Yankees broadcaster John Sterling sounds fed up after accidentally calling Aaron Judge HR replay
It might not be as surreal as the 2020 season, but MLB in 2021 still has some quirks.
One of them is that many teams still have their broadcasting crews call road games from a remote location, a natural change in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic but perhaps not necessary anymore as fans are welcomed back into their parks.
While calling games remotely saves significantly on travel expenses, it does come with a cost. Broadcasters lose their feel for the game and the ballpark, and that sometimes leads to embarrassing mishaps. Like, say, a play-by-play person thinking a replay is what's actually happening in the game.
You can probably guess where this is going. Our protagonist for the day: Yankees radio announcer John Sterling.
IT IS GONE! Unfortunately, it was a replay of the home run, but it was a good replay!
I'm sorry, it's on the monitor. What am I supposed to do? pic.twitter.com/R2lS61Au0o— John Sterling Calls (@JSterlingCalls) July 8, 2021
As you can see, Sterling saw a replay of a second-inning home run from Aaron Judge and thought the Yankees slugger had hit his second homer of the day in the third inning. Given that Sterling is seeing the same video feed all of us are, it's hard to blame him for the mistake. Our only surprise should be that this doesn't happen more often.
You also can hear color analyst Suzyn Waldman trying to interject as Sterling launches his usual home run call, only to let the man realize it himself.
The reaction from both is telling:
Sterling: "It's on the monitor. What am I supposed to do?"
Waldman: "This is a great way to do a game, isn't it?"
Sterling: "Yep."
Waldman: "Yep."
This isn't the first time calling games remotely has bitten Sterling and Waldman. In June, Waldman said she was "really embarrassed" after missing a controversial foul-tip call in the ninth inning because she was looking at her notes at the moment. The announcers don't seem to be enjoying this anymore than you do.
Considering we are talking about the New York Yankees — the most valuable team in baseball by a margin of 10 figures — you have to imagine the team should be have its radio team back on the road again. We'll see if Yankees radio affiliate WFAN and its parent company Audacy get it done by the end of the season.
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