Before getting suited up and appearing on national television, the guys behind the MLB on Fox studio show—Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, and Kevin Burkhardt—lounge around a conference room tucked deep into the Citi Field concourse. It’s Game 3 of the National League Championship Series between the Dodgers and Mets, and some three hours before first pitch, the crew is gearing up for a pivotal game. Notes are strewn about the room, and the excitement of October baseball in the air. Even though the game will wind up an 8-0 laugher in favor of the Dodgers, the guys have plenty to discuss afterward thanks to a monstrous Shohei Ohtani home run and a vintage performance from Walker Buehler.
Before the stadium fills up, we talk a little baseball. (Tom Rinaldi, the network’s ace feature reporter, is also on hand.) Now 20 years removed from the unforgettable ALCS that changed the course of their lives forever, Jeter, Big Papi, and A-Rod are all on the same team. Jeter—who played the game with supreme confidence, and always seemed cool, calm, and collected—is the newcomer who had to recently learn the ropes. A-Rod and Ortiz have both been doing TV since the mid-2010s, when Burkhardt was still a local New York reporter covering the Mets. Now, they’re breaking down baseball’s biggest games together and endlessly giving each other shit. The only thing they can agree on? Who the best dressed member of the team is.
Derek Jeter: We didn’t have many gimmicks.
Steinbrenner wasn’t a big gimmick guy?
Jeter: No, I can’t think of any.
David Ortiz: When you bring a lot of guys with different personalities into the clubhouse, sometimes that can be good, sometimes that can be your worst enemy. It all depends how the organization handles it. In our case, [in 2004] we were named “The Idiots”—I don’t know why, maybe it was because I was a part of it—but the thing was, everybody brought their personality in. The teams that always did the same thing over and over and over never won. All of a sudden, you bring all those different personalities in, it was loose. Everybody was playing their asses off, but having a good time. That helped us win. Letting a player be who they are, it works.
Rodriguez: What’s interesting about this Mets team is, as they’ve shed payroll, they’ve gained chemistry. They’ve actually become a team. I’ve always said that two nines working together will beat two tens working apart, every time. I think we’re seeing that.
Burkhardt: It’s definitely nostalgic for me. We were here in 2015 when they went to the World Series. That was super cool, and pretty fresh because it was only a year out from when I was gone. But this is pretty neat. I’ve had a lot of people reaching out—friends, fans on social media, “Welcome back”-type things—it’s cool for me. I was here for eight years and the fans always treated me really, really well for a sideline reporter. I am excited to be here.
What about working with these guys? Are you still walking in thinking, “Oh my god, these are three of the GOATs?” Or are they just your idiot coworkers now?
Burkhardt: A little of both. [Laughter] I think that’s the beauty of us. Of course, I don’t take this for granted. They’re baseball royalty. But we fuck around with each other and have a great time watching the games together. When I’m learning baseball from them, I can also take a shot at Papi during the postgame, and he just laughs at me and gives me a hug after. I’m fortunate to be with these guys. We have a great relationship and the ability to bust each other’s chops, which I think comes across on the air.
Ortiz: All day, every day!
Rodriguez: A lot of people might not know this, but I’ve known them both since I was 18 years old. Papi and I played together in the instructional league for the Mariners. Derek and I have known each other for a while, and Kevin has become one of my really good friends. I think there’s a really good trust. We know we got each other’s backs. I don’t remember ever coming out of a show thinking, What the hell was that?
