Sunday saw Steve Gelbs and the rest of the SNY crew — Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling — deliver some hilarious play-by-play of two young fans (presumably brothers) brawling in the crowd. It also saw New York Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo try his hand at play-by-play.
Nimmo, who had a career-high 24 home runs and 68 RBIs in 2023, made his spring training debut for New York over the weekend. Gelbs, who is still finding his footing as Gary Cohen’s understudy, joked that when he’s down on the field interviewing Nimmo during spring training, the veteran outfielder usually takes over the microphone and calls the plays.
In an unusual turn of events, Nimmo provided impromptu play-by-play commentary during Sunday’s game against the Houston Astros, even though he wasn’t wearing a microphone (he was using a headset). Despite being pulled from the game earlier, Nimmo joined an in-game interview while the Mets were batting in the bottom of the fifth, trailing 5-0.
Thirty-five seconds into their interview, Gelbs asked Nimmo about his newfound leadership role; as the longest-tenured position player on the team, Nimmo was distracted by journeyman Rylan Bannon’s deep drive to the right field.
Brandon Nimmo is on the call for Rylan Bannon's double 🤣 pic.twitter.com/JRloi4b07E
— SNY (@SNYtv) March 3, 2024
“Oh, beautiful drive over his head (Astros outfielder Kenedy Corona) for a nice little double here,” said Nimmo, demonstrating his keen eye for the game. “Maybe triple — no, there we go; good cut-off. We got a nice double from Bannon, driving the ball the other way — beautiful. I’m trying to learn from you, Steve. We’re both learning at the same time.”
“I think I got more of a curve than you do,” quipped Gelbs.
“I don’t think so,” Nimmo replied.
Nimmo finally got to answer Gelbs’s question and fielded another from Darling before chiming in with more play-by-play commentary during infielder Zack Short’s at-bat. “Oh, that ball’s driven. Heck yeah, get a little offense going here. Oh, it’s slick out there (as the left fielder slipped), gotta watch out. Another double; RBI; beautiful.”
The Mets get on the board and Brandon Nimmo has the call on the play pic.twitter.com/sYbs6LEWAJ
— SNY (@SNYtv) March 3, 2024
All in favor of Brandon Nimmo getting on the mic more often say I 🙋🏻♀️🎙 pic.twitter.com/oWJ0aE82Rk
— SNY (@SNYtv) March 3, 2024
The whole interview was timed pretty perfectly, with a couple of plays to the outfield. As the conversation continued, Ben Gamel — who had replaced Nimmo in the field — roped New York’s third consecutive double of the inning.
“Three straight doubles while I’m on the mic,” Nimmo said. “This is good. I might not leave. I might have to stick around. If this works, this might have to be where I’m at during the season.”
Hey, anything helps, as the Mets desperately need a spark after a disappointing 2023 season. Unfortunately, while donning the headset, Nimmo’s hot streak couldn’t last forever. The inning ended with three consecutive ground outs by Alex Ramirez, Brett Baty, and Luke Voit.
If this baseball thing doesn’t work out, maybe Nimmo has a future as a play-by-play announcer. But he’s not unseating Cohen, Howie Rose, or Gelbs, for that matter, any time soon.
