to no one when it comes to vocally building the drama inside the quick developing storyline of a game.
And when Johnson decides to go nuts, it’s timed properly. He’s not calling a first half three-pointer as if it was a regulation ending buzzer-beater. Those mortgage company commercials Johnson does that air during the tournament are not enough.
No one is saying Johnson should be penciled in as the lead voice. But next season he needs to be there. Bring Johnson back to March Madness.
ONLY ON YES…AND TBS, APPLE, AMAZON, ESPN AND FOX
In the years when the Yankees, Mets and other MLB teams transitioned from “free” TV to cable, baseball was still the national pastime, a popular sport worth paying for.
Now that has changed. Most baseball talk and analysis is about how to fix it.
So as the Yankees take 21 Friday night games from WPIX-TV, selling them to the Amazon streaming service, there are some questions:
1) When the masses realize the change, that’s when the chaos begins. Will they make the effort to access Amazon Prime, especially if they are already souring on baseball?
2) Will fans even know where to find a Yankee game this season?
The catchphrase “Only on YES” could become obsolete.
For this season, on any given night or day, the Bombers could appear on YES, Amazon, Apple TV+, Peacock, ESPN, FS1, Fox (Ch. 5), TBS (new Tuesday night game of the week) and MLBN. Figuring out where the game is airing could require the kind of heavy lifting that fans, already frustrated by MLB’s shenanigans, can do without.
Yet for cats like Hal Steinbrenner, it’s just another way to put more money in their pockets.
OUR ONLY HOPE
It has become clear the only mouth who can slow down WFAN Gasbag Craig Carton’s stream-of-consciousness view of the world is his “partner” Evan Roberts.
Just wondering if Roberts will be able to sustain this reverse momentum?
Hopefully he can. His stuff has a humorous quality. Like when Roberts told Carton: “I can’t push back on every dumb thing he [Carton] comes up with.”
Keep trying, please!
AROUND THE DIAL
In case anyone wonders what the genesis of this Yankees-Amazon deal is, it may help to know that Amazon already owns 15% of the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network. The Yankees own 26% of YES. … All we can say is FAN’s Brandon (Tiki &) Tierney spending time talking about the jerseys he owns, specifying his Knicks “shoot-around” shirts, is scintillating radio. … Much credit to all the radio Gasbags who tried making hours of talk about the NFL’s new overtime rule interesting. Do you believe in coasting?
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DUDE OF THE WEEK: LOS ANGELES DODGERS
For a great display of compassion. The club re-signed Andrew Toles, a former player who hasn’t played since 2018 and has been homeless, to a contract that allows him access to mental health services and health insurance. Toles is determined to bounce back in the game of life. The Dodgers are giving him a big assist.
DWEEB OF THE WEEK: LEON ROSE
For continuing to boycott the media. His team staggers down the stretch eliminated from the playoffs. His “star,” Julius Randle, denies Craig Carton’s “unconfirmed rumor” that he wants out of the Drecka. Yet the Knicks prez still stays mum, hanging coach Tom Thibodeau out to dry as the team’s mouthpiece.
DOUBLE TALK
What Kyrie Irving said: “It’s more accountability on our end to finish out regulation with more resolve.”
What Kyrie Irving meant to say: “We can’t close out a game.”
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