Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez Take Big Swing at World Series for Fox

Even Derek Jeter can learn something new about the game of baseball.

When the former New York Yankees captain joined the Fox Sports roster for the 2023 baseball season, he recalls, he had to find his way on camera. “I didn’t know what to expect. They just threw me at the desk,” Jeter says while holding forth with his colleagues Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Kevin Burkhardt, in a makeshift lounge set up for them among the executive offices at New York’s Citi Field. One time, he remembers, “someone started talking to me in my ear and I almost answered them on the air.”

When this quartet convenes Friday night for commentary before and after Game 1 of the World Series, they are likely to have worked out any jitters as they start a run as one of the most-watched entities on TV. Fox has televised MLB’s signature event since 2000, but never, one might argue, with such potential for national interest. The New York Yankees are squaring off against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the tournament for the first time since 1981, and the fact that each team hails from a major market on a different U.S. coast means Fox may nab some of the biggest audiences for post-season baseball in some time.

“A collection of true legends of the game has never been on a show together before in this sport,” says Eric Shanks, Fox Sports’ CEO and executive producer. The former players’ willingness to come together “is good for the game,” he adds, and might even inspire other baseball legends to take a similar path.

On TV, Jeter is the quiet one, but when he speaks, it’s often insightful and well  thought out. Rodriguez has worked some sources and is quick to hit the stats. And Ortiz brings a “what you see is what you get” kind of enthusiasm along with his hard-earned knowledge, says Bardia Shah-Rais, who oversees the group’s pre- and post-game antics. Producers are eager to have the quartet sound like they’re just talking over a drink or a meal, he says, “and the best way to do that is to make sure what’s said out there is said in a trustworthy environment. No one gest embarrassed or gets their pants pulled down.”

Part of the key to the team’s appeal is that they aren’t on Fox more than two handfuls of times each season. Fox brings them out for tentpole events like post-season baseball and the All-Star Game, betting that their on-screen scarcity adds to their authority. “We want to make it count when we use these guys, says Bardia. “When they are on the air, it feels special. It feels big.”

At a time when the costs for sports TV rights are soaring, it’s important to make every piece of production count. Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN are among the big networks that have spent a lot of time overhauling, refining and recalibrating the studio teams that get fans worked up and excited for the game to follow, then come back to offer a few pearls of wisdom after the final score.

They have good reason. These shows often capture as much as 25% of the audience for the game itself, according to data from Octagon, an Interpublic Group sports-management firm. Given the outsized numbers for top-tier sports events in the streaming era, that can translate to good-sized crowds in hours that might normally feature scripted programming that no longer generates the viewership it once did. “The lead-in to tentpole events, playoffs and special games is absolutely critical,” says Daniel Cohen, senior vice president of media rights consulting at the company. “That’s why you are seeing such an incredible demand for top-tier talent with celebrity status.”

NBC has added Maria Taylor, Matthew Berry and Steve Kornacki to “Football Night in America,” while CBS Sports recently overhauled its Sunday studio program by bringing Matt Ryan on board full time, parting ways with Boomer Esiason and Phil Simms. ESPN injected new spirit into “College GameDay” with the addition of the outspoken Pat McAfee. And there may be new room for a studio show to stand out, as the fate of what is arguably the top program in the field, TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” is less certain after the NBA’s next season. Warner Bros. Discovery, the network’s parent, will lose its deal with the basketball league, leaving undetermined the fate of the long-running program that features Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal. Both basketball legends have struck long-running contracts that would presumably keep them working with Warner’s TNT Sports.

Having Jeter, Rodriguez and Ortiz all on the screen at once also helps Fox gain traction on Madison Avenue. The company is seeking $450,000 to $500,000 for a 30-second spot in the first few games of the Series and believes prices could go higher if the Yankees-Dodgers showdown goes into Game 6 or Game 7. Advertisers “want to be close” to the “murderers; row in that pre-game show,” says Mark Evans, executive vice president of sales for Fox Sports. Having the “gravitas and history” that Ortiz, Rodriguez and Jeter generate, he says, can spur extra spending from advertisers interested in some of MLB’s biggest games.

At Citi Field, such thoughts aren’t really on the hosts’ minds. The four men are getting ready to take in one of the last NLCS games between the Dodgers and the New York Mets, and the mood is about anything but business. “I want the games with these guys to sound like I did with my dad or my buddies,” says Burkhardt. “I don’t ever want it to feel like I’m just asking questions of these guys. I think that sucks. You want it to sound like you’re shooting the breeze.”

Fox wants the group to offer smart commentary ahead of the game, but there’s also room for humor. Ortiz, the former Boston Red Sox pitcher also called “Big Papi,” seems most at ease with such segments, often taking place later in the evening. He’s been spotted dancing at a “Mets Club,” for example, or playing the role of a traffic reporter examining Los Angeles’ crowded freeways. “We are screwed,” he told his colleagues. Still, even Rodriguez and Jeter get in on the escapades sometimes, with Jeter offering to buy a box of Wheaties with Rodriguez on it for $19.99. “Be nice, Derek!” Rodriguez hooted at him just seconds earlier.

“We don’t consider ourselves like ‘Saturday Night Live,’ but we are trying to keep the show loose,” says Shah-Rais. “You don’t want to disrespect the game in the moment, but we are trying to add a little levity.”

“Once we get going, it’s natural,” says Ortiz.

Such a team-up might not have been possible years earlier. Ortiz competed against Jeter and Rodriguez when they all played.” I always respected him,” Jeter says of Ortiz, “I just never got to really know him.

Now, they’re working it out on a different kind of playing field. ‘We are all at different stages of our lives. We are no longer kids We are not competing against each other,” says Rodriguez. When the former ballplayers gather, he says, “I’m sincerely interested in what they have to say, because I’m learning, If I’m learning, the fans at home are learning.”

Fox producers think the group is still in its early days. More viewers are likely to discover them during the World Series. All three former players say they spend a lot of time doing their research and working out ideas and insights, but when they get on camera, they make the whole thing look natural. The idea, says Rodriguez, is to talk on the show just as they would when they’re having a meal or sitting around waiting for the game to start.

“We always joke about putting a camera in the green room,” says Rodriguez. “It would be a better show.”

“It also might be the last day we work here,” Burkhardt cracks.

Chances are the members of the group have more time to keep talking.