AJ Andrews on What's Next for Baseball and Softball

0:00Support comes from Amazon Business. You can't rely on guesswork to run your business. With smart business buying, innovative AI tools optimize your purchasing experience, paired with delivery options built for business. Empower your team today. Learn more at amazonbusiness.com. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. I feel just to build upon what baseball's already doing is just to allow the authenticity to just flourish. Let's see these players behind the helmet. What is it they love to do? A lot of them are so good at other things than baseball. Hunter Green is a great artist. Willie Adamas loves architecture.

0:42Like, being able to tell those stories beyond just who they are as players, let's see that, let's understand that. But then also allow them to be who they are.

0:55Welcome back to The Deal. I'm Jason Kelly. I'm Alex Rodriguez. Coming up on this week's episode, AJ Andrews. This is a standout softball player who's now an MLB broadcaster. So someone you have a lot of questions for. Yeah, Jason, everyone I respect, I want to ask two questions. Number one, how do we avoid a Major League Baseball work stoppage after the 2026 season? And the second one is, how do we build on this great momentum that Major League Baseball has built over the last six months? Well, and she has built quite a career for herself and has, I think, a lot of opinions about what should happen next.

1:27Coming up in The Deal, AJ Andrews.

1:34All right, AJ Andrews, welcome to The Deal. We're so excited to have you with us. Lots to talk about across your career. We're going to talk a little LSU, a little softball. But I think we've got to start with baseball. Why not? Yeah. Take it away. So AJ, first of all, I love what you're doing. I'm a big fan of your work. I'm an admirer from afar. Ditto. Thank you. And we have a lot in common. You know, we're both from Florida, you Tampa, me Miami. We're both former gold glove winners. Okay. Love that. Thanks for throwing that one in there. And we're in the world of baseball and covering media.

2:06But you and I happen to be at the World Baseball Classic down in Miami. And it seems to me, and Jason, we've talked a lot about this, that baseball could be at an all-time high or it's going through a great moment. How do you keep baseball going and how do you see the world of business and baseball right now? I don't know how you felt at the World Baseball Classic, but it was one of the most electric environments I had ever been able to experience within baseball. And being able to connect with so many different fan bases and watch the games, it felt like postseason baseball every single game.

2:41And so I feel like within WBC, I feel being able to allow the players to continue to have that much enthusiasm, excitement throughout the regular season, whether you be pimping it, the celebrations around the bases, the passion, the energy, it was palpable. You could feel it through the screen. And so for me, I feel like in order for baseball to continue in that trajectory, seeing more of that, I think, would be fun. I feel right now within baseball and even softball, there's a lot of playing the right way, whatever that means. I feel as if players should be able to express themselves how they want to express themselves on the field.

3:20So I see it growing if we can continue in that trajectory. And also players being able to wear their swag, the cleats. I don't know how you feel, you know, you can now have a beard as a Yankee, you know, things like that. Just different things that we didn't really see in the past. I think moving, especially in tailoring more toward a younger generation, I feel like that is where baseball probably needs to go to continue to watch. I mean, beard didn't apply to me because I'm still trying to grow a beard. Hey, listen, you look good, but not everybody can pull it off. That's true. Beards are makeup for some men.

3:54There you go. And so just on the WBC for a second, I mean, you were you were in the fan zone. You were doing broadcasting from there. But this is about the fans at the end of the day. What was the fan vibe and what did you hear from them, I guess? Well, I don't know if you guys know, but I have been adopted by the Venezuelans. Wow. They love me over there. It was so fun. Huge in Venezuela. I'm huge in Venezuela. Huge, huge in Venezuela. I got to go. I just tried the Arepa, so I understand the Arepa power now. Like I'm in it. I mean, good pronunciation. I'm in it for real. Yeah. Right. The Arepa.

4:29I'm in there. But I feel like within with the fans, they just want to be represented. And because I was out there, whether it be the U.S. fans, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, it didn't matter. The pride within being able to see people that come from where you come from excelling on such a high stage in a sport that means so much to your country, whether it's the United States or where have you. It was so exciting to watch. And I feel like what the fans really want is to be able to feel as if they're being represented in a huge way. So Dominican Republic, the energy and their pride in being able to be the instruments or being able to dance and celebrate, being able to see that on the field, it was as if it was like the pride on display.

5:11Same thing with the Venezuelans. And so in the same thing in which whatever it is within American pride, the same thing, being able to watch Aaron Judge walk out with the flag. Just being able to watch these things that really dignify or accentuate who you are as a country. That's what the fans wanted to see. but being authentic and expressed to the fullest extent. So AJ, I have a question. We had a debate before every game. We have the pregame show with Fox, with Derek Jeter, Poppy, myself, and Kevin Burkhart. And Poppy and I sit in the middle. And we were trying to explain to our corner men that for countries like the Dominican Republic or Venezuela, this is bigger than a World Series.

