Q&A with Karl Ravech

By Chad Finn

June 1, 2011

9 minutes to read

I’m officially in hockey mode here at TATB for the next, oh, four to seven Bruins games. But we’ll also chime in with a baseball post here and there (and don’t forget the Sox podcast, either. Can’t believe the season Papi is having.)

First up is a Q&A with ESPN’s Karl Ravech, a Needham native, host of ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight,” and someone so professional and well regarded at the network that “Those Guys Have All the Fun” co-author Jim Miller told me his name came up often among his peers when discussing the most underrated talents in Bristol.

Ravech, along with the “Baseball Tonight” studio crew, was at Fenway a few Sundays ago for the Cubs-Sox matchup. This is the first season that “Baseball Tonight” has taken its program out of the studio and live from the site of the game. It’s an interesting dynamic — it has a little bit of edgier vibe than the collegial “College GameDay.” I had a chance to catch up with Ravech and get his thoughts on doing the show in front of a live (and occasionally inebriated) crowd, how he manages to work with such diverse personalities as Bobby Valentine, Orel Hershiser, and the guy to the left, and why he expects to return to Fenway again in October. So you’re roughly eight weeks into this traveling road show? Thumbs up? Does it take a while to get used to the crowd behind you.Ravech:

‘‘Overall, it’s going great, though it did take some time to learn how to use the crowd to our advantage and to adjust to it. Depending on the city we’re in, it can be really great. I think this is the ideal city for it because of the set location.”

Meaning there are a lot people wandering out of bars nearby who are drawn to the TV lights?

Ravech: “There’s a lot of bars, a lot of good times going on. Here, Philadelphia, anytime the fans walk out the stadium and have to go past the set, it’s a home run. It’s automatic, win or lose, they’ll stop. With the Yankees, when they lost and we were on top of a garage across the street, it’s not like they’d be coming to find TV. But if they’d won, it would be totally different.

“But for the fan to see us out there, we take more pictures and sign more autographs and talk more baseball than we’ve ever done. And for the fans to see us, I think that’s a good connection. They realize that, ’Oh, yeah, they don’t just sit there in the studio and talk about baseball.’ They’re actually here, they’re accessible people who like to talk about baseball,’ and that’s good for us. It’s cool.”

They should put a net behind you in Philly. You’d be wise to wear batting helmets or something there.

Ravech: ‘‘We joked about that. We joked about it. In case somebody decides to throw something. But we don’t want to plant any seeds in anybody’s heads.
St. Louis was great, but you know how nice they are there. Funny part about St. Louis is that we were there for our 7 o’clock show, and there’s like people lined up around the stadium and I’m thinking, ‘We’re going to have a huge crowd. This is great.’ It was the Stan Musial bobblehead give away. And you had to be inside to get it. So they all left. But after the game it was pouring out, and it was zoo because they literally had to walk by the set.

‘‘It’s energizing. It’s great for us. It gives us a big lift. Anytime you’re sitting there in an environment like that. It’s like the old Boston Garden when the Celtics were playing in the playoffs. It’s a different feel. The old Yankees Stadium. That energy? That’s what it does.’’

How much of an adjustment is it? Does it feel like the same show you were doing from the set in Bristol

Ravech: ‘‘It doesn’t, because I try to involve the crowd. When were talking about Ortiz or Youkilis or Gonzalez, I turn around and say, ‘How do you like Gonzalez?’’ In New York, you ask them about A-Rod or Jeter, and they’ll boo or cheer.
This isn’t entirely new to us. We’ve always had a huge crowd behind us whenever we do something at Disney. And we’ve done the World Series since ’93. The difference with that is that when we’re on the air, most of the people have usually left the ballpark. Now, they leave the ballpark, they’re walking by the set.”

You’re set off from the crowd more during the World Series. Out of range, you might say.

Ravech: ‘‘Totally. We’re in the ballpark. We’re high up. We’re set off from the fans. It’s a totally different feel. This works. When we do World Series games, the stadium could be empty. The fields empty. The atmosphere is nothing compared to this. This is a pretty sweet. Plus you get to hear people. Schilling was with us in New York. He just got destroyed.’’

He looked weird in a suit.

Ravech: ‘‘It was pinstriped suit, too. You know he got some grief for that. They really let him have it there. It was beautiful. And he gave it back to them. He’s quick like that. ‘How many rings to you have?’ He was funny. But it worked. That’s stuff’s great.’’

How’s the public reaction to guys like John Kruk and Barry Larkin? That’s two pretty accomplished and popular ballplayers.

Ravech: ‘‘Kruk’s a cult hero in Philly. It’s a joke. They were booing me because I was there with Kruk. They have to boo somebody. And Barry, he’s a Hall of Famer probably this summer. They know that they’re around somebody who’s among the best ever to play. He gets that kind of respect.”

