Interview: Jon Morosi, MLB Network Broadcaster, on the Global Future of Baseball

In this episode, Brenda Elsey interviews Jon Morosi, MLB and NHL Network broadcaster, on how Major League Baseball’s new CBA impacts international players, Spanish language learning in baseball, his hopes for the league grow globally and what he's looking forward to in this upcoming season.

This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our social media and website specialist. Burn It All Down is part of the Blue Wire podcast network.

Transcript

Brenda: This is Burn It All Down. I'm Brenda Elsey. We are thrilled to have with us today Jon Morosi, NHL and MLB network announcer, baseball extraordinaire, to talk with us a little bit about the international aspects of the new CBA and what he's excited about in the new season. Welcome, Jon.

Jon: This is my pleasure, and always happy to help out a fellow Michigander. So, please please do stay in touch and let me know anytime I can help.

Brenda: [laughs] For sure. For sure. Okay. So, first of all, I mean, Jon Morosi, you can find them on Twitter at @JonMorosi, and a lot of what creeps in there – though you're not a person to talk a ton about yourself – is Spanish language learning, whether it's on Peloton or in other ways. Why has it been so important for you, as a person that covers sports, especially MLB, to learn Spanish?

Jon: Yeah, it's a great question, Brenda. Thanks just for having me on the show today. I really appreciate it. The Peloton piece, I have to thank my wife for that. She's the inspiration for me first of all getting on the bike. I don't do it as well or as often as she does, but I did say…And part of her pitch to me was, Jon, there are classes in Spanish, and if you want to keep learning the language it’s a great way to do it. I said, you know what? Now you are truly speaking my language. And so what I would say on that, it really goes back…Goodness. I mean, I learned Spanish a little bit in elementary school and in high school in the way that most American students do, as a second language. But I really realized the first time I probably covered minor league baseball in the summer of 2003, my last summer before graduating from college. I came home to Michigan. I covered the West Michigan Whitecaps for a summer in the Midwest League. And I realized there was a player from the Dominican Republic who didn't speak much English. And so if I was going to do a story on him or about him, I had to summon whatever Spanish was still there from the class I had taken as a freshman in university – in which, by the way, I sat next to Jonathan Taylor Thomas of Home Improvement fame, was my seatmate in that class. It was amazing. [Brenda laughs] A little silent parenthetical there. 

But so, I had taken one year of Spanish in university and I said, all right, I'm going to have to bring whatever I can remember to this conversation, do the best I can. And I was somewhat impressed, even though I was very nervous, to speak it and do the interview in a minor league clubhouse, because in that setting there's not often very many reporters in the clubhouse. I was probably the only person there as a reporter. And so, as we were speaking, me struggling, I felt like the whole clubhouse coming around us to pay attention to this conversation. And certainly all the Latin American players were taking a lot of interest in this American reporter doing his best to speak Spanish. And they were really enjoying it. And I could tell the player, Victor Mendez was his name, that he was really enjoying my efforts too. And I sort of realized in that moment the power of trying and the power of doing your best. And note I didn't say the power of speaking perfect Spanish, because I probably never will and certainly was not doing it on that day. 

But the idea is the effort. And when you put in the effort, it both A) results in a better conversation, and B) makes the person you're speaking with eminently more comfortable, because not only is the conversation in their native language, but they understand that they're speaking with someone who gets how hard it is to learn a new language and a new culture. And so it both makes the interaction better and it sort of activates the other person's own storytelling and empathy in a way that you just will never get through an interpreter. So, even if my Spanish is imperfect…And unfortunately the part of it that I always am most self-conscious about is those times when I'm doing the interpreting myself, trying to get every nuance back correct, because for all of us who have done interviews, we all know the challenge in even just thinking about the next question and doing the interview well, especially when it's live and you have a producer in your ear and you're wondering how many questions you can ask and what to ask and what's happening around you. 

There's always a lot of different inputs happening on live television, especially let alone I have to listen to every word and translate it back into my second language. Like, that's really challenging. It's probably one of my favorite things that I do in my job, period, because it is so challenging. But that to me is always my greatest fear. Not that I will screw up, because I know I'm going to screw up. So, that part is… [Brenda laughs] I give that up at the start. I know that's going to happen. What I don't want to screw up is the other person's words. I've had players, Brenda, who have said to me, hey, we know that you try, and we appreciate that you try. And that to me is honestly...You could say breaking any big story or having any big assignment, that to me is the most important thing that I've heard in my career, is that the players have seen me try and trust me that I will try my best and respect their culture and their story. That to me is why we do what we do. 