5:48And they had a hard time really understanding that. Where do you sit in that role? I agree. And I mean, the players, they say it. Right. Like this isn't an opinion, right? This is genuinely how they feel. But it's because it's an opportunity where it's just a different feeling when you can play with individuals that come from where you come from, have experienced the same hardships you've experienced, that look like you. They understand to the fullest what it took for you to get here, the pride being able to represent your country. And there's so many people at home that would not kill to be in Miami to watch these games, right?

6:23And I mean, I feel like you can relate it to the Olympics if you want to, right? The pride people have for competing for their country in that sense. It's the same thing with the WBC. And so I feel like it's fairly simple to understand why it would be a little bit more impactful to some people than a World Series.

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7:19let's talk about you specifically and your career because you hit college at a moment and at a school where softball it felt like from the outside at least just was exploding did it feel like something special was happening in the game and in the sport when you were in college? Yeah, I feel because it started getting more TV time. And because of that, I went to the World Series twice at LSU. So my freshman year, I went my senior year. I believe my freshman year, they really only televising the World Series. Or maybe, maybe there was supers, but for the most part, it was the World Series. By my senior year, you had the regionals, the super regionals, and the World Series being televised.

8:03And because of that, you're able to then, you know, when you watch somebody in the regionals and maybe you get attached to a person or a player you're gonna watch them throughout the entire time but being able to see these different stories and these different athletes compete it was it only exploded and excelled or propelled what we see today where now there's games on every single weekend if not every day with college softball and I feel like that argument had been going on for so long between the chicken and the egg of do we give these women the opportunity to be on tv or do we wait till we the viewership is there and then put them on tv and it only proved the point that if you build it they will come give us an opportunity to be on television the game speaks for itself if you love baseball you're going to love softball it's faster paced there's it's the depth is different you have to have quicker reactions or slappers it's much each row is running around like it's just a lot of fun within the game of softball you know what i mean like there's just a lot to softball that you don't necessarily get in baseball because of that you're going to love both yeah so like give it a shot and i feel like at that time, especially my senior year, is when it started to explode.

9:05And now it's just a supernova. You've seen what happened in WNBA. What do you think softball can do to learn from that? And what is the future of softball with these numbers we just talked about? Yeah, I think it's only going to continue to get bigger. I mean, Kim Ng is now the commissioner for the AUSL. And so that's Athletes Unlimited. Athletes Unlimited Softball League. Last year, there were four teams. Now there's six. So it is continuing to grow. And now they actually have cities. Before it was kind of a barnyard system where you would move and play them in different cities, but now they have homes, each six cities.

9:36And so I think that within what I've seen from basketball, WBA, a lot of it's the storytelling and giving these women the opportunity to be a thousand percent who they are. I love it when you can see women in these positions of, she's extremely powerful or she is dominant, talking about her as if she's just completely taking over the way in which she is. And I want those storylines to be built the same way within softball. This past year, Brie Ellis is someone that comes to mind. They were comparing her a lot to Barry Bonds. And so it being the conversation of, okay, we'll build upon that, but hopefully making it her own, not necessarily like she's the female Barry Bonds.

10:13This is Brie Ellis, who is XYZ, the best of the best, and have those stories where people, you know, pique their interest and they come in and want to watch more. But I think MLB is doing a job. They have the partnership with AUSL now as far as trying to help with TV, also making financial help with the league. But I think we're moving in a good direction. This is going to be the second year of AUSL. So my sister's on the talons. So if you're looking for somebody to root for it. Yeah. Okay. The talons. Well, and the storytelling piece is definitely a big part of this. It goes back to exactly what you guys were saying about World Baseball Classic.

10:49I mean, you've been saying this for a long time. You know, getting to know these players in a way that we do get to know NBA players. We do even more than we used to get to know NFL players. Certainly baseball players are, you know, kind of hidden from us and softball players. I think the same way. I don't know if it's the nature of the game or what it is. Well, I like what you said, AJ. I think what WBC brings out, it takes the helmet off the player. The way you fall in love with players, both men and women, is knowing their backstory. Yeah. Where do they come from? Is there a relatability connect point?

11:20We're both from Florida. Yeah. Go Glover. Okay, now we can connect on that, right? And I think WBC does it in such a beautiful way that I'm left starved for more. And I want to see more players being themselves, being onapologetic. If they want to wear pink, orange, green, wear whatever the hell you want. Edgar Martinez, my great teammate, Hall of Famer for the Seattle Mariners, he used to tell me, Alex, you feel good, you look good, you play good. And I think that same is true for all sports. Yeah. No, I agree. I think definitely to your point, the storytelling would be a great piece, especially I feel like what's hot are the girls that come right out of college.

