Lights, digicam, pink tally lights on!
And with that, the YES Network commences one other Yankees telecast.
As Michael Kay begins the present and introduces certainly one of his many broadcast sidekicks, one individual has already been laborious at work, although not but seen.
Meredith Marakovits has already completed her open on the sport and can provide perception, harm stories with educated banter with Kay from the sales space, main as much as the post-game report.
Not a foul gig for the previous LaSalle University grad and D-1 volleyball participant.
“I played three years, but not my senior year. I was injured, but they let me keep my scholarship,” Marakovits says. “My parents appreciated that.”
She’s been the pre- and post-game reporter since Opening Day, March 2012. Piece of cake, proper?
“My actual first day on the job and Mariano Rivera blew a save,” she remembers with a chuckle. “Oh man, I have to go up to the greatest closer of all time and I’m the first one to ask a question. ‘Hi, my name’s Meredith. By the way, about that blown save?’”
Awkward moments apart, Marakovits has seen some historic moments up shut as effectively.
How about watching Aaron Judge’s first Bronx Bomber house run or Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte popping out to take the ball from Rivera for the final time?
“You get to see a lot of cool moments,” she factors out. “That’s my favourite a part of the job.
“I did the last interview on the field when Derek played his final game at Yankee Stadium,” says the beaming Marakovits, “and I had a front-row seat.”
Her job has its ups and downs, however you’ll be able to’t let it eat you up.
“There was a little bit of a learning curve in how YES does things and what they expected of me,” she remembers, “however I don’t ever bear in mind a time of feeling uncomfortable.
“You almost have to have a closer’s mentality. Shake it off and have a short memory.”
Marakovits has been round for somebody nonetheless of their late thirties. The benefit for her was she was already working within the New York market.
“I had worked for SNY. I had worked for ESPN Radio and the FAN, so I wasn’t a complete stranger to these guys, the team and the way people did business here,” she states. She has additionally coated minor league baseball.
Oddly, the Marakovits family wasn’t large on baseball. It was basketball and the 76ers.
“When I became the Sixers’ sideline reporter,” she remembers, “that was insane.”
That was a staff of Andre Iguodala and Doug Collins was the coach.
And that was earlier than “The Process.”
“Which hasn’t really worked,” she factors out.
What has labored for Marakovits is being a part of a gifted line of succession.
When Suzyn Waldman moved from the Yankee clubhouse reporter to radio coloration analyst, she was changed by Kim Jones who held the spot from 2005 to 2012. Marakovits has been there ever since as has Waldman, certainly one of her closest associates.
Like a fairy Godmother?
“I feel like I can’t call her mother. She would kill me,” says Marakovits. “She’s one of my best friends and advocate. I don’t she think she gets nearly the amount of credit she deserves for being a pioneer in this business. It’s the honest to God truth.”
Because of Waldman, Marakovits’ job isn’t as taxing.
“I don’t have to deal with some of the things she had to deal with early on because of people like her,” she notes. “I don’t think enough women in the business recognize that or appreciate that.”
The job of a Yankee TV reporter isn’t all sit again and kibbitz. There is a course of even in baseball.
“I get to a home [night] game at 2:15,” she says, describing the beginning of her workday. “I look over my notes for the sport, do my hair and make-up. The clubhouse opens at three. That’s the window once I can begin grabbing Yankee gamers.
“From three to 4 the clubhouse might be open. [Manager Aaron] Boone will speak at 4. Afterwards, if I have to go the opposing clubhouse, I’ll pop over there. Taking [batting practice], you by no means know who’s going to be floating round. I speak to my producer, determine what we’re doing for the pre-game present after which sort of go from there.
“Pregame will be 6:30, [I’ll] do a segment for the beginning of the game. The game starts and I’m hoping to get in and talk to the guys,” she says.
The sport ends and he or she’s again to work.
“We’re somewhat lucky this year in the sense that we’ve had some games that are three hours,” she says. “Post-game is usually 55 minutes or more. Probably done after 11.”
Then there are the short turnaround days.
“People don’t realize the grind and what these athletes go through throughout the course of the season,” she says. “We simply need to broadcast it they usually need to go on the market and play 9.
“I can think of four times this year that we got in at five, six a.m. and then there’s a game.”
She ain’t complaining, as a result of she’s on the entrance traces because the Yankees strive for world title quantity 28.
“I haven’t covered a World Series and I’m really hoping this is the year,” she says.
Being so near the Yankees makes her the fan’s eyes and ears.
“We’re in people’s living rooms every day for months and months and months,” she says. “It’s kind of a peek behind the curtain.”
She’s seen gamers evolve and managers go.
“I feel Aaron Judge has made himself more of a spokesman over the years,” she says.
And she’s seen modifications within the kinds of the managers she’s coated — Joe Girardi and Aaron Boone.
“Any manager of the New York Yankees is going to be a little bit guarded,” she states, “but Boone appears to be a bit more relaxed than Joe.”
Even COVID-19 couldn’t sluggish her down.
Marakovits was effectively ready for when the pandemic hit. She arrange her house in Clearwater, Fla., to do interviews and YouTube stuff. Her house grew to become a studio with all of the tips of the commerce.
“Can’t tell you the amount of ring-light links I’ve sent to people,” she says with amusing. “I was one of the most prepared people for working from home doing TV during the pandemic.”
And whereas she offers with many varieties from the Yankees to YES brass, she has a supporter in the primary man of the telecast: Michael Kay.
“Michael has been fantastic to me,” she admits. “Met Michael for the primary time in 2009 overlaying the Phillies for an ESPN radio affiliate at Citizens Bank Park. We crossed paths a few instances earlier than I received this job, and he has all the time been good to me.
“He’s always been a gentleman and he’s always been in my corner.”
Marakovits loves the job, however is there extra to perform?
“YES has been good to me and I enjoy my current role,” she acknowledges, “however I all the time assume there’s room for development.
“What that looks like is still to be determined.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com