PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - FOX Sports Arizona's Jody Jackson talks sideline reporting amid COVID-19

Episode Date: July 1, 2020

FOX Sports Arizona personality Jody Jackson joins the show to talk about what she's been up to the last three months, the challenges of sideline reporting in the COVID-19 era of baseball, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome into a special edition of the Rattle podcast here in this episode. We are joined by the one and only Jody Jackson. She is a sideline reporter for Fox Sports Arizona. And honestly, just kind of an Arizona sports icon at this point, just based on how many great moments of Arizona sports history are associated with her and her work. So Jody, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate your time. Jesse, thanks for having me.

And yes, we do go back, of course, to your kickaster days. And it's funny, you know, that's very sweet of you. Icon and all that. I mean, I always say I came here at a great time, too, in the state of Arizona when, of course, I came here in the D-Vax won the World Series the next year. You know, the Cardinals going to the Super Bowl and just the growth of the sports landscape here. So I feel fortunate for that. But we're just excited to get some baseball back on the field, and hopefully that's going to be happening soon. Absolutely, absolutely.

Well, I feel the same way as a Diamondbacks podcast, as I was just saying, it's been a bit of a dry few months here trying to find things to talk about. But it is good to have baseball back on tap back in the future here just a few weeks away from opening day, theoretically. But before we jump into all of that, Jody, I'm just curious. from your standpoint, as someone who is so used to being in sports, working in sports, interviewing players on a day-to-day basis, what has the last, you know, three or four months been like for you when all of that just very suddenly was taken away? Yeah, Jesse, it's really been kind of revealing to me, and it's funny how I try to live in

the moment, so I haven't reflected a ton, but my life, what I did realize, just being home a lot and it's been kind of a silver lining for me being able to be near my family and my kids. But I realized very quickly that for the last 25 years, and I'm going back to my radio day, I'm going back to when I got out of college, but I've been covering sporting events and I've been gone at night. I haven't had the ability to make a plan to go do something in the evening very often. And I still can't because it's a pandemic. But I mean, even something like walking of taking my kids to their, to their practices or walking the dog. You know, I'm like, wow, I just got revealed to me that when the sun goes down, you can walk your dog.

It's cool enough now. And, you know, you have to wait until the sun goes down. But, like, it's just been so weird. Like, it has been, it's interesting you ask me that because it's more than just the simple fact that, well, I have always covered sports and now I'm not. It's kind of been a life-changing revelation of what my life was and what it is now. and neither one is really normal, but I'm certainly not complaining. I think what I've realized is my family, you know, while it's been great to be here, you know, they do a great job.

My husband, everybody, you know, everybody functions really well and my kids being teenagers now. You know, it's not like they like having me here. It's not like I'm the glue that keeps everyone together. I think they see what I do and that's kind of cool that we get to share some moments together. They used to come to, you know, some road. here and there, they would come to, you know, when San Diego or L.A. or even a memory popped up of 2015 when we rare D-BAC's appearance in Seattle. And gosh, that was such a great trip. My kids and my husband, you know, kind of, they just pop in and, you know, I can't spend a ton of time with

them because of the games. But, you know, there's been a lot of, like, reflection and looking at my life and how much of it has been, you know, being at a game. And I, And I miss it, though. You know, I mean, I love my family and I'll still spend time with them, but I really miss being at the ballpark, you know, a lot of the time. And it's sort of that rhythm of your life that now has been interrupted and all of the people, all the players, of the coaches, and just especially baseball, because the other sports have a rhythm, but it's not every day and it's not a complete lifestyle,

especially all the years I covered a lot of football. And I still do home games for the Cardinals. But, you know, the game day is such a different deal. And with baseball, it's every day. And those people become your family, the people at the stadium, even when I go to visiting stadiums. Like when New York was getting hit hard by coronavirus, I actually thought a lot about some of the older people that work at city field that I would see every year when I would go there. And it sounds horrible to say, but hoping that they're still there next year when I go. You know, I mean, because we were hearing about the elderly population in places like Queens and Brooklyn and, you know.

