The end of Alex Rodriguez’ playing career — and possibly the start of his broadcasting career — will be on FOX.
The FOX broadcast network will carry Friday’s Rays/Yankees Major League Baseball game, which will mark the final appearance of Yankees DH Alex Rodriguez, live in primetime. While FOX has aired a regular slate of Saturday night games in recent years, Friday will mark the first time since 2004 — and just the third time since acquiring rights — that the network has aired a regular season game on a weeknight.
Rodriguez is not exactly beloved and neither the Rays nor the Yankees are playoff contenders, making it a seemingly odd decision to air Friday’s game on primetime broadcast television. However, Friday night is as low-stakes as it gets for the major networks thanks to Olympic competition and the generally depressed viewing levels of August. Ratings should exceed the two-hour Masterchef re-run FOX was previously scheduled to air.
Fox Sports has a close relationship with Rodriguez, having brought him in as a guest analyst on last year’s playoffs, and the organization is interested in bringing him back in retirement. “We had high hopes for Alex last year and he exceeded all of them,” Fox Sports EP John Entz told Sports Illustrated in an article published Monday, “We were unbelievably impressed with Alex across the board.”
(News from Fox Sports, Sports Illustrated)