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how many people are watching a particular show or whatever game I'm broadcasting. I would much rather care that people who are watching and the people who are in the game, that they appreciate the effort. Because for me, as time has gone on, Brenda, I'm much more motivated by connecting with people and representing their story with fairness and context and empathy than just getting the big scoop and getting my name on TV. Like, I care more about them and the people at home watching, because when you're able to tell that story, especially in their own language, it just activates the viewer at home to say, wow, this person who was born in the US and didn't speak Spanish growing up is making an effort to make me at home feel like this is my sport and my show and my country and my network. And when they feel that way, there's this amazing power in that. 

Brenda: And the athletes themselves sound so different. It's like, you know, I like to think that I'm funny, and I don't feel funny in Spanish, you know? And I have to resort to physical humor, or pretending it's physical humor when really I'm just falling all over the place. There are things that are just really hard about it. And so even if you don't understand it sometimes, you feel like you get their personality more, you know? So, you're translating, but also I feel like we can hear it gives them space to speak in Spanish. 

Jon: You're right. You're exactly right. And the number of times that I have spoken Spanish and the number of mistakes I've made, it always both amuses me and at times frustrates me when you hear other people say, well, I'm so afraid to make a mistake in Spanish or French or whatever language it might be, I'm so afraid to make a mistake that I don't try, or those in the other country would be offended if I made a mistake in their language. I'm here to tell you: that has never happened. 

Brenda: Nope.

Jon: At least in my cognizance, ever. Spanish, French, anywhere. Italian, never happened. Like, of those languages, I probably speak Spanish better than I speak Italian, and my French is very limited. But I've never had an issue when I've been in Montreal or anywhere else. It’s always met with joy and appreciation. I've never, not once, detected any of the supposedly animosity that you hear about. “Oh, don't try because they'll be offended.” It's never happened! Because I think that when you just bring a certain authenticity and curiosity to that process, you are welcomed in immediately. And I just think that my advice to anybody working on trying to learn a new language or a new culture, you just have to put yourself out there. You just have to do it. You have to be okay with making mistakes. I just think that we are conditioned to be, whether it's pride or whatever it is, we're just as Americans not used to being in situations where the language is not our own and the cultural terms of engagement are not our own. 

We have to sort of give up that control – which is hard to do, admittedly. But the more often you do it, the easier it becomes, and the more natural the interactions will be, and the more the world will open up. I mean, that, to me…One of my favorite things to do is to go to a place where, like, when I've been, it was only one time, but I went to this small town in the north of Italy where my family came from a century ago or more now, and there was no choice but to speak Italian. And so you're in a situation where you just have to do it. You've been thrown into the deep end and you have to swim. But when you sort of eliminate, to use a swimming term, when you eliminate the floaties, you just have to swim! [Brenda laughs] Like, you don't have a choice. And so I think that my advice to everybody is just, when it's in that context, linguistically, just take off the floaties. Just do it. And you're going to screw up, and it's going to be okay. 

I just have to say, my best teachers in all of this have been the players themselves. And this goes to the biggest stars, like Albert Pujols has been someone that, when I've spoken with him in Spanish, he is always...He’ll call me compadre and be very, very genial and welcoming. And Albert is a Hall of Famer, okay? He's as big as it gets in this game. And if the superstar of superstars will take the time and engage with you and teach you a little bit, then everybody is going to. And I thank Albert and so many of the others for the way that they've treated me over the years.

Brenda: What fun teachers. I mean, come on. Who doesn't want to learn? 

Jon: Right!

Brenda: So, sticking on the international piece, I mean, part of what, you know, doing global soccer forever is I learned more geography from African Cup of Nations than I ever did…We love Michigan, but from Michigan public schools. And so, you know, baseball continues to be more and more international, we can expect to see. And, you know, on that note, I looked at the CBA a bit here and there, and I saw some really interesting stuff on that note. And I just want to start off with, okay, so I work on the transfer system in soccer, like, from its beginning. It’s a hundred and, I don't know, four years old or something. What is an international draft right now? What even is that? 

