Mark BlinchThe baseball season isn’t quite over for Alex Rodriguez, who’s joining Fox Sports for the remainder of the postseason.
Alex Rodriguez is going to the World Series.
The controversial Yankee will join Fox Sports’ postseason baseball studio team. He made the deal, which the Daily News first reported, official with an appearance Sunday on the network’s “Fox NFL Sunday” pregame show.
“I’m very excited,” Rodriguez said.
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So much so, he tossed a football that soared over NFL Insider Jay Glazer’s head, breaking a screen in the studio.
“Alex, you know that comes out of your check at Fox,” host Curt Menefee told A-Rod.
Rodriguez will make his debut in Fox’s baseball studio during the ALCS Game 3 (Royals-Blue Jays) pregame show Monday. He will continue behind the Fox microphone through the World Series, which means he will be offering comprehensive analysis of the Mets should they make it to the Fall Classic.
A-Rod didn’t offer any analysis of Terry Collins crew, but said he would not count Toronto, down 2-0 to Kansas City, out of the ALCS. “Anyone who writes them off is making a mistake. Trust me, I played against these guys just a few weeks ago,” Rodriguez said. “They have the power and they have the pitching. They are going back to Toronto. They are relentless up there.”
Fox Sports suits finalized their deal with Rodriguez late Friday night. His coming to Fox’s baseball team marks the network’s second controversial hire for its studio operation. Earlier this season, the Foxies inked Pete Rose. Now Rose, banned from the game for gambling, and Rodriguez, the steroids tainted slugger who served a season-long suspension for his role in the Biogenesis scandal, will join forces in a postseason gabfest.
In August, the Daily News reported A-Rod’s representatives and Fox Sports executives started discussing the possibility of Rodriguez having a role in Fox’s postseason baseball coverage.
“If there was craziness with Alex this season this (his hiring by Fox) would not have happened,” one MLB source, with knowledge of the situation, said. “But there was not a lot of ‘noise’ around him, which helped him from a TV standpoint.”
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The presence of Rodriguez in the studio makes Fox’s pre and postgame studio more compelling. While it is impossible to predict how many added eyeballs A-Rod will attract, his presence will bring a big-time buzz to Fox’s postseason coverage. With Rodriguez, Fox is getting a controversial personality who transcends the game, a player who is known by the casual fan, albeit for many of the wrong reasons.
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There is no doubt Fox, as it did with Rose, had to consult with their partners at MLB before making the move. In May, commissioner Rob Manfred commended Rodriguez on his comeback.
For Rodriguez, the gig could provide a path to his post-baseball career in television. It is a well known fact he loves talking baseball. Now he will have a chance to do it before millions of viewers.
