Yonder Alonso Shines As Color Commentator of World Baseball Classic Games

Fox Sports is broadcasting all games of the World Baseball Classic on its FS1 and FS2 channels. In the booth, Fox Sports paired Dave Flemming as the play-by-play guy with former major leaguer Yonder Alonso as the color analyst for first-round games played at LoanDepot Park in Miami.

For baseball fans, Flemming is best known for his work on radio and TV for the San Francisco Giants (he also calls college football and college basketball play-by-play for ESPN). Alonso was born in Cuba but grew up in Miami and is bilingual, making him a perfect fit for Pool D games featuring teams from Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Israel.

Alonso was a revelation.

Alonso knows the game well. He brought tremendous insight into what the pitchers and hitters were thinking and what adjustments they were making as the at-bat progressed. He knows the players well—their strengths, their weaknesses, their nicknames, and their backstories. This is especially true for players from the Caribbean and Latin America, but not exclusively so. He fluently mixes English and Spanish, which adds just the right flavor to games featuring players from Spanish-speaking countries.

His excitement for the game is infectious.

Before his MLB career, Alonso played three seasons at the University of Miami, where he was an offensive standout. And it was at U of M where Alonso took a young high school kid named Manny Machado under his wing and taught him how to train his body for the rigors of MLB. The two grew close and Machado eventually met and married Alonso’s sister Yainee.

Alonso played 10 seasons in the majors. He came up with the Reds in 2010, played four seasons with the San Diego Padres, and then bounced around among the Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Guardians, Chicago White Sox, and Colorado Rockies. He ended his major league career with a slash line of .259/.332/.404, 181 doubles, 100 home runs, and 426 RBI. In the field, he played the vast majority of innings at first base.

Alonso announced his retirement in November 2020 and joined MLB Network as an analyst in April 2021. In 2022, he also served as a color analyst on a bunch of YouTube’s Game of the Week broadcasts. The WBC has made him a broadcasting star.

MLB says it wants to attract a younger, more diverse audience. Indeed, that is one motivation for trying to shorten games, by using a strict pitch clock and limiting step offs, and trying to create more offense, by banning the shift. But it’s not just pace of play that needs updating. MLB and its 30 teams need to rethink how they package those shorter games in a way that connects with a younger, more diverse audience.

Alonso is the kind of broadcast talent that can make that connection. He’s young. He’s in tune with today’s players. And he’s not afraid to let his Cuban-American heritage shine through.

For now, Fox Sports doesn’t see it that way. For the remaining games of the World Baseball Classic, Joe Davis will call the play-by-play and former MLB pitcher John Smoltz will provide analysis. With his droll, monotone style, Smoltz certainly won’t be adding much “color” to his commentary. Let’s hope the games are exciting on their own.