The highly-anticipated series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees saw a national broadcast each night, which included Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández being mic’d up during the first and third games, repsectively.
Hernández wore an earpiece for the Apple TV+ “Friday Night Baseball” stream so he could speak with play-by-play man Wayne Randazzo and analyst Dontrelle Willis.
Hernández committed an error while talking with the broadcasters during the second inning, and although it required Yoshinobu Yamamoto to throw more pitches, Gleyber Torres reaching did not cost the Dodgers a run.
Manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers win that he wasn’t aware Hernández had been mic’d up but doesn’t raise issue over the arrangement despite not being particularly fond of it, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“I understand it. It’s part of sports now,” Roberts said. “So, unfortunately, Kiké made an error. It’s not the only error he’s ever made. It’s part of sports. I pick my battles.”
Roberts added he understands Hernández has interest that extend beyond playing baseball:
“I know he likes the limelight. He’s into the social media thing,” Roberts said. “He still plays hard, practices hard. But he still likes to build his brand. So I get it. I’m OK with it. He plays his butt off.”
Shortly after the error, Hernández asked the broadcast to repeat the question he received at the time of booting the ground ball.
Willis politely declined to do so and took blame for the error.
“I don’t want to ask it again, because I don’t want you to boot the ball again, to be honest with you,” Willis responded. “I’ll take that E for you, big dog.”
The question had been about the Dodgers clubhouse having a strong bond.
Under the MLB collective bargaining agreement, a player receives $10,000 when wearing a two-way microphone for one inning during a broadcast in the regular season. That amount increases to $15,000 for the postseason.
In 2020, Roberts put an unofficial end to his players wearing a mic for in-game interviews, but that largely appears to have been for the playoffs only.
Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement calls for a player to receive a $10,000 stipend for wearing a two-way microphone for at least one inning of a regular-season game. The amount rises to $15,000 in the postseason.
Kiké Hernández mic’d up gets PitchCom
Friday wasn’t the first snafu this season while Hernández was mic’d up.
At the beginning of the year, Hernández wore a microphone for a Sunday Night Baseball broadcast and it continued to pick up audio from his PitchCom device.
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