11:55Right. So being able to tell more of those stories, allow people to really follow them into their teams, because then, of course, you're fans of them. But then you become fans of their teammates and the team. Like to me right now, Nigeria Kennedy, who's a pitcher at Texas Tech, who knocked off the dynasty of OU last year. Right. And she's the one that has the first million with Mahomes at Texas Tech. And so being able to follow her, right, tell that storytelling to your point, build that story, build it upon whatever team she's going to be with AU, and then us be able to build upon that. Same thing with a lot of different athletes that are going to be coming out.

12:33I think that's a good way to do it, to build the fandom and the stories. So Jace, I love what AJ is saying here Like a deal on a deal here Because I love riding up the wave and the momentum of a college NCAA, the fanfare, into the next level Well, you create a Netflix show or a Bloomberg show or whatever And you follow six of your favorite women softball players And you do a journey of about 18 months From the time their senior year to their first year And kind of take us under the challenges, the travel I would love that What it looks like What it looks like, exactly Listen, I'll host if you guys want to fund There you go.

13:07All right. We're putting that out into the world. There's a really cool moment. And I want you to share this story with our audience where obviously you're interested in business. You're interested in the business of sports. You've got your mindset on being a sports agent. And Jessica Mendoza says, what about this other path? Can you tell us that story? Yeah. So it was my senior year in college and I had been asked a lot to do a lot of interviews. And so Jessica Mendoza was one of the individuals that would often interview me. And I remember it was after we had SEC tournament was at LSU in my senior year.

13:43And so she just asked me after one of the interviews, have I ever thought about being on camera? And at that point, I was actually already on camera. I had a show called My Way with AJ at LSU, which is a YouTube show. I just competed against the different LSU athletes. So I told her, I was like, yeah, I'd love to. I just never envisioned a career in it. And so after she said that to me, though, I really just started thinking a little bit more of it. And I said, OK, yeah, that's actually something I would like to do. And so I went back to school and got my master's degree in mass comm and broadcast journalism.

14:16Awesome. That's incredible. My story with Jessica, I know her, Jace, I haven't told you this. We've known each other since basically teenagers because first time I started falling in love with softball that I had real exposure was that Jenny Finch, Jessica Mendoza, U.S. Olympic team. And we did a little TV thing at the All-Star Game. And we've been friends ever since. And then, of course, we worked together at ESPN on Sunday Night Baseball. Yeah. So she's fantastic. But my question is, what are the advantages of being a former athlete turned broadcaster? And is there any disadvantages? I think the advantages are you're able to kind of see things in a different perspective when you're explaining, whether it be to the public, to the fans or just having conversations with the athlete.

14:55Because when you're talking about maybe a play that happened and an ideal world, this is what could have happened or should have happened. You're able to explain why maybe that didn't go the way that it was supposed to go or could have gone. and then the same conversation if you're having conversation with the athlete you're able to explain or talk to them it's like no i understand this what happened so why did you do this so because i would have done it this way or i know so and so does it this way does it help you because of this yeah and so i think if you being able to have the the knowledge or the experience as an athlete even if it's a different sport of everybody knows that drive and the competitiveness it takes to get to from point A to point B.

15:33And I think being able to relate in that fashion allows conversations to flow in a different way or for you to explain things that maybe might be a little bit different. I'm curious if you feel the same way. I do. I do. And I think one of the things that I really was really careful in my early days with broadcasting was as a former athlete, you can talk above the audience a little bit. And I always thought my audience were my two daughters, right? When they were in third and fifth grade, really kind of unpack it where it's really digestible. But also I think practicing empathy and compassion. Because they say the further you get away from your playing days and the further you get away from the field, the easier it is for you.

16:11And you can't forget how hard the game is because it is really, really difficult. So I think explaining that and giving it as due justice, I think is equally as important as trying to make it sound like everything should be done or should have done it better. Exactly. That's how I feel in regards to saying, yes, I understand that this is what should have happened. To me, it's kind of being like, listen, they know that there's nobody beating them up right now more than they are in their own mind as that athlete. And so what they're going to do or what they should do, the adjustment they're probably looking to make is this.

16:42And I think to your point, that empathy. I love, Aja, what you said about sometimes on TV, when you slow it down 500 times with 25 TV angles, it looks so simple at home. But I think I like what you said. Yes, he should have made that play. He'll be the first one to say that. But think about it this way. Or even the first thing that comes to my mind is the first time I transitioned from center field to left field. And if you have never been put in left field and had a lefty come up to bat against a pitcher that throws a screwball, the ball, you wouldn't know. If you didn't take reps, you would not know that no matter where you are, where it's placed, that batter is going to start here, but it will always end over here.