Jon: So, it's a great question. And speaking of geography, I do want to say that as someone who follows the Italian national team closely, I now very much know and understand where North Macedonia is. Like, there is…

Brenda: Devastated for you.

Jon: Yes. It was a rough last week. As I was thinking to myself, Canada is in, Italy is out?! I’m gonna have a long time to reflect on the way in which the soccer world is changing on us. But I digress a little bit. The international draft. So, a couple of things. It is something where certainly it was part of the CBA negotiations and there's a mechanism within the CBA to revisit this topic later on in the year. I am a believer that as long as are good buy-in from all the parties involved – the players, clubs, the agents – that this can work and can work well. It's actually going to put more money into the international system. Right now it's entirely based upon free agency, and one of the concerns from MLB’s perspective, and certainly the players I'm sure as well, is that there's a universal signing age now of 16 in all international countries that are not obviously the US, Canada, Puerto Rico. That's all part of the MLB draft as it is right now. 

Everywhere else in the world is international free agency. And typically in the Japanese and Korean leagues, those players generally will play there in the pro leagues before coming over later on. So, really we're talking about Latin America, Europe, Africa, developing nations from a baseball perspective in Asia, and India is one of them that I would mention, Australia certainly fits this description too. So, right now it's a universal age of 16, and teams have a certain signing budget to fill up. What happens with an alarming level of frequency is that, while the signing age is 16, verbal agreements are being reached much younger. And I don't think anybody looks at a system in which 12 or 13 or 14 year olds are being recruited and given handshake deals for professional contracts…Ethically, it is not something that we largely should be comfortable with or really are comfortable with. And so there has to be some changes made to this equation. 

The question is, how do you do it? And I think that, a couple of things. Number one, it was really important that, while this issue was…It didn't seem like it was really dealt with in public in full until the last days of the negotiation. MLB has been pushing for this for years. This is something that's obviously been on everybody's radar. It's important though, if it does get implemented – as you know, Brenda, from your experience working in Latin America – that it both has to respect the culture that exists previously and also have good buy-in from the stakeholders who are involved. It's important that the players, the Latin American players who have been through that system, feel and are aware that their concerns have been taken into account and that the communication is paramount. And I think that's what the next several months will be, a lot of communication. Because I actually believe MLB’s proposal has a lot of good in it for everyone. 

I think that the way that the current system works, it does offer opportunities for multiple junctures in the process of the players signing for other people to sort of attach themselves to the process and therefore get money from it. That doesn't go to the player and the player's family. And I think that if you streamline the process, make it a draft, so that way you can't agree to something in advance, it results in a fairer process both for the MLB teams who get a fair distribution of talent, as we see in the domestic draft. But also, when you eliminate some of the other people who have sort of inserted themselves into the process, they're not getting that cut anymore. Or at least it's diminished, and their authority over the system is diminished. And certainly there will have to be some different cultural conversations around how those individuals, assuming they're legitimate in what they're doing, are still able to be part of the baseball economy there. 

But I do think that, out of fairness to the young men who are signing these contracts and their families, their families should get more of the money. The players themselves should get more of the money. They're the ones who deserve it. While obviously there is a system of infrastructure set up there – obviously, as you know, they’re called buscones in the Dominican or Venezuela to help develop these young players. They certainly deserve to get financially rewarded for their efforts in training the players. But there are also people who are secondary and tertiary participants in the process who probably do not deserve to be compensated. And I think that if they are marginalized, you're going to see more of the money going to the people who actually deserve it most directly, which would be the player themself and then the trainer/agent who was most directly responsible for that player’s development.

Brenda: Yeah. I mean, it's so interesting. We see players in soccer that enter the academy at 8, 9 years old. But in a sense they're very regulated because they're coming out of a system that's there, and that can be good and bad for different reasons. So, I'm kind of fascinated by this. And I just want to ask then, Is there a way in which…We saw players like Lindor, we've seen other players that have made a move from either Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, wherever, to places in Florida at incredibly young ages. And I'm not assuming anything about them, but just to say, broadly speaking, might this help younger players that want to stay or don't feel like they have to move from their home country to have a shot at MLB success?

Jon: That's a great question. And I think that in some cases, under the old system, Brenda, it actually would work to your advantage, back before there was a signing limit and cap in international spending, it actually worked to your advantage to stay international because you would have full free agency and no cap. 

Brenda: Okay. Interesting.

Jon: Whereas the draft in MLB has either had some slot recommendations or now, in more recent years, a firmer spending limit. And so it's a great question, and I would think that ideally you would look at it and say a player should be able to go wherever his family feels as though he’s most able to develop and thrive both academically and athletically because, to your point, Lindor is one great success story, but there are plenty of players who might've made that move and it didn't work out. And I think that one of the key questions that teams I think still have to reckon with is the sort of ethical and moral question of, if you're signing large numbers of players from the Dominican Republic or Venezuela or Mexico at the age of 16 and bringing them to your training base in Florida or Arizona – eventually of course they can train in the Dominican for a period of time, less often in Venezuela because of the political situation there now. But if you're in the Dominican at the age of 16 and you signed, just by definition and your age, you're likely not yet a high school graduate. 

So, what obligations does the club have to further your education given what we all know is, because of injury or performance, the risk of not making it. And then you've signed at 16, let's say your bonus was $25,000 or $50,000, it's obviously in the moment great money but you're not going to live on that for the rest of your life. And how do you then educate and help that person become a member of their community back home or a member of your baseball infrastructure as a coach, umpire, manager, agent, whatever it might be going forward. And I think there needs to be a rich and really helpful system of helping these players grow and learn. And I really do think there is a great service done by the teams who work on English language education to help them have the best opportunity of success in the States. 

I also admire those teams – I know the Red Sox are one example – who in recent years have tried to send their very best players when instructional league is done…This is largely pre-pandemic, but I think now we're probably getting to a spot where it's feasible again. They would send their best domestic players when they have…Usually they would have an instructional league in Florida or Arizona after the season is over. So, in the fall, send them instead to the Dominican version of the instructional league so they live at the academy, they understand better the Dominican culture, and they're better teammates and better leaders. Because one of the best things you can say is I have been to your country. When the conversation begins with that sentence, it changes everything. It really does. And there's no substitute for that sentence. “I have been to your country. I loved going to your country. The people in your country were so gracious in welcoming me.” The ability to say that at the outset of the conversation: “Hey, I've been there, here's what I experienced.” 

And because I often say that when we talk about the fan experience at a baseball game in the US, I just sort of shake my head when people say, oh, you know, baseball's too slow. Hey, guess what? Turn on the Caribbean Series! It's not slow. Nothing about it is slow or boring! Nothing about having a band with horns playing at a ballpark in Puerto Rico or Mexico or the Dominican…It’s not boring. You just have to go there and see it. And if you bring that mentality back with you, it changes the whole game, which is why the World Baseball Classic is so great. And so that's, I think, one of the magic elements of baseball in the Caribbean, is that passion. And it's so interesting, and it's just so tired and so like old American way of saying this. “Look, here's this young man, he's coming up from Mexico, he’s 22 years old, but he's never seen major league pressure before.” That's nonsense! 

Turn on a winter ball game. He's felt pressure time and time again. He's played for his national team. He's got a crowd of 12,000 that sounds like 55,000 screaming from pitch one to the end of the game. That's pressure! That's one of the things that I always hear. I shake my head. It bothers me so much. It reflects just a lack of awareness of the life experience of these players. The pressure! Pressure was signing the first contract when they were 16 and their family’s economic livelihood hinges on a 16 year old signing a professional contract. That is pressure! Going to a game and playing the Toronto Blue Jays or playing the Cleveland Guardians, that's not pressure for them! [Brenda laughs] Think about their story. Whenever I hear that, I just shake my head and say, you guys, just get a clue! Get on a plane and get a clue. Because what they've done is so different from their life experience than what a kid has done playing suburban travel baseball in Texas. It's just a fundamentally different experience. 

Brenda: Oh, for sure! I feel like we could make a Burn It All Down Jon Morosi t-shirt that says “Get on a plane and get a clue.” [laughter] I feel like that is a fantastic slogan. You know, I totally agree. Soccer…I mean, if you've ever been, like, I work on Argentine and Brazilian football, and I mean, they just don't sit down. Like, the fans don't even sit down. And so people are like, can you believe they don't serve beer there? And it's like, well, they wouldn't leave to go buy beer anyway!

Jon: Correct.

Brenda: I was in Mexico City at Diablos game, and it was amazing, and so much music, and so much excitement. I mean, I completely agree. And now, in that CBA, we also saw a commitment to try to have games abroad and get on planes and get clues. So, you know, are you hyped about that?

Jon: I am, very much so. And I think about some of my favorite moments in covering Major League games or World Baseball Classic games that have been those that involve an international element. I certainly will see games as part of the CBA, we hope, in the Dominican Republic, there's been some work on refurbishing Estadio Quisqueya, which is the main stadium in the capital, as you know. So there's been a real effort to have games there. Mexico City has finally, we hope…Obviously the pandemic has really sort of sidetracked the efforts there to have a game in Mexico City. We've been so close a couple of different times. But in the future that will be hopefully a regular part of the rotation. There are so many teams that have such interest in playing in Mexico because of the heritage of the organization. You think about the Dodgers with Fernando Valenzuela and Julio Urías as part of the rotation. There's that connection there. 

The Padres, of course, as you know, Alfredo Harp Helú, part of the ownership group of the Padres. You think of the Texas Rangers, the Houston Astros, how close they are to Mexico City. There are some really strong fan bases. The Arizona Diamondbacks has done a great job of working with Sonora and the province there and playing spring training games at Hermosillo in the past. I think to get to Mexico City and really understand what potential there is there to grow the game…And so I'm a huge believer in that, in that stadium, as you're describing, is so unique with that roof and the way that it looks. Just a really unique place to watch a ball game.

Brenda: It is gorgeous!

Jon: Yeah.

Brenda: It is gorgeous. For people who have not been to Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú, it is so pretty. It is a fantastic stadium. I mean, everybody is going to love it. If you can get to a game there, oh my goodness. I adored it. I just loved it.

Jon: Yeah. And I really think that, to your point, the closer that we see a relationship between MLB and the Mexican league and Mexican baseball in general…Because there is so much potential there. There's so many great players in Mexico. And especially, obviously as you know, pockets of the country where baseball is as popular as football, as soccer. So, certainly broadly speaking, football is still the number one sport, but there are regions where baseball really has a strong foothold. And it's a matter, I think, for baseball to capitalize on that, and MLB to really have that relationship be strong and strong. And you think about the viewership possibility, the marketing possibilities, the more games you play there. It's a relationship that I believe will be really crucial for MLB to cultivate over the remainder of this decade. So, playing games again in Puerto Rico, crucial. We'll see of course going back to Europe now with London as an option, and then again we saw Paris pop onto the schedule as well. 

So, for me, anytime we've got going internationally, I think it's just great for the growth of the sport. One of my favorite stories of covering games in Latin America was when Cleveland played against Minnesota in Hiram Bithorn stadium a number of years ago. And on the Cleveland club you had Lindor, and on the Twins you had Berríos. And so you had a Puerto Rican star on both teams. And Lindor hits this amazing home run that I still...Like, the sound of the crowd still is with me. And I got up, I was on the broadcast that night for Fox Sports 1, and I got up into the stands to speak with Lindor's mother. And so she's up there, and her glasses, Brenda, were still foggy from the humidity and the tears. And I'll just never forget how she looked. Her tears had fogged up her glasses, she was still crying and screaming all at once. It was beautiful. It was a great moment. And to interview her and the passion that she had…And of course you referenced Lindor’s story. He had left I think at probably 14 or 15 to go to high school in Florida, as you mentioned. So he had never actually played a regular season organized game on the island until then. I mean, it'd been like seven, eight years at that point, probably even longer than that. So it was a really emotional thing for him. 

And so to see that firsthand, and to see her emotional reaction, again, like, tears and humidity and just fog and emotion, everything. It was just everything in that moment. And that's the kind of stuff that you just…Like, I love going to games in Cleveland, but you don't get that reaction in Cleveland. You don't see that. It's just not part of the experience. And so to be there for that was remarkable. I remember still covering the trip that Tampa Bay took to play the Cuban national team in Havana in early 2016. That was historic. You're sitting there in Estadio Latinoamericano, and you're hearing the Star Spangled Banner played and applauded, like, I had to sit there and think about, like, [Brenda laughs] this is a moment here! It would take like probably a full podcast series of a hundred to fully unravel what that moment meant. And so just the amount of amazing moments that were part of that trip to just see the connection between our countries over baseball that, after all those years of not talking, the one thing that we could talk about was baseball. And to see the power of the game in that respect. So, you've seen it, Brenda, and you witnessed it. 

So, I mean, for me to be able to think about the future, and the World Baseball Classic as well and how that brings everybody together. And even, you know, those games in Miami last time around, I would say that like when I would get back home to the hotel after those games were over, my ears would ring until the next game started, whether it was Dominican and Colombia, when the Dominican played the US, just…Oh, incredible baseball. I think back to the 2013 classic when Mexico beat the US in Phoenix. The crowd was probably 75% Mexican fans. And just, again, all those notes of complexity and identity and which team you support if you're a Mexican American in this country, it's just…It was so unique to be there that night, and those are notes and cultural storylines that you simply do not get in the run of a normal regular season. And so that's why I think those stories become so much more important for us to tell and tell well, to help the game grow in the future.

Brenda: And the way in which sports and telling sports stories can be much more nuanced and interesting than an international relations perspective on Cuba and the US which we're getting absolutely nothing interesting right now in major news about Cuba, you know, no matter how you feel about the new president of Cuba. It's a new day. And I would say most people in the US pretty much don't have a clue about it, because they're looking…You know, they would need a story to engage them, because I think people really can lock into that in a way that they don't necessarily want to read or have motivation to read high politics about. So, you know, those kinds of stories can be really powerful. So, I don't want to keep you much longer, but I can't let you go until I ask what you're excited about in this season?

Jon: [laughs] Well, Brenda, thanks for that question. I'm just, first of all, certainly just grateful to have the game back. And obviously it was a long winter. The work stoppage was difficult I think for all of us who love the game. And just to know that this season is going to begin, that we'll get a full 162…And obviously, from a standpoint of our access and my own little narrow perspective as a journalist, the ability to go back in the clubhouse now…Obviously a lot of health and safety protocols around that. If you're vaccinated and masked, you can go in there. And just those spontaneous conversations that were such a foundation of how I've learned about the game over the years from the players, from the managers. I say, and it's true, whenever I see Ramón Santiago from the Tigers, and he's now in the coaching staff, Ramón was one of those teachers that I had early in my years covering the Tigers where I would stop by his locker and we would chat in Spanish every day and he would teach me some new words, I'd write them down and study them. And that was kind of how I learned. He was one of my great teachers. 

And so that conversation, that learning quite literally can't happen unless we're in the clubhouse. And so I think that's a really special thing that we're seeing happen now again, where the access is better than it was, and let's hope that we are able to maintain that during the course of this season. So, first and foremost, just having great baseball conversations again at the ballpark is a number one for me to be excited about. And then I think too, just that the amount of young talent in the game. There is so much young talent, whether it's Juan Soto – we’ll see his contract coming up and hopefully the Nationals can find a way to sign him long term. Shohei Ohtani with what he is doing, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The game has never been better from the perspective of young, multitalented players. And now it's just a matter, I think, Brenda, of being able to have those conversations, whether it's about the international draft or the game on the field. I'm a big fan of taking out the shift to really increase the athleticism on the field. 

Different on field gameplay conversations. Now that we have a CBA, we can talk about that again. There's more of a comprehensive and inclusive way to bring in input to make the game better on the field. Because when you look at the marketplace of sports in the US, it's certainly very competitive, but baseball has such a compelling story to tell for really certainly not only current fans, but also the future. You think about the projectability of getting a child involved in a sport when there's a lower injury risk certainly than American football, there's a lot of really compelling notes for baseball to sell. And it just helps to have the game back and have these great ambassadors of the young players to sell the game to the next generation. And look ahead we hope certainly to a World Baseball Classic next year. It's just a really exciting time to begin the season. I always feel grateful this time of year, but I think more grateful than ever before because of all the opportunity and possibility that we have now in front of us.

Brenda: And it just feels like we've lucked out on that young talent, that cohort, being a bunch of really interesting and charismatic people. 

Jon: You’re right.

Brenda: It’s not always easy, like, not every athlete is, you know…I study Messi. That's a tough interview. [laughs] Some of these guys are also very forthcoming, very outgoing and it seems like they sell themselves, you know, if that's a way to put it. 

Jon: Yes, they do. And Brenda, that's a great point, because for a long time we've talked about the branding of baseball players, and the responsibility for that goes all the way around it. It's up to the media, certainly, to do our job in covering the game. It's up to the teams and how they market them. It's certainly up to the players as well. And it's interesting – I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this too – from a soccer perspective, the players have more time in their week to do marketing things if they wanted to, or more long form interviews if they wanted to. But the access in European football is not good, as you know better than me, in terms of they've got the time but they don't always use it. I think in the US with baseball, they play every day. They have less time to do the large magazine story and photoshoot, et cetera. And I also think that unfortunately, Brenda, a lot of the more individual ways to market yourself or build your brand or celebrate a home run or show emotion on the field.

I think we’re getting to a better place now, but there's still too much of the old guard of, oh, you can't show emotion on the field, we don't want to see that – which I just think is total nonsense. We are in the entertainment industry, okay? We're not playing a game that was ascribed in some 3000 year old text, okay? This is a sport. Entertainment, fun, okay? We’ve got to realize that this is supposed to be entertaining, and young players who want to flip their bat, god bless them. Flip your bat. We're we're trying to engage with the young talent and bring in young people to this sport. That's the future, you know? And so, if you sort of ascribed to more of an age old method of playing, I'm sorry, but we got to move the sport forward. I mean, you are less the future than the 12 year old who we're trying to win over relative to other sports options out there for him or her. And I think that to me is why it's important to think about the next generation and not be so focused on the way we have done things in the past, because I think clearly we have to innovate, and I'm just glad that we've got the sport back on the field that affords us the opportunity to do something.

Brenda: A hundred percent. I mean, I don't care what the score is. If I hit a home run off of a professional league pitcher and I'm not excited, how is anybody else going to be excited?

Jon: Right! Exactly. I love the attitude. I know David Price, who I've known for a long time, has often said versions of this – I’m paraphrasing here – but I mean, David's never been someone who's been offended by someone flipping a bat or getting excited. At the end of the day, make better pitches, you know? If you don't like it, get the guy out. I mean, we’re competing here! That's the idea! And so I think that, to me, I'm always refreshed when I see people who view it that way, a pitcher who will maybe celebrate a strikeout, but then if a hitter celebrates a big home run against him, he's gotta be okay with it. And you know what? By and large, the young players are. They get it. This is part of the show. And so I'm hopeful that we we get to a point where a plurality of players and hopefully a forceful one with a lot of leaders view the game in that same way and we get to a little more entertaining brand of the sport. 

Brenda: Oh, me too. So, I feel like we've got our t-shirt: “Go on a plane. Get a clue. Flip that bat.” 

Jon: [laughs] There you go. I love it. Thank you.

Brenda: I feel like we've got it. Jon Morosi, NHL/MLB network announcer, thank you so much for being with us today on Burn It All Down.

Jon: El placer es mío. A la próxima. Nos hablamos pronto, and I can't wait, whether it's calcio, as we would call it in Italy – although I guess we can't call it that during the World Cup because we're not there. But whether it's football or baseball, anytime, Brenda, please give me a call. 

Brenda: Sí, la próxima entrevista podríamos hacer en español.

Jon: Todo en español! [laughs]

Brenda: Yo sería feliz, feliz! 

Jon: [laughs] Gracias, gracias. Cómo se dice…I have to ensure that mi forma de español es en media temporada, [Brenda laughs] en la mejora forma de toda mi vida. I have to make sure that my Spanish is in the best shape of my life. [laughs]

Brenda: We’ll work on it. We’ll work on it together. Trabajamos juntos. This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our web and social media wizard. Burn It All Down is part of the Blue Wire podcast network. You can follow Burn It All Down on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Listen, subscribe, and rate the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play and TuneIn. For show links and transcripts, check out our website, burnitalldownpod.com. You'll also find links to our merch at our Bonfire store. And thank you to our patrons. Your support means the world. If you want to become a sustaining donor to our show, visit patreon.com/burnitalldown. Burn on, and not out.