Todd Frazier recently revealed that he confronted SNY announcer and longtime New York Mets play-by-play voice Gary Cohen when he heard rumblings of criticism directed his way during his short stint in Queens. Now a host on Foul Territory alongside several former MLB players, Frazier revealed that he and Cohen had it out and settled their differences.
But Frazier’s feelings about Cohen and the other Mets broadcasters (Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez) don’t seem to be original. In fact, Trevor May, now Frazier’s teammate on Foul Territory, seemed to share some of those same sentiments, but he also offered a differing, nuanced perspective.
@iamtrevormay Confronting Gary Cohen @Foul Territory #mets #baseball #mlb ♬ original sound – IamTrevorMay
“This is something I have experience with because I heard those same rumblings, and I felt some of those same things when things weren’t going well for me,” May began. “No matter how frustrated I got, it’s hard enough to play baseball — this is where players are coming from. It’s hard enough to play and kind of stay even keel and not get too high and not get too low. And, the commentators for your team are sort of the voice for your fanbase. And when they feel a certain way, they exude that feeling to their fans. So, if they’re feeling not so optimistic or they’re critical, then that kid of bleeds into the greater group of people that are also going to be critical. That’s frustrating. That’s really annoying.
“But the realization that I had that helped a lot was one, that’s a very hard job to do already. It’s already hard enough to say what’s happening, but then, to just have a positive spin all the time is exhausting, especially when things aren’t going positively. So, that’s hard on its face. And then two, it isn’t for the players. Commentating is not for us; it’s for the fans. Fans want to identify with it. If the fans are mad at you, they want to feel like the commentators know and aren’t just holding water for you and are also frustrated with you. And if that’s what’s happening, they’re just mirroring it. They’re being entertaining to the group of people they’re entertaining, and that is the point of the thing.”
May dismissed the commentary from the local broadcast’s significance, arguing it wasn’t relevant to the players who shouldn’t be listening to it much in the first place.
“I’ve 180’d on it. I was frustrated. I had a point where I wanted to do a Todd Frazier,” May explained. “But it turned out, it just didn’t matter; it wasn’t for me. That realization helped a lot. I’m a big fan of GKR because they are the best in the business. They’re on top of their game. Gary is a phenomenal play-by-play commentator, and it is so hard to do that. Now that I’m doing stuff like that full-time, it is so hard! I changed. They were right; they were right.”
[Trevor May on TikTok]
