Josh Jung's In-Game Interview Was Electric
The Texas Rangers opened their season at Globe Life Park against the Chicago Cubs, where they showcased the World Series trophy earned last fall during a pregame ceremony. About three hours later the fans were also able to celebrate a 4-3 walkoff victory thanks to Jonah Heim's RBI single in the bottom of the 10th.
The game also featured perhaps the best in-game interview conducted by a player competing on the field. Texas third baseman Josh Jung wore a microphone for ESPN during the bottom of the third inning and had the broadcast had the fortune of getting live audio as he recorded two of the three outs on routine groundballs hit in his direction.
"Maybe y'all need to be in my ear more often," he joked to Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez up in the booth after handling the first chance.
"Oh, love those," he added after getting a nice easy hop on the second attempt.
These check-ins are great television even when the player doesn't have to do doing anything important during their time on air and when the stars do align, there's few things that beat such inside access. Networks don't want to oversaturate the broadcast by relying on them too much but considering the potential, one can understand the urge.
Kyle Koster is an editor at The Big Lead.