So, I mean, all of those cross your mind because you really enjoy seeing the people that you see at the ballpark all the time. And so that was a loaded answer for you, I know, but it has been really eye-opening to see the change in my life, I guess, you could say. Yeah, I'm curious. I mean, we have this plan in place for Major League Base. baseball 60 games. It's going to be a bizarre season, Jody, unlike anything that we have ever seen and even you've probably ever seen even in as many years as you've been doing this for. I'm curious, do you, how confident are you that given, you know, the coronavirus still kind of running its course throughout the U.S. and especially here in Arizona, how confident would you say

you are that this plan will be able to come through fruition, that there isn't going to be, you know, any pauses or any issues with playing this season as it's currently laid out. Well, Jesse, that's a great question. That's the magic question. And I have reflected on this a lot. I've thought a lot about how I've seen a lot of people in just people that I, they're not necessarily friends, but just acquaintances or people that have come out and said, you know, I don't know how I got this.

People that have said they've gotten it, but they don't know how they were wearing masks. they were staying home as much as they could. And you're thinking, okay, either they're not really revealing some risky behavior, and they didn't, you know, they're not realizing that, or they're really just truly getting it, like at the grocery store or, you know, the places that we're all kind of having to go, that you go and you wear your mask and you hope you don't get it. And so I guess what I'm getting at, and I'm taking it big picture before I get small into the athlete portion is that if you do the intake and you, so the Diamondbacks,

for example, like Hayeson said, we've had a couple of guys. So a couple of guys on the 40-man testing positive can't say who they are, but I'm sure if you would go to the workout, you could kind of buy elimination, figure out who's not there or, you know, who's not going to be there for the next 10 days or two weeks or whatever it is. And so if you, if you vet it out, if you've taken out those that are infected and then you have a quarantine group, but they're not quarantine because they are going to go home and they are going to go and sort of live life. But you're telling them, and I asked my case in this last week, I said,

how do you handle that with them? You know, how do you stress just the need to be careful and be not engaging in any high-risk behavior, which I think we all are learning. Everybody has a different view of what's high risk. Like I haven't been into a restaurant to sit down. I've got takeout. I've one restaurant. We went in and we ordered and then we got it and we sat far away from anyone else outside.

You know, but like so that's for me. I feel like I don't really need to go sit in the restaurant. I can still patronize the restaurant. I could still order the food and get it and just leave. But a lot of people are going to restaurants and they don't feel like that's high risk. I guess what I'm wondering is for baseball players and hopefully their coaches and their front offices are going to hammer home. if you want to play a sport, you're going to have to be really careful, I think. You know, because, again, that's the mystery is you see people that don't know how they got it.

And whether they're being honest or not, we don't know. But if it's as contagious as we think it is, I think the answer lies somewhere in there is that can guys stay out of harm's way with this. Now, I've seen people in the business. I've seen other media members say they see it not continuing, not being able to get off the ground. or not being able to finish the season. I feel like they should be able to get it off the ground. And part of that is wishful thinking because I really want to get back to covering the games

and doing the pre-post game shows, which we will be doing on Fox Sports, Arizona. In a different way, I'm sure, in some ways, and not from the road and things like that. So I think it will get off the ground. I'm hopeful about that. And then as it continues, as the guys are traveling and it gets a little diceier, and I just, I don't know. I hope that no teams, because what's going to happen is if a team, I bet you there will be teams that stay away from it,

and maybe we'll look back and Jesse will say, oh, my gosh, look at how naive Jody was. But the question is, if it's a couple of teams, how is that going to disrupt the whole operation? And we know that that would do that. Yeah. So I think the answer is a big fat. I don't know, because I don't really understand.

I've read so much just like most of us common non-medical people. And you try to understand how to stay out of harm's way with it, how to not spread it. And yet I don't think it's still really known. It's obvious it's pretty contagious. But they're going to do all that they can. I think it really takes every single person acting like everyone potentially has it. And you just have to walk around on this earth that way. And that's hard for most people.

hard for everyone. So my answer is I'm hopeful that we'll see gains and then we'll just hopefully they'll be able to continue and nothing will happen as far as an outbreak. Yeah, well, we'll stick with the wishful thinking for the sake of argument here. I like that line of thinking for sure. I'm sure you're helping for the same also.

