In ESPN’s reshaping of its “Sunday Night Baseball” game broadcast, its first decision was to remove Jessica Mendoza from the three-person booth.
Though ESPN presented the demotion as some sort of victory for Mendoza, rewarding her with a contract extension and a spot in a now-crowded three-person World Series radio booth, the network’s true feelings — its actions — spoke louder about its intentions.
It was addition by subtraction in their eyes.
This is becoming more evident because ESPN has ended its pursuit of David Cone to join Matt Vasgersian and Alex Rodriguez. Cone confirmed the decision to The Post, while ESPN declined comment.
Vasgersian and A-Rod are the most likely choice as a two-man team to remain on “Sunday Night Baseball,” ESPN’s most prestigious MLB game broadcast. Buster Olney is expected to stay as the dugout reporter.
ESPN may want to make it official at some point since spring training has begun.
ESPN has considered Jon (Boog) Sciambi and Karl Ravech in place of Vasgersian. Both Vasgersian and A-Rod are entering the final years of their contracts.
ESPN has also shown interest in Chipper Jones and Curtis Granderson, but it seems far more likely for weekday games and/or studio work.
During this long offseason process, ESPN reached out to Cone to gauge his interest and then even discussed the parameters of a contract, according to sources.
“As far as I am concerned, no real formal offer was made,” Cone said.
Cone worked a game last year on YES with A-Rod and Michael Kay. ESPN executives liked the way it sounded, which is part of the reason they pursued Cone. However, ESPN decided to change its course on Cone midstream.
Instead of fully pursuing Cone for Sunday, ESPN looked into having Cone potentially work on Monday or Wednesday games, but YES — where Cone has established himself as maybe baseball’s best game analyst — was only willing to allow Cone to work on Sundays.
ESPN’s Sunday exclusive window would not be in direct competition with YES compared to ESPN weekday telecasts, which is why YES took its stance, according to sources.
This season, Mendoza, for her part, will work as a solo analyst on weekday games and will join Dan Shulman and likely incumbent Chris Singleton for the World Series radio call. Three in a radio booth is one too many, but Singleton did nothing wrong and deserves to remain in his perch.
As for Cone, the old adage of “Wait ‘til Next Year” may be in play.
“We left it on good terms,” Cone said. “I’m still very much in the mix for future potential work they said. I was happy to meet with them and to talk with them. I feel pretty good about it.”
Cone will work his full slate of 75 YES games.
Quick clicks: XFL ratings were really good for Week 1, but the story will be Week 2’s. The XFL’s big advantage compared to AAF — besides it seems as if it has the proper financing — is distribution. Whereas the AAF started with a bang with CBS and Turner, it was relegated to lesser watched CBSSN and non-all sports Turner in Week 2. The XFL will be on ABC/ESPN and Fox/FS1, which will likely make it easier for the casual fan to stumble across it. …. The first month of the radio ratings come out Monday. Happy New Year!… NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” is so well produced. The show had CC Sabathia on the other day. Generally, having a baseball player on football show can be tedious, but they created segments that worked. It didn’t hurt that Sabathia is a legit sports fan and a diehard Raiders supporter.
Clicker books: Papa Clicker has “The Game” by George H. Colt for your reading pleasure. He gives it a very strong 4.5/5 clickers as it retells “Harvard beats Yale, 29-29,” including the events, players and stories that surrounded the game.
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