What can’t Steve Gelbs do?
When he isn’t doing live shots masquerading as a Minnesota Vikings linebacker or handing out hot chocolate during a chilly day at Citi Field, he’s also behind the mic delivering play-by-play.
When Awful Announcing named Gelbs as a rising star in sports media for 2024, it wasn’t for his play-by-play chops but his creative standup. And yet, Steve Gelbs has gotten better and better. He filled in for Gary Cohen, who was mourning the loss of his beloved Great Dane, and managed to meet the moment for Francisco Lindor’s walk-off home run vs. the St. Louis Cardinals.
So when Steve Gelbs isn’t doing all of those aforementioned things, he’s lending his voice beyond sports — well, kind of.
This Sunday, Steve Gelbs will make his animated television debut on The Simpsons.
In a preview shared by SNY on X, the New York Mets sideline reporter for SNY will voice “Steve Gelbs of Draft Pigs News,” interviewing a Macedonian baseball star who plays for the fictional Springfield Isotopes.
Introducing a new character on @TheSimpsons…
The one and only @SteveGelbs!
You can catch Steve’s big Simpsons debut this Sunday at 8 p.m. on FOX. pic.twitter.com/3Z5mwk51nI
— SNY (@SNYtv) April 24, 2025
The character, apparently in a deep emotional state, is crying and whipping himself, which is what Steve Gelbs inquires about.
The response roughly translates to: “Bad, bad, I bet on baseball.”
Sounds familiar, right?
According to The Athletic’s Tyler Kepner, it’s exactly what it seems.
Kepner, who will appear in the episode alongside Steve Gelbs, recently explored how The Simpsons is taking aim at MLB’s gambling scandals, notably the one involving Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, who stole over $16 million to cover his gambling debts.
According to Kepner, the episode will also apparently provide commentary on how MLB continues to embrace sports gambling partnerships despite the dark side of the issue.
Fox Sports’s Kevin Burkhardt and MLB Network’s Kevin Millar will also guest star, per Kepner.
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.