After blasting Major League Baseball for its partnership with Apple earlier this week, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo heard about the New York Yankees streaming deal with Amazon Prime and he lost it.
“I am not gadget-oriented,” the 62-year-old sports radio host admitted. “I am not gadget-savvy and this is all about gadgets. And I’m gonna be sitting there one night at 9 o’clock and something’s gonna happen to my Amazon Prime watching Judge hit against Tampa in a big spot and the TV’s gonna go out. I guarantee it! And I’m gonna raise hell. But I’m gonna be barking at the moon! At the moon.”
A tremendous A+ rant by the great @MadDogUnleashed on “gadgets,” baseball and streaming. pic.twitter.com/TWEG4dZwRV
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) March 31, 2022
Any Millennials reading or listening to Russo’s rant can probably envision a phone call from someone they know, who might not be tech-savvy enough to navigate a Yankees regular season with exclusive broadcasts on Amazon, Apple TV, and possibly Peacock.
“The teams and the sport doesn’t care!” Russo continued to rant. “They got $85 million from Apple and they got $30 million from Peacock and try to watch the games on Peacock down the road because THAT I KNOW you’re gonna have to pay for!”
As reported by Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, the Yankees’ first game on Amazon Prime will be Friday, April 22. It’s the first of 21 Yankees games that will be available exclusively on Prime Video, without a linear TV option for fans to watch. And don’t tell Russo that MLB games moving to streaming services has anything to do with reaching a younger audience.
“It’s not about the little guy watching the ballgame,” Russo said. “Don’t let them give you that because that’s garbage! Because if they cared so much about the little kid out there watching the ballgames, you’d have the World Series games in the daytime, at least a couple of them. And god forbid they ever do that.”
My biggest issue with all of MLB’s various broadcast partnerships (streaming or linear), is the fact that it forces fans to watch more games without their local announcers. But that’s not the case with the Yankees’ Amazon deal. Prime Video broadcasts will feature YES Network announcers.
Despite Russo’s recent outrage, the partnership between the Yankees and Amazon was first announced more than two years ago. It was placed on hold in 2020 because of the COVID shortened season, and while 21 Yankees games were available on Amazon Prime Video last season, the partnership was not exclusive.
