You can’t please everyone — we’ll get that cliché out of the way first — but baseball fans aren’t looking to be pleased during the playoffs; they want to be entertained. And to them, nothing is entertaining about watching or listening to an in-game interview right smack dab in the middle of a playoff game.
When every pitch matters in October, listening to a player who’s been sidelined since July talk isn’t exactly endearing to the average baseball fan, regardless of whether they support the Milwaukee Brewers or New York Mets.
So despite Christian Yelich being one of the better personalities in the sport, few people were interested in hearing from the Milwaukee Brewers All-Star outfielder wax poetic about his team calling themselves the “Average Joe’s,” while its manager, Pat Murphy, eerily resembles Patches O’Houlihan. If you wanted to watch Dodgeball, you’d tune into FX in the middle of a weekday afternoon, not during the MLB Playoffs.
ESPN has successfully integrated players being mic’d up into its Sunday Night Baseball coverage, and Karl Ravech is incredibly proud of this. It’s worked (except when it hasn’t) but for the most part, it’s an enjoyable part of ESPN’s MLB coverage.
With the playoffs in tow, there’s the possibility of players being mic’d up. Still, with every pitch mattering, the financial incentive to do so when players already enjoy a playoff share might not mean much.
While we don’t know what will transpire in the second game of the National League Wild Card round between the Mets-Brewers, anything similar to what happened with Yelich won’t be well-received by people watching a playoff game. They were anything but pleased on Tuesday.
My tv production notes that TV producers (understandably) do not care about.
It’s the postseason. Baseball fans do not want many interviews during the action. We want to focus on the game. The next in-game interview that provides true insights will be the first.
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) October 1, 2024
Nothing against Christian Yelich but get him off my screen. Why do I need to physically see him talk in this absolutely pointless in game interview
— Marc Luino (@GiraffeNeckMarc) October 1, 2024
Why is ESPN spending like 10 minutes during the game interviewing a player who isn’t even playing in this series?
— Mike Mayer (@mikemayer22) October 1, 2024
Watching a key at bat on 60 percent of the screen to see Christian Yelich throwing down the most generic platitudes ever
— Jarrett Seidler (@jaseidler) October 1, 2024
Love that we’re just ignoring a playoff game for a generic interview with a guy who hasn’t played in three months
— Jarrett Seidler (@jaseidler) October 1, 2024
This is Game 1 of a playoff series and the announcers are asking Christian Yelich about “Dodgeball” during an in-game interview
This coming a half inning after they missed part of an AB for an in-game ad
— Danny Abriano (@DannyAbriano) October 1, 2024
While most of the explicit reactions on social media were understandably from Mets fans, the overwhelming sentiment on X (formerly Twitter) seemed to be that this unnecessarily detracted from a meaningful portion of Tuesday’s game. And ultimately, playoff baseball isn’t the time for distractions.
Fans are locked in, living and dying with every pitch, and the last thing they want is a random interview pulling them away from the action. Sure, Yelich has plenty of charm. But it just doesn’t sit right when he’s talking about Dodgeball while the game’s on the line.
In October, fans aren’t tuning in for banter. They want drama, tension and every ounce of intensity.
So, letting the game breathe and letting the fans enjoy what they came for — baseball at its purest — could go a long way.
