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Gustafson, a lifelong Red Sox fan whose family shared season tickets with others from the South Shore town, fondly recalls exactly where he watched games from at Fenway in his youth.
As coordinating producer of all levels of ESPN’s baseball coverage, it makes sense that Scott Gustafson would know his way around Fenway Park, especially since he grew up in Marshfield.
But while talking with him about this weekend’s Red Sox-Yankees series, which culminates with the rivals’ 75th matchup on “Sunday Night Baseball,” I did not expect Gustafson to reveal a favorite couple of seats at the storied ballpark.
“Section 12, row double P, seats 1 and 2,” he said. “Oh, I remember them very well.”
Turns out that Gustafson is a lifelong Red Sox fan whose family shared season tickets with a couple of other families in the South Shore town.
“I remember those seat numbers like we were there yesterday,” he said, citing Jim Rice and Wade Boggs as a couple of his favorite players and vividly recalling Carl Yastrzemski’s final game in 1983. “Having a July birthday, the only thing I wanted to do was go to Fenway in the summer.”
Gustafson is a few months from his 25th anniversary at ESPN and has been part of its baseball coverage for the last 15 years. This is his first year leading the network’s MLB production.
“It was about three weeks prior to spring training this year that I was asked if I’d like to take over all of baseball at ESPN,” he said. “Being something that’s a lifelong passion, it was a no-brainer.”
Before taking the lead on MLB production, Gustafson was at the forefront of the network’s Little League and college baseball game broadcasts, which have grown more and more popular in recent years.
“The last four or five years for college baseball have just been phenomenal — not only just the ratings but the product on air and the vibe and the buzz around it,” Gustafson said. “I think you’ve really closed that gap of seeing people playing in Omaha [at the College World Series] to playing in a big stage at Fenway or Yankee Stadium. Players like [former LSU and current Pittsburgh Pirates ace] Paul Skenes get to the majors so fast now.
“And then as far as Little League, that product just continues to grow, whether it’s on the softball side or the Little League baseball side.”
ESPN figured out a clever way to connect the Little Leaguers and big leaguers with the Little League Classic. The annual event brings two MLB teams (the Mariners and Mets this year) to Williamsport, Pa., the home of the Little League World Series, to play a game and connect with the Little Leaguers.
The event is baseball at its best and most authentic.
“It sure is,” said Gustafson. “It’s a whole day based around the Little Leaguers getting to be around their heroes. And the big leaguers have just as much fun as these kids because being around these kids jogs memories of when they fell in love with the game. It’s beneficial for everyone.”
ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast team of Needham’s Karl Ravech, former Yankees and Red Sox pitcher David Cone, and Eduardo Perez will call Sunday’s game.
Gustafson won’t be in that old familiar seat, but in the ESPN production truck, so it’s not exactly like those old days of coming to the ballpark as a young fan. But Gustafson is thrilled to be back, and to have some juice back in a Red Sox-Yankees rivalry that has been relatively stagnant the last couple of seasons.
“There is nothing better than late season meaningful baseball in Boston, and oh yes, especially vs. the Yankees,” he said. “It’s phenomenal.”
To some Red Sox fans, it’s rotten to the core
Whenever the Red Sox end up as one of the teams on Apple TV+’s “Friday Night Baseball” streamed games, gripes inevitably and understandably start pouring into my inbox sometime around first pitch, when the realization hits that the game is not on NESN.
Here’s a section of one I actually received before first pitch Friday that tidily sums up fans’ feelings:
“Why should we have to enroll in Apple to watch a game? … Most of us have NESN so we can watch the games. Now, for one of the most important games, we are blocked out. A free trial doesn’t make it right.”
Agreed, and I empathize, and I also must acknowledge that this is exactly how commissioner Rob Manfred wants it.
MLB signed a seven-year, $585 million deal with Apple for rights to the “Friday Night Baseball” package in March 2022. Manfred’s MLB cares not about you, but revenue. He’s happy to divvy up the rights and sell them off as parts. The presumption is that if you really want to watch Sox-Yankees or whatever game is on that Friday, you’ll pay up. And if not, tough luck, you had your chance.
It is possible that Apple isn’t part of the MLB package next season and beyond. It has been reported elsewhere that in the pending MLB rights deal currently being negotiated, NBC could end up with the Friday night rights even though Apple still has a few years on its contract.
Should that happen and NBC gains Friday rights, I assume those games would air on Peacock. Which is now $10.99 a month, by the way.
In a related note, I long for the days of the Sox on Ch. 38 more with each passing week.
