NewsDiaz getting a taste of the media world
Braves outfielder working with ESPN during postseason
By Mark Bowman / MLB.com
10/21/09 8:16 PM EST
PHILADELPHIA -- While evaluating his career path during his days at Florida State University, Matt Diaz took advantage of the opportunity to ask the great Ernie Harwell what he should do to prepare for a possible entry into the broadcasting world."He told me to just keep on hitting and not to worry about broadcasting until I couldn't do that any more," Diaz said.
As Braves fans are happy to confirm, Diaz certainly hasn't stopped hitting. Still, to at least confirm that he may want to get a taste of what Harwell did for 55 years, the 31-year-old outfielder has spent the past week allowing ESPN to introduce him to electronic media world.
Diaz will continue serving as a guest analyst for the talk show "First Take," but ESPN has also provided him the chance to do a live chat and appear on Scott Van Pelt's radio show.
"I really never thought about having to put on makeup," said the always-witty Diaz. "But truthfully, it's been a great experience. You certainly learn a lot about what happens on this side of the business."
With his father serving as the Spring Training chaplain for the Tigers, Diaz had the opportunity to be introduced to Harwell at a very young age.
After interacting with Harwell before and during his broadcasts of Tigers games, Diaz started thinking about how he could remain in the baseball world if he had to end his aspirations to be a Major League player.
"I used to think, 'If I can't make it in sports, then I'd like to talk about it,' " he said.
Having hit .316 with an .829 OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) over the past four seasons for the Braves, Diaz isn't in a position where he immediately has to decide which aspect of the broadcasting world he'd like to tackle.
But over the course of the past week, he's gained an appreciation for how quickly writers, broadcasters and analysts have to alter their mind-sets.
As Game 3 of the National League Championship Series was nearing its end on Sunday night, Diaz was fully prepared to go on "First Take" the following morning to talk about how the Dodgers had regained momentum in this best-of-seven series.
Then, after the Phillies completed one of those late-inning comebacks that have proven to be all-too-familiar to Braves fans and players, Diaz quickly found himself talking to the show's producers about analyzing the consequences of the two-out, ninth-inning double that Jimmy Rollins had recorded to provide the Phillies a 3-1 advantage in the series.
"With one swing of the bat, Rollins changed our whole segment," Diaz said. "That was an eye-opener. That's just something I've never thought about while playing."
If Diaz does become a member of the media once his playing days are complete, he'll likely be more comfortable providing some of the opinions he's been withholding this week.
When doing Van Pelt's show on Wednesday, he was careful with his response to questions about the umpiring mistakes that affected the Angels and Yankees during Game 4 of the American League Championship Series on Tuesday night.
"While I have strong opinions about a lot of things, I'm not going to freely express them right now," he said. "I still have to face some of these guys and work with some of these umpires."
Mark Bowman is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
