The Green Monster at Fenway Park has claimed many victims over the years, duped into thinking a hit was a home run only to find out that it wasn’t high enough to clear the wall. Add Matt Vasgersian and John Sterling to that list as both play-by-play announcers thought they were calling a Giancarlo Stanton home run during Tuesday night’s Wild Card game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees only to realize that it was, in fact, simply a single.
Yankees slugger Stanton stepped to the play in the top of the first inning to face off against Sox pitcher Nathan Eovaldi. Stanton drove the 0-1 pitch sky-high towards the giant green wall in left field. And to be fair, quite a few people probably all thought the same thing. That ball is gone. Lucky for most of them, they’re not broadcasting the game live on television.
First, here’s Vasgersian’s call on ESPN.
A little premature call from Vasgersian right here
To his credit I thought his ball was clearing the monster as well
— Baseball Quotes (@BaseballQuotes1) October 6, 2021
“Oh, he got another one,” Vasgersian said as the ball took off. “He got another one!…No, it’s off the Monster! And Stanton, who put it into the home run trot, thinking the same thing I was, is satisfied with a single.”
Well, he probably wasn’t too satisfied as that almost certainly was a home run in most ballparks, but you take what you can get when it comes to the Green Monster.
Next up is Yankees broadcaster John Sterling, who makes the wrong call and then has a bit of an existential moment right after as he tries to make sense of how his eyes deceived him.
this is the product the most valuable sports franchise in America chooses to put on the air pic.twitter.com/10jGfjSYNB
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 6, 2021
“There it goes…deep left, it is high, it is far, it is gone! Out of the ballpark! A Stantonian home run!” Sterling said, before realizing the ball was very much still in the ballpark.
“Now what…what did I do wrong? What did I see wrong? He’s at first base.”
Yes, he is.
The good news for both of them is that they did get to call a home run eventually thanks to Xander Bogaerts’ two-run blast to center field that gave Boston an early 2-0 lead. Vasgersian wisely waited to make sure that one was 100% gone before saying so.
Red Sox strike first with a Xander Bogaerts 2-run shot off Gerrit Cole ⚾️ #ALWildCard pic.twitter.com/yWeV4FraNo
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) October 6, 2021
Better safe than sorry.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.