YANKEES ARE UP IN ARMS!
Yanks win battle of network stars
The Worldwide Leader in Sports got big-footed by the Yankees Tuesday.
After broadcasting giant ESPN selected a July 8 Yankees-Blue Jays game in Toronto for its “Sunday Night Baseball” slot — which would have shifted the start time from 1 p.m. to 8:05 p.m. — the Bronx Bombers cried foul, with first-year manager Aaron Boone leading the charge. Boone argued that it was unfair to have the Yankee players compete in a late-night Sunday tilt, and then fly to Baltimore to play a doubleheader against the Orioles less than 24 hours later, on Monday, July 9.
Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred stepped in to broker a deal, and the 27-time World Series champion Yankees came out on top Tuesday, when a resolution was reached: The July 8 Yankees-Jays game will begin at its originally-scheduled time — 1 p.m.
Boone was clearly pleased with the end result.
“That’s obviously really good news we got today,” the Yankee skipper told reporters before the Bombers played in Toronto Tuesday. “I’m excited to hear that. I think a lot of people behind the scenes (worked on the matter). I think the commissioner was very involved. I’m just really grateful to him and to ESPN and to the Yankees and all the people involved that I think clearly ended up doing the right thing here in considering the product and player safety and all those kinds of things.”
“We want to thank Commissioner Manfred,” Yankees president Randy Levine told the Daily News Tuesday. “He did great resolving the issue.”
ESPN will instead broadcast the Angels-Dodgers game at Angel Stadium the evening of July 8.
Manfred communicated with the Major League Baseball Players Association, ESPN executives as well as the Yankees, Blue Jays, Dodgers and Angels. ESPN has a contractual right to select games for its Sunday night telecast — a stipulation that is part of baseball’s collective bargaining agreement between players and owners — but each of the 30 teams can appear in that Sunday evening ESPN slot a maximum of six times per season. Players can select the time for when a doubleheader is rescheduled, another stipulation outlined in the CBA.
Compounding matters is the fact that many of the 2018 early-season games in the Northeast and Midwest were rained out, necessitating numerous doubleheaders being rescheduled later in the summer. Had ESPN prevailed, and the Yankees played Toronto at Rogers Centre the night of July 8, they would likely have arrived in Baltimore early Monday morning, and would have had to prepare to play three games in 24 hours.
“Hopefully it’s still happening behind the scenes and there’s pressure being applied because that’s just not good for the product on the field, for the safety of our guys to be having to go night game, then fly into a doubleheader,” Boone said Sunday when the saga was still unfolding. “That’s ridiculous and anyone that would argue with that is not being truthful.”
One baseball insider said it was “just common sense” to have the Yankee-Blue Jays game played at 1 p.m. July 8. Another baseball source said there were no fireworks when Manfred talked with the different parties to reach a resolution, although Boone was clearly irked when he made his comments Sunday. Several reports had the Yankee players and coaches threatening to boycott ESPN for the rest of the 2018 season had the network prevailed in the matter.
Adding a delicious layer to the imbroglio is that “Sunday Night Baseball” analyst and former Yankee Alex Rodriguez is also a special adviser to the Bombers. A-Rod replaced Boone in the ESPN Sunday night broadcast booth after Boone was hired to replace Joe Girardi as Yankee manager.
July 8 is also when ESPN is scheduled to broadcast its All-Star selection show at 7 p.m., and by having the Yankees play in the Sunday night game, viewers might have been enticed to tune in to the All-Star selection show in greater numbers, but now that will not be the case.
If two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani pitches for the Angels that Sunday, however, ESPN could have an equally impressive showcase player to offer its viewers.