Do they get paid extra for this?
I wouldn’t do it for free. It is like, excuse me, but I am trying to manage a team. Don’t have time to chat.
They don’t get paid extra because it is part of the job. Managers (and players) talking on camera is part of the product that MLB sells.
According to a 2004 article when these in-game interviews were new, at least a couple of managers refused to do them.
Come to think of it, these things started when reality show “confession booths” were the hot trendy thing. I’m imagining a bunch of ESPN executives brainstorming ideas on how to make sports broadcasts more like reality television.
Im 99% certain they are mandatory, and they get fined if they don’t comply.
While entertaining, I always feel bad for not only managers, but coaches in other sports who have to get sidelined by reporters during a game, even at halftime.
In baseball, it always seems like they are being interviewed while the game is going on; as a manager, I want to be watching every single thing that is going on in the game not talking to a reporter.
Before halftime, I could use that 10 extra seconds to come up with one more idea, or one more question, or just to decompress after a stressful halftime; or maybe I just want to get into the lockers to give a pep talk or a chew down to my players-----having to stop to answer a dumb question kills my Mojo.
Same thing before the second half: I want to take what I implemented at halftime and make sure its executed before we go to the court—NOPE—got some jackass in a Woolworth suit sticking a microphone into my face. I know a lot of people rip Gregg Popovic, and I guess he could learn to be nice, but he’s all business.
I get it, its big time sports, and surely these coaches and mangers have it worked into their contracts via league agreements with the TV networks that they have to do these, but if I was a coach or manager, I’d hate it.
I’m wondering how many fans actually like those interviews. I hate them and wish they had never become a thing.
Of course, I have a long list of things that are terrible about televised baseball, so maybe I’m just old and grumpy.
It seems to me that it’s at best a complete waste of time, and usually registers as a net negative experience. It’s not like a manager or coach, while the outcome of the game is undecided, is going to utter some revelation that suddenly makes some aspect of the game clearer to any fan (casual or committed). Most of the managers and coaches seem reluctant to speak (especially going into halftime of football games), and I don’t blame them at all.
If it’s intended to let the viewers “get to know” the managers/coaches, I’d counter with the point that these aren’t necessarily the moments that show them at their best.
I agree with journeyman_southpaw: the concept reeks of suits meddling with the broadcast in order to enhance the viewers’ experience, and if the conversation can be sponsored by a soft drink or vehicle manufacturer, so much the better.
Just a nitpick: these interviews are ALWAYS recorded in between innings, now. There is no action happening (unless you count the players warming up). During the regular season, they will sometimes interview a pitcher or another player not involved in the game during an inning, but never the manager (that I have seen).
Asimovian nailed it. They’re done between innings (but run during the inning – can’t interfere with commercial time, you know). They mentioned that last night.
It’s at a time when the manager has little to do.
Not only that but, let’s be honest, for the vast majority of plays in a game of baseball, the manager doesn’t have anything to do anyway, at least not in terms of actually dictating how play proceeds.
Sure, the manager probably doesn’t want to be distracted in the 8th inning when he’s down by two and has runners on first and second with no-one out. At times like that, he’s probably thinking about stuff like whether or not to order his hitter to lay down a bunt.
But if you interview a manager at the beginning of an inning, when there’s no-one on base, he really doesn’t have much to do. He can’t help his hitter at the plate to have a more productive at-bat, and there’s no real strategy to consider in such a situation. It’s not like he’s a football coach, central to just about every play over the course of the game.
This is a fairly recent development. I am certain that I watched managers ‘interviewed’ during play within the Buck-McCarver era. I recall one particular moment when the interview subject actually had to look off camera when a hit was made.
I have a vague recollection of the same, which is why I put the “now” in my first sentence. I think you’re right about the earlier days.
By the way, I think I’ve griped about this before, but I don’t think any sport displays this more egregiously than in hockey, where I see players being interviewed right as they’re about to begin play again after a commercial break. Sometimes the players have to leave the interview because play is about to start. I think it’s absurd to have a player being distracted while he’s trying to focus on what he’s about to do in the game.
I watch a lot of hockey and I don’t think I have ever seen what you describe, Asimovian. I’m going to watch for it though. Is this on a team’s network, like Prime Ticket, or on NBCSN? I can imagine Pierre, who is on the ice after all, saying something to a player maybe but haven’t seen it.
PS who do you root for now that you’re in Maryland?
I think I’ve only seen it on Kings’ broadcasts. I did a quick YouTube search, but I can’t find any evidence of it. It would happen right after a commercial break. Play would be about to resume, and one of the broadcast team members would be standing in the area just to the side of the Kings’ bench talking to a Kings player who was on the ice. Usually an extremely quick one or two questions, but still enough to be annoying.
As to the second question, I’m still a Kings fan. Unlike baseball, I haven’t been following hockey nearly long enough to be a overall fan in the same way, so I haven’t really followed anyone else. Maybe that’ll change once I make my first Caps game in person, especially since I can’t really watch Kings games on TV anymore. But I have my doubts.
Well, when I left LA the Kings immediately won the cup. How fair is that? But I have high hopes for the Dallas Stars this year. **Asimovian,**I bet you will be a bigger hockey fan when you can watch Ovechkin play in person.
Anyway: back to the topic, I wish sportscasters would mostly just let us watch the games being played. I make exceptions only for Vin Scully and Doc Emrick, and neither one of them ever interviews a coach or a player during a game.
I don’t think I’ve ever met a fan who liked these. I wonder what data networks are seeing that make them think this is a value-add.