Did ESPN Pressure MLB Not To Call Game To Give Aaron Judge A Shot At 61st Homer? Claims Appear Unfounded

Claims Of ESPN Pressuring MLB To Extend Rain Delay Of Aaron Judge Game Appear Unfounded

It was a bold claim: with Aaron Judge looking to tie Roger Maris’ 61 home run regular season mark on Sunday Night Baseball, ESPN pressured MLB during what can only be described as a downpour, to not call the game to allow at least one more at bat by Judge to potentially tie the record.

The claims have intrigue. The claims have a manager threatening a powerplay.

The claims appear to be untrue.

The story on NJ.com claims that only with Yankees manager Aaron Boone mentioned the “possibility — the threat of sitting Judge — reached league and ESPN executives, they moved quickly to end the delay at 1 hour, 38 minutes and the Yankees were declared 2-0 winners,” as source to NJ.com said.

The implication would be both staggering and not hard to believe by many. ESPN just embarked on a $3.85 billion extension with MLB to air games, or $550 million a year.

While both the Yankees and Red Sox reportedly lobbied officials to call the game given the Yankees had to travel to Toronto to start a series with the Blue Jays on Monday, and the very real possibility of injury would have occurred, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the events and policy with which broadcast partners and the league address such matters, the story appears to be completely inaccurate.

According to one source with intimate knowledge of the agreement between ESPN and the league, the broadcast partners are never consulted on such matters and that the story is 100% inaccurate.

A source with inside knowledge of how the situation works from the perspective of the Commissioner’s Office said the story is not true and that there was absolutely no pressure applied by ESPN.

So, why was the delay allowed to stretch over the normal 90 minutes before being called? According to league, it was solely their decision given that it is the second-half of the regular season and the Red Sox’ last trip through to New York City. In cases such as these, the league will look to every opportunity to get a full game in if it is a club’s last trip through a city.

Would it have been great to have Judge hit home run #61 at Yankee Stadium on Sunday Night Baseball? Assuredly, it would have. In that, there is little doubting. But calling the game due to rain later seems to have a more pedestrian reason.