Absolutely. Absolutely, yes we are. Jody, I've heard a lot about the TV broadcasting experience, particularly from Steve Berthume, who I've heard do, I think a couple interviews over at Arizona Sports 987 FM and him just talking about the challenges of broadcasting. He mentioned one thing that really stuck out to me that the TV broadcasters will not be traveling on the road. They'll stay home and they'll also have to use the feed of the road team, which I thought was really interesting because obviously a huge part of putting together a TV broadcast is kind of getting all of your own angles, for your own team and kind of trying to tell your own story throughout the game. And it sounds like that is in some way being taken away.

I'm curious from your standpoint, Jody, as a sideline reporter, you know, Stephen, Stephen Bobber is certainly going to have their challenges as well. But this has got to be difficult for you. I mean, your job is to, you know, be down on the field close to players and interviewing them. And, you know, when they have a jug of water poured down on them, you'd probably get a little bit of that yourself and suddenly so many of those things are are seemingly being taken away. What have you heard so far about how Fox Sports Arizona is planning to pull off this very ambitious task of televising these games?

Well, that is another great question. And the thing is, we haven't been told a lot yet because I think a lot of that is still being formulated. I do, I think a lot of it I've assumed. I assume I will not be anywhere near the players. I assume, you know, the good news for me is that, you know, and as you know, Jesse from watching the broadcast is that even though on the road, you know, Todd and I are down by the dugout and we are down there doing sideline reports

at the visiting stadiums and that we do an on-field interview. But at home, we are really, either in the press box or out on the set. And if we're reporting, we can do it remotely, like not by the dugout. It's kind of changed over the years. We can do it. We've done it by the dugout. And then there's other times we have told stories along with Mark Grayson,

Brandon Webb, during the broadcast with the guys just from wherever location that we are. So, again, we haven't had it all completely mapped out, but there's a lot that I assume, which is that, yes, I'm not going to be down there. I am going to miss that. But, you know, again, is it going to come back next year? Is it going to come back the year after? I mean, I would hope once we get this virus under control that many of the really cool aspects of the broadcast that we've sort of, you know, and it's funny because, you know, we always try to come up with new and different ways to cover the team and creative ways.

And a lot of that is like location and things. And we kind of really, I'm so lucky to work with a group that we really dive into that every year and come up with new things. And we were doing that in March. We were doing that in February. And now it's kind of like, well, Josh, we just want to cover the team. You know, we just, it's necessitated to just go back to like 101 of covering a team, which is able to ask questions somewhere, you know, on a Zoom call or whatever it is. So it's going to be weird. It's going to be different.

But like everything in life right now, it's just figuring out the way to do the most basic things. And for us, it's going to be asking the questions of what happened in the game. And, you know, and doing that via the means that the media relations department is able to do that, which I believe is going to be Zoom calls or something. And it's kind of fuel-influx. I'm not really an expert on this. I actually had a couple conversations the last few days with people at work. But I think there are people that are really working hard on this probably since March, to be honest.

And they just haven't divulged at all to us, you know, officially. But I know we're going to have the games. I know Stephen Bob are going to call them. I know Todd and I are going to be doing pre-imposed game shows with Mark Grace and Brandon Webb. And how that all gets done. You know, and I know we're going to be in an area. My understanding is, you know, away from the players and that. that sort of staff that is on the low, the low level of the stadium there, meaning the field level.

And I don't, I think it's, you know, I think that's smart too, right? Because, you know, we, you have to kind of have the minimum amount of people that, that can be in a space, right? So if we can do our drop from other places, then we're going to do it. I think no one knows the answer to. I think once we see the broadcast, it's going to be really a learning experience of it feels how it sounds. It's going to sound so different.

