Yankees’ John Sterling misplays Aaron Judge HR replay

It might not be as surreal as the 2020 season, but MLB in 2021 still has some quirks.

One of them is that many teams still have their broadcasting crews call road games from a remote location, a natural change in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic but perhaps not necessary anymore as fans are welcomed back into their parks.

While calling games remotely saves team significantly on travel expenses, it does come with a cost. Broadcasters lose their feel for the game and the ballpark, and that sometimes leads to embarrassing mishaps. Like, say, a play-by-play person thinking a replay is what’s actually happening in the game.

You can probably guess where this is going. Our protagonist for the day: Yankees radio announcer John Sterling.

As you can see, Sterling saw a replay of a second-inning home run from Aaron Judge and thought the Yankees slugger had hit his second homer of the day in the third inning. Given that Sterling is seeing the same video feed all of us are, it’s hard to blame him for the mistake. Our only surprise should be that this doesn’t happen more often.

You also can hear color analyst Suzyn Waldman trying to interject as Sterling launches his usual home run call, only to let the man realize it himself.

The reaction from both is telling:

Sterling: “It’s on the monitor. What am I supposed to do?”

Waldman: “This is a great way to do a game, isn’t it?”

The announcers don’t seem to be enjoying this anymore than you do. Hopefully, teams will have their crews back on the road by the end of the season.

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