One of the underrated strengths of ESPN’s baseball broadcasts the relative youth of a lot of your analysts. A lot of them, starting with Larkin, are relatable to today’s players because it wasn’t so long ago that they were playing themselves.

Ravech: “Sure. You look at who we have now, with Barry, Nomar, you bring Rick Sutcliffe and Orel Hershiser into the studio, I know what it’s like to be Dustin Pedroia. I’m surrounded by superstars. And it hasn’t always been that way. When we’re on the road, the quality and depth and credibility of our team is so much higher. That’s resonating.’’

Nomar surprises the hell out of people here because he was famously standoffish with the media, yet he was good on TV from the beginning.

Ravech: ‘‘You know who else was like that? Kruk was a disaster with the media.’’

Was he really? He has such a likable persona.

Ravech: ‘‘Oh, yeah. He was surly. Prior to doing that bus tour [during spring training, when he went from camp to camp with Tim Kurkjian], he was averse to going into clubhouses. He didn’t go in. He was very much of the mind set that ‘That’s their stuff. That’s for the players.’ And when he played, that’s what he thought then. But he’s tremendous TV. He and Nomar are alike that way. The clubhouse is the players’ domain. And when you have people who are doing this all the time with the media and interviews and you don’t like it, if it’s prone to bother you, you’re dead, especially in Boston. Kruk hated it. But now him and Nomar, that they’re two really good on-air people.’’

When a player who wasn’t particularly cooperative ends up with a media career when he’s done playing, it’s easy to see that as hypocritical.

Ravech: “Yeah, but their point of view is understandable to some degree. Not to speak for John, but the attidude is, It’s my job to catch the ball and hit the ball. That’s my job, it’s not always to talk to you guys. I need to produce. I collect my paycheck from the Red Sox, not the Globe or the Herald or ESPN. But now he realizes this is now my job. I need to do this and do it well. But I think that has something to do with it. Your point is well-taken.’’

That’s not that unusual these days anyway. But I think it frustrates those in the media who had to deal with them as players.

Ravech:” Sure it does. But both of those guys are pretty bright guys, too. Larkin’s a bright guy, Sutcliffe and Hershiser are bright guys, Bobby Valentine is a bright guy. Whether you agree with them or not, the things they present and the level at which they think the game, I find myself saying, ‘I never thought of that’ a lot. And that more than justifies the positions they have.”

That jumped out with Bobby the first time you guys did a Sox game this year, when he broke down J.D. Drew’s swing. He pointed out that while it’s a classic swing, his timing isn’t great and he doesn’t square up the ball as often as it would seem, which is why he’s not as productive as his swing would suggest.

Ravech: “I’ve said that about Bobby all the time, and Buck Showalter was the same way — I never thought of that. It’s a different level of knowledge, a different way of thinking about the game.”

You and most of your colleagues at ESPN had a lot of praise for the Red Sox at the beginning of the season. They’ve made their way back up to where everyone thought they would be. What’s your perspective on them right now.
Ravech: “I think this team is pretty special. I mean, when you watch a celebration at home plate and see Gonzalez and Crawford and Ellsbury all standing in the same uniform at home plate, and you realize that Youkilis and Ortiz are not part of that, and Pedroia . . . they’re so loaded. Living and growing up in this area and covering baseball, I don’t recall a lineup that when all healthy and all doing well that is as good. Your shortstop is going to hit .300 if he’s healthy all year. Saltalamacchia is going to his a ball over the wall every now and then. And it’s impossible to imagine that this team, having invested so much money, not continuing to make sure that their investment pays off in the end. Barring injuries, this is the World Series team in the American League.
They turned that 2-10 around faster than I think even they thought they would.
Ravech: “Yeah, and just look at the standings all around the American League. The Red Sox, the White Sox, the Tigers, teams many of us thought would be very good, all started poorly, and yet they’re all within striking distance of the division leaders. I think it’s going to be a pretty unique year in baseball because of that, because some of the best teams aren’t playing like this best teams.”
The NFL would call that parity.
Ravech: “I don’t know if that’s the case here. I think there are more teams with a chance than usual, partly because teams we thought wouldn’t be good started well, especially Cleveland. But because the good teams were allowed to hang around and no one really pulled away, eventually they will surpass the early leaders. Though I do think Cleveland will be there all year. They’re good. But this team [the Red Sox] is the best, and if Utley comes back and produces, it’s hard not to imagine what most people thought, that Philly and Boston would be the two standing at the end.’’
So you’re saying you expect to be back to Boston for the World Series?
Ravech: “I always say you have to have good players, good health, and good luck. If they have all three, this team is the best.”