Longtime baseball play-by-play broadcaster Matt Vasgersian will be on the call for Netflix’s MLB Opening Day telecast of Giants-Yankees on Wednesday night. He will be working alongside CC Sabathia and Hunter Pence, with the game jointly produced by Netflix and MLB Network. Vasgersian also remains a studio host at MLB Network, where he’s worked since the network launched in 2009, and will call Peacock’s early Sunday MLB games, as well as Netflix’s Field of Dreams game.
Vasgersian spoke to Front Office Sports about what to expect on Opening Day, his thoughts on Netflix landing Barry Bonds, fans needing so many different packages to watch their teams’ games, 18 years at MLB Network, and getting recognized from 16 years of being the voice of MLB The Show.
Front Office Sports: How did this opportunity with Netflix come together? And what does it mean for you to join this wide-reaching platform that is making more waves in sports?
Matt Vasgersian: There isn’t really a sexy story behind how it came together. I think I was in pretty good company with a lot of people that were interested in doing these games when we heard that Netflix was gonna be a rights-holder for some pretty fun stuff. I think it’s helpful that I’m familiar with all the production people on this package because it’s really kind of a code-share with the MLB Network folks—the people that produce our live games, that have done so under a variety of different conditions over the 18-year history of the network.
We all have a really good working relationship, so I think there is some familiarity built in as far as how the booth came together. I’m thrilled to be in there with CC and Hunter, each of whom I’ve worked with in the past and know pretty well. I think we’re going to have a really nice thing together on the air. Everybody’s anticipating not only a good game because you’ve got two really good brands here and two good teams, but there are so many storylines. We’re not going to be able to get to everything in a nine-inning game.
I think that the biggest challenge is to prioritize what to handle and what might get left on the cutting room floor, as they say. Those are good problems to have. We don’t have to invent anything. It’s all right there in front of us.
FOS: So Barry Bonds is part of this broadcast as well, outside the booth. Without rehashing all of his controversies, what is your take on his re-entry into the MLB media in this form?
MV: First of all, credit Netflix for getting the right formula together to get him to do it, because I know for a fact that every major rightsholder has approached Barry at one point or another from the time he retired [in 2007] until the announcement was made that Netflix got him. It’s always been a pass from him. I don’t know Barry at all—I’ll be meeting him for the first time, which is odd for a guy that played for so long and I was, you know, working in the sport with the Brewers and Giants when he was at the peak of his powers. But we’ve never met.
Again, I credit Netflix for getting him. You know that everybody’s going to be listening very carefully to what Barry has to say, because while we’ve heard him in plenty of interview formats over the years, I don’t think we’ve ever heard him with a pulpit like this. So I think there’s going to be a lot of discovery and there’s a lot of excitement about having him.
FOS: You’re also doing the Peacock package for NBC early on Sundays. Sports fans have had to adapt to subscribing to a lot of different packages. What do you say to, for example, a Yankees fan who’s a little disgruntled that, to watch every game, he’s going to need Yes Network, Amazon Prime, ESPN, Netflix, NBC and Peacock, and Apple TV+, and have to figure out when every game is on where?
MV: I’d say I completely understand the frustration. I’m a fan and I get it. You know, I have a lot of people in my personal life who express similar dissatisfaction to me over the fact that they can’t go to the same channel. I think it’s twofold, right? It’s not only piecemealed off on different rightsholders; there’s different voices that are supplying the soundtrack for your favorite product. I know that a lot of Yankees fans would rather hear Michael Kay than anybody else. I get that, because he’s their guy. I know Kruk and Kipe [Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper], the Giants guys, who are as good as it gets. And people are probably disappointed that they’re not on the air doing a game on TV. I get all that, because I’m a fan first.
I’ll say this, though:I mean, I’m old enough to remember when my favorite team growing up, the A’s, had such a sporadic package of games on television that you just couldn’t get them anywhere, period. They were kind of the second team in the market. It was a Giants landscape when I was younger, despite the three consecutive world championships when I was in my real formative years as a fan. You couldn’t get every game on TV. And then when you did, the complaint was, our cable bills are gonna go up because that’s how the carriers are passing along the cost on the backs of the consumers. … So I think there’s always been an imperfect landscape in the minds of fans for watching their favorite team. And I get it. What I can say is we’re going to try to do the best job we can in covering this game.
FOS: MLB Network does a really nice job for baseball fans. Are there any new, exciting bells and whistles for your work there that we can look forward to this year?
MV: Bells and whistles? We’re always trying to do the same stuff better. And when I say “same stuff,” that might have a kind of an older, less-than-positive implication. We are trying to cover the game better all the time. You know, the landscape’s changed dramatically since the network launched in 2009. And the fact that we still have support of the clubs, support of the players, is really saying something. And I can’t point to anything that’s going to look different this year. We’re just going to try to do the same kind of work we’ve always done and hopefully cobble together enough Emmy reels to throw into any submission next spring.
For all of us that have an opportunity to do other things, whether it’s call games or work on another baseball platform, we’re all better on those platforms because of our presence at MLB Network. We have the best research department in the sport, maybe in all of sports, and we’re just a little smarter because we’re immersed in it every day. I’m grateful for the network for that. 18 years have gone by in a snap. I don’t think I would have been there 18 years if I didn’t enjoy every minute of it.
FOS: You were the voice of the video game, MLB The Show, for 15+ years. How many people who approach you on the street know you from the video game, as opposed to your on-air work all these years?
MV: There are people who say hello based on the familiarity of the video game voice who can’t wait to tell you that they played the game when they were a kid and heard your voice in their living room all through however many years. It makes me feel old, but good at the same time, that there are like young adults that are saying, “Man, I remember that game with you for years and years and years.” It was a long time—I did the game for 16 years.
I have a son now who is an avid MLB The Show player, and Boog Sciambi’s voice for him is what my voice may have been for my friends’ kids for all those years. So, it’s not lost on me how cool that was and I still get a little charge out of that.
