Sunday night, April 10, viewers will have the option to watch Red Sox-Yankees via the main telecast on ESPN (with new broadcast team Karl Ravech, David Cone, and Eduardo Perez) or the alternate Kay-Rod broadcast with Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez on ESPN2.
Cone works with Kay on the YES Network calling Yankees games and they will now be “competing” with each other eight Sundays out of the year.
On the latest episode of The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast, Cone joined Andrew Marchand and John Ourand and he was asked about the Kay-Rod broadcast and whether or not he views it as competition to the main broadcast.
“Obviously, there is a little bit of competition there when we are going head-to-head,” said Cone. “You just can’t deny that, but they are not doing a full schedule… We’ll have plenty of games where it’s the regular Sunday Night booth. It’s a nice alternative.”
At the same time, Cone is curious to see how that alternate broadcast turns out and he knows that Kay is going to bring the best out of Rodriguez once the microphones turn on.
“I think it’s going to be really interesting to see what Michael can do with Alex,” he said. “I have a feeling Michael is going to bring some things out of A-Rod. That’s Michael Kay’s forte, knowing him very well over the years. I think he is going to loosen up Alex a little bit and get him in a different format. Alex has a lot to offer. I think the right guy bringing it out of him is the key.”
Throughout the interview, Cone talked about other job opportunities that he could have taken in the past, such as almost working at SNY when the network was starting.
Most recently, Cone interviewed for the Yankees pitching coach position in 2019. While the veteran pitcher has been one of the broadcasters helping viewers with how he explains analytics and sabermetrics in baseball, he knew he would need some work to catch up with what the Yankees are doing now.
“I’m not sure how close I came, but it was a serious interview, so I was thankful for that,” said Cone. “They really put me through the car wash, as they say. It was the entire organization and every department that I went through. It was very thorough. I would have taken the job had it been offered, but I think I had sat out a little too long. From a technological standpoint, I needed some more continuing education.”
“Even though I cover that in broadcasting now in terms of analytics, sabermetrics, or what not,” he added. “If you’ve heard my broadcasts, you know I have a growth mentality towards those things. But I would have had to play a lot of catch-up in order to get up to speed and that was just a little daunting for the Yankees to take that chance at that point.”
While Cone isn’t a pitching coach now, the audience that watches Yankees games enjoys the analysis he brings to the table. Starting next week, a national ESPN audience will get its chance to hear what people in the tri-state area get to listen to often.
