Red Sox-Yanks to air in United Kingdom on Saturday

September 23rd, 2022

is superhuman.

That's the sense Felix White got when he saw the Yankees' star in action over the course of two games at Fenway Park last month.

"You could just feel that he was above and beyond the human plane," said White, a British musician, author and broadcaster.

This Saturday, White will get another close look at the Triple Crown candidate when he serves as a commentator for BBC Sport's broadcast of the latest chapter in the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry from Yankee Stadium. Melanie Newman will handle the play-by-play duties while joined by White and former Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia.

The broadcast is part of a new five-year deal between the BBC and MLB that will see the BBC air regular-season games each season. The broadcasts will be tailored to appeal to both existing and new baseball fans in the United Kingdom. The MLB Network-produced game will be shown live on BBC iPlayer at 1 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. in the UK.

"I think if people are really into baseball from England, [Newman and Sabathia] are going to be able to provide that, and it will just feel like a really high-quality broadcast," White said. "The thing that I am hoping to deliver really is how it feels to me, on an instinctive level, and then trying to communicate questions that someone watching it for the first time might have."

White first fell in love with baseball in 2015 as he followed the Mets' run to the World Series. His experiences at Fenway on Aug. 13 and 14 were captured as part of a just-released short film, "Major League Calling." By the end of his two-day introduction to baseball's most famous matchup, White was full of emotion.

"You really have that magical feeling that only music and sport give you where you can sense everybody in there feeling like, ‘We’re just where we want to be now, in this space, in this moment,'" he said. "There’s a real relief to that against sort of what the modern world is like."

That weekend in Boston helped White prepare for his role as a baseball TV commentator. It's a brand-new venture for White, but one for which he is ready and excited.

"I’m hoping that I can just really enjoy it. I have the rare privilege of being sat next to CC Sabathia and ask him anything I want. We’ll see where we get to," he said.

In 2019, BBC Sport partnered with Major League Baseball to broadcast the MLB London Series between the Red Sox and Yankees. As part of the new deal, the BBC will air the 2023 London Series between the Cardinals and Cubs in June as well as future London Series in 2024 and 2026.