Fox Sports’ Adam Amin on Respecting Every Pitch of Playoff Baseball

Fox Sports on Friday unveiled its postseason broadcasting lineup. Adam Amin, one of the best play-by-play voices in all of sports, will be a part of it as he’ll be alongside AJ Pierzynski and Adam Wainwright for the National League Division Series between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. The presentation of Game 1 will begin Saturday at 4 p.m. ET, continuing a big day for FOX in the state as Big Noon Kickoff is airing from State College for the UCLA-Penn State tilt. Amin spoke to Sports Illustrated about the uniqueness of postseason baseball, previewed the great atmospheres each stadium will present, and more.

Sports Illustrated: With playoff baseball, the seminal moment can come in the top of the fourth inning and it can literally happen on any of the 300-plus pitches thrown in the game. When you’re doing something that can turn at any second, how do you approach that? Does it make you sharper?

Adam Amin: I think it keeps us leaning forward a lot. I want to be ready at all times and I tell that to our analysts too. I think Waino [Adam Wainwright] and A.J. [Pierzynski] together are such a great pairing. They make it a million times easier for someone like me who doesn’t have a fraction of the knowledge that they do. They love doing this. They love analyzing the game and they love breaking it down. They love living in the game that they’re watching. But the only thing I try to direct them to do is respect every pitch because you don’t know which one is going to be the big one. I think anyone who watched the previous series understands that these can be low-scoring games, whether it’s Kansas City or Detroit winning tight games, any one of these pitches can be maybe the only one that supplies a run. When you look back on the game, 2.5 or 3 hours later you don’t want to be sitting in a situation where you missed out on the big, dramatic moment. As long as we respect every pitch, as long as we’re engaged, I think we know how to handle it.

I love this part of the year because of that. This is a different sport almost. The change between an NFL game in Week 7 to a playoff game isn’t that different. The weight on an August baseball game relative to what we’re about to take a look at this weekend is pretty drastic. We go in with that mentality. It keeps us sharper, it keeps us leaning forward. It keeps things really, really exciting.

SI: Is it physically exhausting to do a playoff baseball game? It might be the most physically exhausting viewing experience.

AA: I think so. You know, you don’t feel it physically in-game, you’re just trying to stay mentally sharp and mentally focused. Think about anything you’ve had to focus on for three straight hours and match its energy. Of course you’re going to feel it. You’re going to feel something at the end of it. It’s mentally draining which leads to physically exhaustion. [Laughs]

Again, it’s not rocket science, it’s not coal mining. We’re not doing anything of major import here other than getting to watch fun baseball games. But you feel it and that’s part of the nature of playoff baseball. That’s why you hope to have a position like this. You want to watch these games, you want to call these games, you want to be one of the people that’s engaged and gets to navigate people through it. This is the time of year that we all gear up for. Everyone who’s been in a truck or production room or a plane or a clubhouse, the reason we do it is that we get show up in October and watch the Phillies and Mets play a playoff series, something they’ve never done before.

SI: The national teams coming in for the playoffs is certainly nothing new but for some reason there’s been more conversation about Major League Baseball finding a way to allow the local booths more of a voice. How do you view the responsibility of taking over for people who have been on a six- or seven-month journey with these teams.

AA: You try your best and you’re never going to make everyone happy. And that’s okay. Baseball fans are a particular bunch because they live and die with their guys and their girls all year. I deal with this as a local NBA broadcaster. If the Bulls are on national TV, I get tweets from people. These announcers are biased and they don’t know anything about the Bulls and this and that. [Laughs]

I’m like guys, that’s not true. I know these people, I’ve talked to these people. I know that they’re knowledgable and fair. I’m only doing 70-75 Bulls games per year. Think about a baseball announcer who does 140. You get used to that person’s voice. You get used to that person’s cadence and, more importantly, you just get used to that person being on the same page as you. Or they’re the ones giving you information that you haven’t heard before. I think for us, we’re never going to make every local fan happy. That’s just part of the deal when you’re in a passionate and long sport like baseball is where fans are more accustomed to their people.

If someone’s upset about it I would say: support your local radio announcers. Especially in our series, like the Philly crew and the New York crew. I hope you listened to Howie Rose’s call of the Alonso home run, it is a legendary call and and it’s one of the best calls that I’ve ever heard from a guy I’ve heard a lot of amazing calls from. I understand why people get frustrated by that or upset by that. I think the best we can do is be up on the storylines, have a little anecdotal material so that we can share something that you maybe haven’t heard, and most importantly, just be about the game. When you’re about the game, fans are engaged with you. They’re less likely to get upset about something. That’s the beauty of playoff baseball. We get to be engaged every single pitch because it might be the biggest pitch of the season.

SI: All of the Division Series matchups are awesome. Like you mentioned the Phillies and Mets have never met in the postseason. What are you expecting the atmospheres to be like?

AA: Philadelphia’s been arguably the toughest environment to go into and win for opposing teams, especially in the postseason. I think they have one of the best records all time since their ballpark opened up. I think—and I’ll have to check my notes— they are 28-13 in the playoffs at this ballpark, which is the best winning percentage in Major League history for a ballpark that’s had 30-plus playoff games. It’s a legitimately tough atmosphere to play in. It was that way in the late-2000s, the early-2010s and obviously during this impressive run they’ve had the last couple of years where they’ve made some deep runs. It’s been a great atmosphere to go into an it’s seen some legendary moments, whether it’s Rhys Hoskins or Bryce Harper. They’ve seen big moments but they’re as passionate as any fanbase I’ve seen.

The Mets are just so starved and what a roller coaster their fans have been on, right? The great Gary Cohen call on Monday—from 0-5 to OMG. To see where they were early in the year, I think they were 11 games under .500 at one point and to watch them consistently play better and battle back. To have the type of series that they did and to do it on the road, to be on this really crazy two-week excursion that will finally end up in their home ballpark on Tuesday, they have been thirsty. I cannot wait for Game 3. I cannot wait for any of these games.