ESPN's 'KayRod Cast' looks to blend conversation with game

Alex Rodriguez, partial owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves NBA team aims a shot at the basket before the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat, Saturday, March 12, 2022, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier) (Marta Lavandier, Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Seven months after Peyton and Eli Manning provided a template on how alternate broadcasts could succeed, Alex Rodriguez and Michael Kay think they can improve on it.

The ā€œKayRod Castā€ with Rodriguez and Kay debuts Sunday night on ESPN2 when the Boston Red Sox take on the New York Yankees. It will be the first of eight this season that will take place while ā€œSunday Night Baseballā€ airs on ESPN.

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ā€œWell, weā€™re presently in the legal maneuverings to get adopted by a pair of people so we can actually be brothers, so that will give us more of a ā€˜Manningcastā€™ feel,ā€ Kay said jokingly during a conference call earlier this week. ā€œI thought the ā€˜Manningcastā€™ was great. I think weā€™re going to pay a little bit more attention to the game.ā€

Alternate broadcasts can go off the rails because the game becomes secondary to the interviews and personalities, but baseball might be the one sport that can blend both due to the pace of play.

While Rodriguez and Kay aren't related like the Mannings, they are longtime friends. Kay has broadcast Yankees games since 1992 while Rodriguez spent 12 of his 22 major league seasons in pinstripes.

Rodriguez has managed to transition into broadcasting despite some controversies on and off the field. While he has been engaging while doing studio work for Fox, he struggled as an analyst during his four seasons as an analyst in the ā€œSunday Night Baseballā€ booth.

But Rodriguez thinks he did some of his best analyst work during a short stay in the ā€œYES Networkā€ booth with Kay and David Cone during a 2019 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

ā€œI think it was the best four innings Iā€™ve ever done on TV because I was in the middle of two very close friends, and it was going back and forth," Rodriguez said. ā€œMichael knows exactly how to set me up because he knows me so well, so I think this format will do well for me.ā€

Rodriguez also thinks his suspension for taking performance-enhancing drugs ā€” and the criticism he got from many, including Kay ā€” helped prepare him for his new opportunity.

ā€œThatā€™s whatā€™s going to make this show really, I think, good, is because youā€™re going to get forthrightness from both him and I,ā€ he said. ā€œHonestly, pre-suspension, I think the show wouldnā€™t have been as good because I wasnā€™t as comfortable. I think Iā€™m just more comfortable in my skin today, and weā€™re going to let it rip.ā€

Mark Gross, ESPNā€™s senior vice president for production and remote events, said guests during the broadcast are likely to lean more toward players who played well on Sunday afternoon or during the past week. It also will include batting and fielding demos by Rodriguez.

Sundayā€™s show will have Kay and Rodriguez together at ESPNā€™s Seaport District Studios in New York. Some subsequent broadcasts could take place remotely, depending on their schedules. Rodriguez is spending most of his time in Minnesota as part of the ownership group of the NBAā€™s Timberwolves.

When it comes to ratings, comparing ā€œKayRod Castā€ to ā€œManningcastā€ would be unfair. The ā€œManningcastā€ averaged 1.58 million viewers per game last season. By comparison, ā€œSunday Night Baseballā€ was up 18% in 2021 according to Nielsen, and averaged 1.46 million.

A better gauge might be audience percentage. Last season, 12% of the total ā€œMonday Night Footballā€ audience watched the Mannings compared to the main broadcast.

Ratings aside, Kay said his main goal is to get Rodriguez to project his natural personality.

ā€œI want to get Alex Rodriguez to be the Alex Rodriguez that I used to speak to in front of a locker where there wasnā€™t the confinement of this has to be done for television, you have to look here, you have to break here, because I donā€™t think Iā€™ve ever met anybody who knows more baseball than Alex,ā€ he said.

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