Despite a marquee matchup in London, Fox's pregame show at Yankee Stadium left fans feeling disappointed and frustrated. Screengrab: MLB on Fox
By Sam Neumann on

If you were hoping to catch a lot of pregame coverage from London for the New York Mets-Phialdelphia Phillies series on MLB on Fox, then perhaps tuning into the channel that had coverage for the game wasn’t the best choice.

As Major League Baseball attempts to grow the game, Fox elected not to send Kevin Burkhardt, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, or David Ortiz across the pond. Instead, we saw them live from Yankee Stadium, doing pregame coverage for a game that doesn’t start until after 7 p.m. ET.

That’s certainly not uncommon, but with sending the trio of Adam Amin, Adam Wainwright, and AJ Pierzynski to London, it seems a bit odd not to have studio coverage on-site for a game your network is broadcasting from a site well outside of the United States.

Of course, the Yankees-Los Angeles Dodgers is a potential World Series matchup, despite it only being in June. And while the 27-35 Mets might not be as appetizing as the aforementioned teams, they’re facing the team that owns the best record in the National League and has immense playoff success the past two seasons.

And even as the quartet of Burkhardt and three former players tried to talk about the Mets, it was even lackluster at that. When Burkhardt posed the question of fixing the team with MLB’s highest payroll, Big Papi suggested moving them to Oklahoma, while A-Rod threw out the idea of Juan Soto. All Jeter could muster was saying that Hal Steinbrenner would have something to say about that.

Although the studio crew had a chance to provide some hard-hitting analysis on one of the league’s more notable franchises with a passionate fanbase, they ultimately didn’t have much to offer.

As you might imagine, the coverage notably drew criticism, as did much of the pregame coverage.

That wasn’t all.

And while the Monument Park tour in Center Field was interesting, it lacked a clear connection to the Mets-Phillies matchup. Rodriguez’s comment offered a brief moment of levity, but overall, the ceremony didn’t resonate with the pregame atmosphere.

Yes, Mets and Phillies fans are predisposed to being cranky, but they seem to have a legitimate gripe with this coverage.

[Awful Announcing]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann