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For Karl Ravech, summer doesn’t mean baseball season. It means baseball Seasons.
“I'm incredibly fortunate to be able to do what I do in baseball,” Ravech said during a conversation Wednesday ahead of his call with analysts David Cone and Eduardo Perez of ESPN's “Sunday Night Baseball” matchup. between the Red Sox and the Yankees.
What Ravech does baseball-wise encompasses, well, just about every little thing ESPN does baseball-wise, from Little League dreams to the head of the Major Leagues.
The Needham native has been with the network since May 1993 and is in his third season as a live commentator for “Sunday Night Baseball” after a long time of working as a studio host and likewise as a live commentator for some weeknight shows.
He has been a part of ESPN's Little League World Series coverage since 2006 and started commentating on the LLWS championship games and live commentary on the network's college baseball broadcasts in 2011. He has also led coverage of the Home Run Derby since 2017.
“It's especially busy this time of year,” Ravech said. “Next week I actually have the MLB Draft on Sunday night, the Derby on Monday and on Tuesday I'm commentating on the MLB All-Star Game on ESPN Radio.
“It's a dream job. It's incredible. It's crazy. I couldn't be happier.”
Ravech's baseball responsibilities have expanded, at the same time as ESPN has streamlined its MLB coverage – to place it kindly – in recent times.
As fulfilling as his profession is, he admits he misses the times when “Baseball Tonight,” which he hosted, aired twice an evening as one in every of ESPN's predominant studio shows. Recently, Twitter/X user @poerbler posted, “Remember when Baseball Tonight aired every night and it was just an hour of highlights and we were real company.” Ravech responded, “Like it was yesterday.”
“I’ll be honest,” Ravech said, “that tweet was obviously a response to the show – which I do know they loved, and I understand that the individuals who were there have been upset with Peter [Gammons] and Harold [Reynolds] And [John Kruk] And [Bobby] Valentine, and there was no other place where you might get something like that.
“But it felt almost as very like the temperature difference within the country and the world back then that folks were eager for, versus the climate all of us live in today and the hostility that exists all over the place.
“It was about both. I'm grateful that people remember it fondly, and it also makes me sad that it all no longer exists in this form.”
Ravech had one other compelling X-post last week, this time on current baseball matters and the Red Sox. He listed several teams he thinks should add to their rosters before the July 30 trade deadline, noting, “This time of year, it always comes down to what deals get done or not.”
Among the teams named by Ravech were the Red Sox, who had an 18-10 record for the reason that starting of June entering Friday.
“There are teams that have worked so hard to get into this position, and they need help,” Ravech said. “And I do know there are some within the Red Sox organization which might be wondering, 'When is that this going to occur?'
“I do know they assume it should occur. I'm unsure it should. I don't know what Craig [Breslow, the Red Sox’ chief baseball officer] will do. I don't know what the motivation of the organization is to be competitive and check out. We'll discover over the subsequent month.
“Look, they could lose 7 out of 10 games and the whole thing would be for nothing, but the way they're playing, I think, eliminates most of those possibilities for a long losing streak,” he said, referring to his commentary on the Red Sox's June 16 victory over the Yankees, after they stole nine bases and cemented their identity as a gritty, athletic team.
“You don't have a team that depends on one thing. And that's what the last month has shown me: they win in different ways.”
Ravech said he believes now could be the time for the Red Sox to trade from a deep pool of promising players, and he’s surprised when teams just like the Orioles – who’ve a wealth of up-and-coming talent – hoard young players as an alternative of getting the courage to trade them to bolster the key league roster.
“That's always been my particular argument,” he said. “I wouldn't go so far as to put it on a T-shirt that says, 'Prospects are great, saves are better.' I understand why you want to protect your best players. But you owe it to the players in that clubhouse to get better. You don't necessarily owe it to the guy you drafted who might be your sixth or seventh best prospect.”
Good call
Few elements of the Red Sox's comeback against the Yankees within the 2004 American League Championship Series, en path to winning their first World Series in 86 years, haven’t been adequately examined over the past 20 years.
One of them is true: the indisputable fact that some crucial, close plays went within the Red Sox's favor, which was not all the time the case in previous playoff duels with the Yankees.
Director Charlie Minn takes on probably the most famous example – Dave Roberts' earth-shattering stolen base in Game 4 – in an upcoming film in regards to the umpire who got it right, the controversial Joe West.
Tales of Joe West debuts on Amazon Prime and other major streamers on July 12. It's value in search of out the film to relive a memorable moment from the angle of West, the one that made the decision, or simply to listen to Roberts himself discuss it again.
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