Yankees threaten ESPN boycott over sked switch

In an effort to change the time of the July 8 “Sunday Night Baseball” telecast, the Yankees are threatening to boycott ESPN personnel all year, according to sources with knowledge of the team’s thinking.

“It is a tool in the toolbox,” one source said.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone, a former ESPN analyst, has been vocal in saying the July 8 game in Toronto that was pushed back from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. should be reversed to its original time.

The Yankees play a makeup doubleheader in Baltimore the next day. The first game was originally scheduled for 4 p.m., but has been pushed to 5 p.m. The players think playing three games in two cities within 24 hours is unfair on many levels, including the integrity of the sport. From the Yankees’ point of view, it seems easy to select a different matchup for that night.

“It’s not Yankees-Red Sox,” a source said.

Sources said officials from MLB, the MLBPA, the Yankees and ESPN are in talks to potentially compromise on the Sunday night game. Spokesmen for ESPN, MLB and the Yankees declined comment.

While the Yankees couldn’t prevent ESPN from broadcasting future games, the players’ and management’s boycott would include being uncooperative with ESPN for its broadcasts and any extra features, like the ones commonly seen on “SportsCenter.” For “Sunday Night,” the ESPN booth team receives a special session with Boone during the pregame, as well as in-game access. ESPN often asks for TV interviews with players prior to the game and special access. The Yankees would just say no to all requests, a source said, if the July 8 game remains on the “Sunday Night” schedule.

Before the Yankees’ doubleheader in Detroit on Monday, Boone was still hopeful for a change, but sounded prepared to leave the leveraging to others.

“I’ve kind of said all I’m gonna say on that for now,” Boone said. “Hopefully, it’s something that works itself out.”

Boone and his players would have to show backbone to uphold the boycott, as Boone used to work with ESPN. Meanwhile, SNB analyst Alex Rodriguez is a special adviser to Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner. A-Rod is a mentor to some current Yankees.

The Yankee players have batted around some retaliatory measures if the game weren’t changed. They have not made a final decision if they would boycott ESPN personnel entirely.

“I don’t think we’ve gotten that far,” Yankees player representative, David Robertson, said. “We’ve had some internal discussions about what we could do, potentially, but let’s hope it doesn’t get to that point.”

Robertson added he preferred to avoid a “ruckus.”