1. In recent years, Major League Baseball fans have complained more and more about a postseason problem.
After listening to their local broadcast crews for around 140 games, when the playoffs start the local teams are kicked to the curb and national broadcasters take over. The booth that you’ve connected with all year, the commentators that know your team better than anyone just disappear during the most important games of the season.
NBC is trying to combat this issue in the regular season. The network named Jason Benetti as its lead play-by-play voice, but will not hire a regular analyst. Instead, NBC will use local analysts from each team for the games.
This doesn’t fix the problem for the postseason.
The voice of the Mets on SNY, Gary Cohen, didn’t pull any punches when I asked him about being shut out of calling postseason baseball on a new SI Media With Jimmy Traina, which also featured Cohen’s partners, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez.
“It’s by far the worst part of the job,” said Cohen. “Honestly, when I made the move from radio, where I got to do all the postseason games, it was the thing my wife and I talked about the most because I knew what I was getting into and I knew that was part of the deal. But it never stops being painful. I have a real rough time for it every year when the Mets are in the postseason. … It’s not fun.”
Hernandez does not get as upset as Cohen about missing the playoffs, but he understands the frustration of the fans who want their regular announcers.
“I don’t mind missing the postseason,” Hernandez said. “I’ll hand it off to the national [broadcasters]. I know the fans all want us to do it. It does make sense. National broadcasts are totally different. They’re more MLB promotion. They come in, they don’t watch the team on an everyday basis. We do. We know what’s going on with that team.”
In an age where altcasts are such a huge thing, it would be nice if MLB could figure out a way to have a feed with local broadcasters during the postseason. The issue is, how do you convince the networks paying a ton of money to broadcast postseason games to sign off on giving up the exclusivity they are paying for.
You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.
2. ESPN will air a documentary about the creation of ... ESPN.
Sports Heaven: The Birth of ESPN will premiere on Monday, April 6 at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. Based on the trailer, it looks like the doc will be a good watch.
3. I know people outside of New York probably don’t care about this, but for those of us in the Big Apple, this is a big deal in the sports media world. The Gregg Giannotti-Brandon Tierney feud is now into Day 2 and it’s getting even uglier.
Giannotti got things started Tuesday on his WFAN show.
Gregg Giannotti claims Brandon Tierney’s former producers have been celebrating his rant pic.twitter.com/vuFLn5jtDh
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 24, 2026
Tierney then responded tenfold on his podcast.
4. I can’t figure out if this is shocking or totally expected, but Charlie Sheen says he did steroids to get ready for Major League. As a result, he said he added 10 miles per hour to his fastball.
Charlie Sheen was bringin’ heat by any means necessary 😭
— All the Smoke (@allthesmokeprod) March 24, 2026
Becoming Wild Thing got a little too real for Major League 👀 pic.twitter.com/F6q17eWgFO
5. People who will be part of Netflix’s coverage of Wednesday’s Yankees-Giants game for some reason: Jameis Winston, Bert Kreischer and The Usos. I don’t understand why anyone would tune into this pregame show for even one second.
The Usos are pulling up to Opening Night 🔥 @WWE Superstars Jey & Jimmy Uso will be special guests on #OpeningNight — the first-ever @MLB game on Netflix.
— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) March 23, 2026
LIVE on Netflix March 25. Special coverage starts at 7PM ET | 4PM PT. pic.twitter.com/09214qvc7d
6. Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker came to the mound during Monday’s exhibition game to tell pitcher Carter Baumler that he made the team. It was a very cool moment. MLB should encourage teams to be creative with how players get the news that they made the big league team because it’s great content.
Skip Schumaker told Rule 5 pick Carter Baumler that he made the Rangers Opening Day roster during a mound visit 🥹 pic.twitter.com/19J10vk39Q
— MLB (@MLB) March 24, 2026
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: It was 21 years ago today that one of the best shows ever made its debut on NBC.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as MLB Play-by-Play Broadcaster on Postseason Shutout: ‘It Never Stops Being Painful’.
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