The World Series saw the Kansas City Royals win over the New York Mets in an exciting matchup and the broadcast work by Fox was fairly solid all around, including work during the games by the announcers and in the pre and post-game studio shows. Fox had one major issue with an outage in Game 1 that caused a delay, but other than that there were not many major errors during the series.
The Fox broadcast team for the games had Joe Buck, Tom Verducci and Harold Reynolds working and while that group does get criticism from the general public at times, the three were all very solid through the World Series. Reynolds greatly improved from last season when he seemed a bit stiff in the booth and this year he provided much more concise and relevant analysis for the game.
Verducci is in the rare position of being a baseball writer doing TV broadcasts and that allows him to bring a very different perspective to viewers. Verducci had some great anecdotes from early in the season about the Royals and the Mets and he also gave some great details about Jeurys Familia after he blew saves in the World Series. Buck also often gets hit hard by reviews from the general public, but he was very solid for the World Series and called a strong set of games this year.
Sidenote: The Fox broadcast in Game 1 was interrupted for seven minutes after an outage and that was a bit of an embarrassment for the network. The broadcast team handled it fine once the power was back on and the international broadcast took over when the delay happened. The knockout came in the bottom of the fourth inning when the game was tied at 1-1.
Overall Grades: Fox broadcast: B-plus, Buck: B, Verducci: A, Reynolds: B-minus.
The pre and postgame group for Fox also did a solid job for the World Series with Kevin Burkhardt as the host along with Alex Rodriguez, Pete Rose, Raúl Ibañez and Frank Thomas. The group clearly is piled with past players and while sometimes that can be a bit much, this year it flowed well and Burkhardt did a good job of staying on topic most nights.
Alex Rodriguez was one of the biggest surprises of the Fox TV coverage, as he handled himself with professionalism and also gave viewers some great insight to the series. A year ago the idea of A-Rod being a great option for the World Series broadcast would have seemed crazy, as he had just spent a year suspended for the Yankees. But after a comeback season that saw him contribute to the Yanks making the playoffs, A-Rod fit in well among the group of Fox analysts and he showed why he could be a TV analyst, hitting coach or manager someday in the future.
Rodriguez had some great insight about hitting and also about situations in the World Series, including when Noah Syndergaard threw high at Alcides Escobar and what it's like to have 100 mph coming at your head. Rodriguez was polished while speaking on air and he was comfortable moving cameras and he knew exactly what to do when he needed to change positions to look at a different camera.
A-Rod seemed like a seasoned vet on television. Rose was more of a circus option than anything else and while he seemed a bit ruffled at times, he did not mess up the broadcast at all. Thomas and Ibanez both could continue working in TV if they want to, as they each looked natural and had strong insight after the games.
Grade: Postgame coverage overall: B-plus. Alex Rodriguez: an A for A-Rod.
