It's time for MLB to let local broadcasters call postseason games

1. This is not the day to dump everything on Major League Baseball. The league is coming off an exciting Game 3 of the Brewers-Mets series, there's a good mix of new and old players remaining in the playoffs, and ESPN enjoyed a nice ratings boost in the wild card round.

So I just want to say this quickly before I get to what I really want to get into today. I don't know what the solution is. I don't even know if there is a solution. But MLB needs to work with ESPN to provide some sort of secondary feed with hometown networks during wild card games.

This isn't about the skills of ESPN's baseball announcers. Some are good, some are not good. But they just don't convey the emotions that match the moments. They don't provide the biased excitement that adds to the moment.

It is detrimental to the sport and the fans to deprive fans of their hometown broadcasters during the most important games of the season after local broadcasters had to play 162 games.

Again, I wish I had a solution. I don't know if ESPN can give you their crew on the main channel and then provide two alternate feeds on ESPN+ with the local crews, but it should at least be looked into.

If baseball can embarrass itself and sell 11 a.m. games to Roku on Sunday mornings, it can find a way to provide fans with a feed of local channels.

There's no downside to this except that, God forbid, someone might have to pay the local broadcasters to call a few extra games. But the goodwill this would create between ESPN/MLB and fans would be significant.

Local broadcasters are more important in baseball than in any other sport. They call 162 games. They are the soundtrack of your summer. They build a bond with fans unlike broadcasters of any other sport. It's time to end the practice of local broadcasters disappearing as soon as the most important games of the season take place.

This all brings me to Thursday evening. With the Mets' excellent local TV team of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling out of the playoffs, New York fans were left with radio host Howie Rose, who gave them a rousing introduction to Pete Alonso's surreal three-run home run at the start of the ninth inning that gave the Mets a 3-2 win. And Rose came through as well as any play-by-play player could, with a perfect call from start to finish.

In a fantastic scene later that evening, the Mets played Rose's call on the team plane, leading to a beautiful moment between Rose and Alonso.

On the other hand, legendary Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker was completely devastated after the Brewers collapse.

2. This week SI Media with Jimmy Traina features two main guests.

First is The athleteAndrew Marchand on the latest sports media news. Topics covered include ESPN considering Shams Charania, Jeff Passan and Chris Haynes as possible replacements for Adrian Wojnarowski as its top NBA insider; what ESPN will do with its top NBA standout of Mike Breen and Doris Burke after losing JJ Redick; how Tom Brady fared as an analyst after four games; how Cris Collinsworth's new contract affects Greg Olsen; Tony Romo's improvement; an old-fashioned Twitter battle between reporters and much more.

Marchand is followed by David Shoemaker The wrestlers joins the podcast to discuss Netflix's “Mr. McMahon” six-part documentaries in which he served as producer and speaker. Shoemaker shares details about the making of the doc, how a bombshell lawsuit against Vince McMahon during production impacted the documentary, what it was like for the creators to interview McMahon, the dynamics of the McMahon family and more.

Following Shoemaker, Sal Licata of WFAN Radio and SNY TV in New York joins Jimmy for her weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week's conversation covers the MLB playoffs, NFL scheduling issues, Dana Carvey, Saturday Night LiveSal's knowledge of presidents and more.

You can listen to this SI Media with Jimmy Traina below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media with Jimmy Traina To Sports Illustrated YouTube channel.

3. Bucs offensive lineman Tristan Wirfs has a brutally honest and very graphic response to Tampa Bay blowing a late 30-27 lead and losing 36-30 in overtime to the Falcons on Thursday night.

4. “Now people are betting on third and fourth place.” Good stuff from Al Michaels about how his enjoyment of making sly gambling references has waned in recent years.

5. Cal alum Marshawn Lynch had a very amusing opinion about being named this week's guest picker on ESPN College game daywho will be in Berkley for the Miami-Cal game.

6. If you're a football fan, you're very familiar with this clip of Reggie Bush getting destroyed while playing for the Saints.

Here's Bush remembering the punch and revealing what he said to Drew Brees after Brees caused him to set himself on fire.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Earlier this week, Chris Berman celebrated his 45th anniversary with ESPN. It's terrible that I didn't own up to it the day it happened, especially because I've always been and always will be a huge Berman fan.

Normally I never post a video here that's longer than four or five minutes, but I'm breaking that rule today because Berman deserves a proper tribute and you have all weekend to watch it.

Make sure you do it Check out previous editions of Traina Thoughts and take a look at them Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy Twitter And Instagram.