Baseball had a rare good day last Tuesday when stars were miked up

During the two-plus-hour drive from the Red Sox’ facility to the Yankees’ spring home in Tampa Tuesday morning, I caught both “The Dan Patrick Show” and ESPN’s “Golic and Wingo” talking at length about something they enjoyed from ESPN’s Monday broadcast of a Cubs-Angels spring training game.

Cubs stars Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant were miked up while also wearing IFB devices allowing them to talk to the broadcasters in the booth and with each other during the game. Rizzo, in particular, was a gold mine of colorful conversation, most memorably when he was conversing with the booth about what he was thinking as he dug into the batter’s box against Angels pitcher Matt Andriese.

“I’m feeling a heater right here, because I’ve only seen one today from him,’’ said Rizzo. The next pitch was indeed a fastball, and Rizzo jumped on it and ripped it to right field.

Then, as he approached first base, Rizzo declared he was going for a double, only to stop at first base and announce amusingly, “No, I’m not,’’ as the Angels right fielder fired the ball into second base quickly.

Rizzo’s insightful and funny interactions — he got in a hilarious dig on the Astros, saying, “Someone bang for me’’ earlier in the same at-bat — were remarkably satisfying for the viewer, and the social-media buzz from his comments lingered to the next day, when they seized their own segments on the sports talk shows.

“As far as our first day of spring training coverage goes, I couldn’t have asked for any better,’’ said Phil Orlins, ESPN’s senior coordinating producer, major league baseball. “One thing I didn’t expect was that Rizzo and Bryant wanted to let it ride. They were supposed to be on for a half-inning, and ended up doing it for six.”

Anthony Rizzo’s voice is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus. pic.twitter.com/HMlvK157Mf

— Cut4 (@Cut4) March 2, 2020

For a day anyway, Rizzo and Bryant made the game look cool. It was the kind of thing baseball, coming off a winter of scandal and perceived as a fading sport among younger demographics, desperately needed — and desperately needs more of.

And it makes one wonder: Shouldn’t baseball try to take this to the next level and interact with players during the downtime in regular-season games?

“I think it is the single thing that can actually save the game of baseball,’’ said Alex Rodriguez, who was in the broadcast booth Tuesday during ESPN’s all-access broadcast of the Red Sox-Yankees game and conversed with the Red Sox’ Rafael Devers and the Yankees’ Brett Gardner and Zack Britton during live play. “The greatest assets we have in our game is our players. But yet, not enough people know who they really are. We have to reveal the players, or in some cases reintroduce the players.

“I have probably a dozen texts and messages from people [Tuesday] morning saying, ‘Hey, did you hear what Rizzo was talking about, did you see what Bryant said?’ I haven’t had texts like that since the World Series.”

The obvious question, then, is why doesn’t baseball encourage — even demand — this kind of compelling in-game interaction with players, even in the games that count?

It’s good for everyone. It enhances the broadcasts. The sport doesn’t seem so staid. And the players get to show their personalities and enhance their brands.

Mookie Betts, often perceived as quiet during his time with the Red Sox, provided a terrific moment in a similar situation during a March 2018 spring game when he said, “I ain’t getting this one, boys,” as a line drive soared over his head in right field.

“You know when players are really quiet? When they don’t have a microphone on and you don’t know they’re talking,’’ said Rodriguez. “Open the floodgates [with the in-game interactions]. When I entered pro ball in 1993-94, baseball was the No. 1 sport. Since then, we’ve put on a straitjacket. We watched the NFL and the NBA just fly right by us.

“Would I have been willing to wear one myself during my playing days? If our game was going the wrong way? Of course I would have done it. And guess what? Players want to talk. They’ve being as vocal and open as ever before. So the notion that players don’t want to talk is not true. So let’s put them in a light and give them a platform that’s win-win for everybody.”

Rodriguez and play-by-play voice Matt Vasgersian’s conversations with Sox and Yankees players Tuesday weren’t as memorable as the Rizzo comments the day before, but they enhanced the entertainment value of a spring game in which the Yankees led, 6-0, after one inning.

Rodriguez asked questions of Devers in English. Devers answered in Spanish, then Rodriguez translated for the viewers. After Rodriguez gave a short translation of a long Devers answer, Vasgersian delivered a terrific deadpanned one-liner: “He talked a lot more than that.”

Of course, making this a regular part of broadcasts is more complicated than getting a few agreeable players to hook up to an IFB and allow a microphone to be stitched into their undershirt. There’s still some reluctance among certain organizations. ESPN talked with the Mets’ Pete Alonso during Wednesday’s game — he came across as being almost as gregarious as Rob Gronkowski — but the opposing Cardinals chose not to participate.

The Red Sox are not one of them. According to Adam Grossman, chief marketing officer for the Red Sox and Fenway Sports Management, the club has regular calls with ESPN to discuss the mutual benefits of their broadcasts.

“About 18 months ago, Tom Werner and Sam Kennedy talked with commissioner Rob Manfred and [chief operating officer] Tony Petitti and basically said, ‘Listen, we want to make sure our players have a national presence, and we want to work directly with ESPN,’ “ said Grossman. “It’s good for everyone if fans get to know Red Sox players better.”

Orlins said players, especially the younger generation that has grown up in the social media age, have become increasingly willing to participate. “Go back 15 or 20 years,” he said. “Johnny Damon was the only player who was really cooperative, and because he was cooperative, he got asked every single Fox game and every single ESPN game, and it got to be a little much.”

In 2017, ESPN was going to have Francisco Lindor miked up and wearing an IFB during a regular-season game in Puerto Rico, but it got nixed at a higher level. And the Players Association has been resistant to allowing players to be connected to the booth during regular-season games, worrying in part that sensitive information might get out that makes a player look bad during a live conversation.

It has happened in the NFL. During a Patriots-Jets game last season, New York quarterback Sam Darnold was wearing a microphone, which caught him acknowledging that the New England defense had him “seeing ghosts.” The Jets were livid that such candor made the air.

“The NFL’s evaluation process on what gets through is much harder than other sports,’’ said Orlins. “It was amazing to me that that got through the layers.”

If it’s ever going to happen, if a major league player will wear the equipment to converse with the booth in real time during a regular-season game, there would need to be specific and probably strict parameters.

“I think it would have to be a situation that was worked out in thorough detail with the league and the Players Association,” said Orlins. “It would have to be much more strategic, like, ‘OK, we want Mike Trout to wear a microphone one time on ESPN, and one time on Fox,’ and MLB helps us manage that process.

“But the right guy, properly managed, on a limited basis? It could happen. It would be so good for everyone if it does.”