It's going to look different with, you know, no fans and all of that. But we're really hopeful that, and I know so many people that I've just heard in my small sampling of, you know, friends and social media fans, which I guess fans aren't really a small sampling, but people miss it. People want to see the games. They want to see the players play. And we just have to go without some of the other things right now. And, you know, people want to be in the building watching, but that can't happen.

and we just have to go with what we can do. And you're right. There's a lot. It is ambitious because our crew, also in the truck, how that's going to work. I don't really know. Again, something that people are really working diligently because safety is number one. And I know they're going to do everything they can keep our crew safe and still put on a broadcast. And I think those are the things.

that are all going to be determined in the next couple weeks. Last question here for you, Jody. I know you tweeted about this just a few days ago. I thought it was funny. June 25th, back in 2010, was, of course, the day of Edwin Jackson's pretty bizarre no-hitter against the Tampa Bay Rays. I know you were there. You interviewed him after the fact.

It was a really strange no-hitter. He threw almost 150 pitches. I believe he had more walks than strikeouts. not exactly your prototypical no-hitter, but nonetheless, it went in the record books as as that. And I'm curious, just what were your recollections of that day and your experience interviewing him after that happened? Yeah, it was a really weird day, and I was pretty new to covering the team on the road.

I had been doing it a short time, and, you know, I'm there just figuring all of that out. and then kind of in the middle of the game. And I'm like, he's got no hits, but he's wild. You know, he's just, and you don't know whether to be like, okay, this is really cool or, gosh, take him out. And I know A.J. Hinch really struggled, I think, internally over that. And any player wants to finish a no-hitter, but for Edwin Jackson, only he probably really knows what it was like after throwing 149 pitches. A lot of people say that affected him down the road. And so at the end of the day, I mean, I'm standing there, and I'm thinking, okay, here we are at Chropicana Field, and he's thrown a no-hitter.

And this season's not going very well for the debacks. But, you know, you have to celebrate it. It's an accomplishment. It's in the history books. It's a no-hitter. And it was fun. And it was the celebration. I remember sending my cameraman, they wouldn't let me in, but I sent the cameraman in there to get the video of everyone's brain in with champagne and all that.

So that was a cool shot that I actually haven't been able to find on the internet, but I would love to see it again. And so, yeah, I mean, it was a neat moment for him, but I know there was a little bit of just, I don't want to say, like a dark cloud over it, but just with, you know, I know A.J. struggled. I think what's, you know, what to do. And I know in hindsight, a lot of people have said, well, I wouldn't have let him go continue. And it shows you how in 10 years in the game, I think the game has changed to the point that I think a lot of people wouldn't. I've let him continue. Yeah. Not saying AJ did the wrong thing, but it's, that's, I know now looking 10 years later

that there are, I mean, a lot of managers would have taken him out of the game. But, you know, it was, it was wacky and wild. And I know he was excited to, anytime you can, if you can, you know, as you have a career and you can accomplish that, you want to do that and you want to be able to lift up your team in a special moment. And he did that. And so I'll ever forget it. It was a fun night.

And, uh, but definitely a crazy thing. And I never got to talk to Edwin about it. Actually, in spring, I was still pretty knee deep in hockey coverage. And I was about to get really revved up on March, uh, what was it? 11th or 12, uh, getting out to Saul. And, uh, and then we know what happens. So, um, and now everyone, uh, yeah, he's not with the debacks currently. but yeah it was a crazy one you remember that i'm sure as a debaq fan you remember seeing that

oh yeah yep yep i was an avid watcher back in 2010 so that was that was a big i think it was actually on my brother's birthday uh because yeah june 25th is my brother's birthday and we got home that night after celebrating or something and we realized that edwin jackson had thrown a no hitter and you know you look at the stats and it's like oh my he had seven walks after three innings but, you know, baseball's a crazy sport that way, and things can certainly change in a hurry. It totally is. It's just another example of what a crazy game.

Another funny thing is, if you hear the calls in that game, it was Louis Gonzalez. So we kind of joke with Mark Grace. Gonzo was filling in for Mark Grace. And I'm like, oh, yeah, great. You remember that? No hitter you missed? Yeah.

He's like, oh, yeah, Gonzo was on that one. So it's a random trivia moment. Yeah. Fun memories for sure. Well, Jody, this has been a lot of fun having you on. We really appreciate your time today, and we wish you all the best here in a few weeks as we hopefully have some baseball to talk about.

Yeah, thanks, Jesse. I know you're looking forward to it as well, and we can't wait to have the games back on Fox Sports, Arizona. So we're certainly glad to see baseball coming back.