The 2025 MLB season officially kicked off on Tuesday morning with the MLB Tokyo Series in Japan. But when it came to the season opener between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, Fox hardly rolled out the red carpet.
While Jason Benetti and A.J. Pierzynski were on the call for the Dodgers’ 4-1 win, neither broadcaster was actually in Japan. Rather, Fox has opted to broadcast the series remotely, with Benetti also having NCAA Tournament responsibilities for Westwood One this week and Adam Amin –who will call for Game 2 on FS1 alongside Pierzynski — set to cover the Chicago Bulls’ upcoming West Coast trip for the Chicago Sports Network.
While the inevitable conflicts created by the MLB kicking off its season overseas during the same week as the first round of the NCAA Tournament makes this one of the more understandable instances of a network going remote, the situation still isn’t ideal. Especially when considering that despite Fox’s best efforts, many viewers seemed to notice that something was off with Tuesday’s broadcast.
It’s 6 AM EST and no one’s watching the first game of the MLB season because they’re so bad at promoting their stuff but the FOX remote broadcast is an embarrassment.
We already know the pitch that has been thrown… before Imanga even starts his windup. pic.twitter.com/PwfmRlE7zT
— Chase Snyder (@ChasingSnyder) March 18, 2025
FOX broadcast is showing pitch type and pitch speed 3 seconds before the pitch is thrown. #TokyoSeries
— 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐂𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝕏 (@normposter) March 18, 2025
Threw the Tokyo Series game on the TV, and the Fox broadcast has the delay messed up so the pitch tracking information (“four seam fastball, 93mph”) appears while the pitcher is still in the windup. #baseball pic.twitter.com/wNehWQ5D9H
— Chad Orzel (@orzelc) March 18, 2025
The audio on this Fox broadcast is so off .
— Aaron (@Coach_Them_Up) March 18, 2025
As noted in the posts above, many of the issues seemed to stem from Fox’s scorebug graphic revealing the outcome of pitches — including the pitch type and whether it was a ball or strike — before the ball was even thrown. It’s also worth mentioning that Fox temporarily dropped its K-Zone graphic between the top of the second inning and bottom of the fourth, although it’s unclear whether that was a result of a technical error, the delay between the action and broadcast or something else. For what it’s worth, the local broadcasts — which were on-site in Japan — also temporarily lost their visual strike zones on Tuesday morning, but didn’t seem to encounter the errors that Fox did.
While networks — especially Fox — relying on remote broadcasts has become increasingly common in recent years, it was especially jarring to see such a seemingly high profile game receive such secondary treatment on Tuesday morning. Factor in the general lack of promotion surrounding the Tokyo Series and all of this hardly felt like Opening Day, but rather a random game that happened to be played at 6 a.m. ET more than a week before the true start of the regular season.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.