17:25so you have to know that no matter how much you want to take that step to your right you have to go left because it's going to go left and if you haven't played that even if you're a softball player baseball player if you have not gone to left field because from center field i'm not gonna be able to tell you that i only know that because i play left so i i do believe being an athlete in that regard um it really helps break down the game another layer jace i'm gonna nerd out but you're going deep on that i'm going deep you've never heard me talk deep baseball but aj's getting the best out of me when i went from shortstop to third base as a new york yankee a little bit like you're going from center to left very similar is i was i had no problem with fly balls because fly balls for shortstop they're true they stayed very true and if it was way to my right like you know the third baseman had it i came to yankee stadium and i played third base and i would see balls that would start like in the upper deck and i would just give up on it and that Flyball would start coming back, coming back, coming back.

18:23And all of a sudden, it got into my head. I was terrible with flyballs the last five or six years of my career. If the ball went up, I would say, Jeter! Grab it! Grab it! It was crazy. So I can relate with that. But how can someone at home like Jason know that? He just says, flyball's a flyball. Exactly. But not all flyballs are created equal. They're not created equal. And the sun is the biggest bully. Yeah. All right. So let's talk about Major League Baseball a little bit. You've got a show in the MLB Network. play ball Saturday mornings. Yeah, play ball. So this is fascinating to me because it's coming at this moment, as Alex said earlier, where baseball's in growth mode, maybe for the first time in a while, like really sort of feeling like, all right, we're going to bring new people in.

19:04Help us understand sort of the business case for the show and sort of how it came about and what you're excited about. Sure. So I've been hosting play ball for the last four years. It's very much tailored towards kids, but it is a highlight show that just kind of showcases what happens the week prior within baseball. And then it's a lot of giving instruction, or you'll have a lot of players talk about their favorite moments, their big moments, what it is that they did when they were younger, big inspiration. And then also kind of breaking down a lot of different plays, or maybe it was a really good, a good play that happened, or a great hit.

19:39A lot of times I'll have me do demos. So I'll demonstrate whether it is a slide, a Turner slide, or if it was a catch from Judge, or if it was a great diving play somebody made. So it's a lot of different parts, a lot of moving parts, but it's tailored to try to be fun for the kid to get invested into it.

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20:41All right. So as we wrap up, there's one thing that I wanted to do with both of you, which is very of the moment when it comes to baseball. And Alex teed it up at the beginning of the episode, which is critical moment. What needs to happen next? I'm going to give you 30 seconds. Ah! What needs to happen? Oh, God. Baseball needs to... You can take more than 30 seconds. Okay, okay, thanks. Yeah, I felt the timer ticking. I feel just to build upon what baseball's already doing is just to allow the authenticity to just flourish in the biggest facets. I believe storytelling as well. Let's see these players behind the helmet.

21:17What is it they love to do? A lot of them are so good at other things than baseball. Hunter Green is a great artist. Willie Adamas loves architecture. Like being able to tell those stories beyond just who they are as players. Let's see that. Let's understand that. But then also allow them, once you see who they are, allow them to be who they are when they get on the field. And so, I don't know, I'm a big, big bat flip fan. I'm a big go around the bases loud as you can. The way in which they were showing off the Dominican Republic jersey, let them do it with their Rays jersey or Yankees jersey or whatever.

21:52That's to me, I feel like that's the next move. I feel like kids love it. More bat flips, more everything. Just be authentic. I mean, I think forever baseball was America's pastime, and it was number one above football and basketball. I'm dating myself a little bit back in the 70s and 80s. But I do think they need to just let it rip. More access in the clubhouse. Everything magical happens before the first pitch, but yet we lock that down. And I think it's a great multi-billion dollar media property if we unlock that and allow people to see, how does Otani prepare? How does Judge prepare? Odamis, what's he doing?

22:26I think it's a great opportunity for baseball. but more is more. Do you think there's going to be a lockout? It sounds like it. It sounds like it. But you know what's great about that? I mean, it's not great, but you know what? Please tell me. What you can do if you are starving for a baseball, you can watch Athletes Limited Softball League and listen to my podcast where I'm talking all things women in softball and also baseball. What is the name of your podcast? It's called Dropping Diamonds. Okay. So come on and drop. I want you guys to come on. Come on. Jason would love to go on. He's really good.

22:59Drop your diamonds. If you were coming up now, would you play baseball? No, I'd still probably play softball. Yeah. I think it's just different. For me, what drew me, I played a lot of different sports when I was younger. So I played soccer, I played basketball, played softball. And everything else was very, it's sports, right? And from softball, I remember my first memory, why I love the game. I made a diving catch on a really, it was really wet outside from Florida, dewey grass. And I slid, like it was a slip and slide. And so I was hooked. And so for me, there's the aspects that you get with softball that you're just not going to get any other sport, I think are what hooked me.