Apparently ESPN and MLB couldn’t find anyone more synonymous with the sport than a former NFL punter for Monday night’s Home Run Derby.
The network and league decided to have Pat McAfee and his “The Pat McAfee Show” co-host Ty Schmit introduce the players participating in the derby at the home of the Atlanta Braves — and it was quite the spectacle.
McAfee caught himself nearly slipping up when introducing Pittsburgh Pirates’ Oneil Cruz, saying he was on the Steelers. McAfee also decided to tell a national audience that Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh has the “fattest a** in all of professional sports.”
Fans were instantly tired of McAfee’s act and ripped him across social media.
ESPN takes a lot of heat for jamming its personalities down our throats and there has never been a more egregious example than Pat McAfee — a former punter — announcing the MLB Home Run Derby lineup on the network's official broadcast pic.twitter.com/gWyRAGEFSR
— Brad Joyal (@BradJoyal) July 15, 2025
ESPN needs to enable a feature that allows people to unsubscribe from Pat McAfee in all formats
— Moneybagg Yo(hannes) 🇪🇷 (@AronYohannes) July 15, 2025
Get Pat McAfee as far away from baseball as humanly possible.
— La Mole (@FranmilsEyebrow) July 15, 2025
Dawg get pat mcafee away from baseball pic.twitter.com/oLbeLmtPLT
— J (@synceifys) July 15, 2025
Can ESPN please stop forcing Pat McAfee on us? He's not funny. He's just obnoxious. We want him to never talk again.
— DeAnna Bryant (@deannabryant210) July 15, 2025
I can’t wait until baseball has nothing to do at ESPN. Why is Pat McAfee at the home run derby? Garbage product.
— Carson 🦀 (@carson_3903) July 15, 2025
Pat McAfee is exhausting. ESPN is doing to him what it did to Stephen A. Smith. He's everywhere, and it's tiresome.
— Scott Simmons (@ScottSimmonsEsq) July 15, 2025
I never thought it was possible for 60,000+ people to simultaneously tune one person out.
The Atlanta crowd is proving me wrong with Pat McAfee during this awful Home Run derby introduction.
— CogginToboggan (@CogginToboggan) July 15, 2025
Me after 30 seconds of Pat McAfee’s HR Derby intro pic.twitter.com/5unpYmrykQ
— Sean Zerillo (@SeanZerillo) July 15, 2025
Fans expressed frustration about ESPN forcing McAfee into baseball coverage. Many called his performance “obnoxious” and “exhausting,” with some noting that the 60,000-plus crowd at Truist Park seemed to tune him out during the introductions.
Several users compared the situation to ESPN’s overexposure of Stephen A. Smith, suggesting the network is making the same mistake by putting McAfee “everywhere.” Others questioned why a former NFL punter was chosen to introduce MLB players at one of baseball’s premier events.
Will MLB learn from this miscue in time for next year’s All-Star festivities in Philadelphia? If history tells us anything, probably not.
Matt Higgins worked in national and local news for 15 years. He started out as an overnight production assistant ... More about Matt Higgins