The Royals-Yankees TBS broadcast was obsessed with George Brett

In case you haven't heard, George Brett was at the American League Divisional Series matchup between the Kansas Royals and New York Yankees on Monday night.

Of course, if you watched the game on TBS, you already know.

With much at stake in the Game 2 showdown and the Royals looking to stop the Yankees from taking a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series, TBS' broadcast seemed strangely focused on the Focus on Brett's presence. The first mention of the living Royals legend came early in the fourth inning when Bob Costas noticed Brett celebrating Salvador Perez's solo home run, tying the game 1-1.

“George Brett and his wife Leslie, the greatest player in Royals history, are now part of their front office and cheering on his team,” Costas said during a replay of the Hall of Fame third baseman's celebration.

Two pitches later, the broadcast refocused on Brett, who was watching the game from a suite at Yankee Stadium.

“You know, look at George Brett, the calendar, the biography doesn't lie, he's in his 70s now,” Costas said. “But he still has the enthusiasm of a rookie. He just loves being at the game. He's a ballplayer. He will be a baseball player until the day he leaves this mortal coil. Loves hanging around batting practice, he’s one of them.”

“He seems to have the same energy that I remembered him with in the '90s,” added analyst Ron Darling.

“And as great as he was in the regular season – .300-plus lifetime batting average, batting titles in three different decades, '70s, '80s and '90s,” Costas continued before being interrupted by a single from Yuli Gurriel.

Costas failed to immediately complete his point, which probably affected Brett's outstanding postseason play. But lest you worry that the TBS broadcast would forget about Brett, that clearly wasn't the case, because an inning later, Costas speculated about the possibility of current Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. winning an MVP in the near future would.

“The only MVP in Royals history is George Brett in 1980, when he hit .390 and was over .400 in September,” Costas explained as the broadcast returned to the focus on the 71-year-old in his suite. “There he is again. Second place in the American League MVP voting, in addition to the year he won it.”

Costas then returned to the conversation that had been interrupted an inning earlier.

“And when you talk about great postseason performers, George Brett in the postseason — and he was in a lot of them and when he played, it was only the LCS and the World Series if you made it that far — .337 with 10 Home runs in October,” he said.

As Costas and Darling pitched the bottom of the seventh inning, the TBS broadcast went back to Brett as Costas waxed poetic about the 1976 ALCS matchup between the Royals and Yankees. And along the way, the network's postgame show brought up the 13-time All-Star – albeit more passively than Costas and Darling did throughout the game.

TBS' Brett-centric show didn't go unnoticed by viewers, many of whom took to social media to say some variation of “enough already.” It's also worth noting that Brett was brought up so many times that he managed to trend on social media – a rarity considering a Monday Night Football A match between the Kansas City Chiefs also took place at the same time.

Costas will share stories from George Brett in the next hour

— Eric Hubbs (@BarstoolHubbs) October 8, 2024

No one:

Bob Costas: George Brett

– Kyle (@knicks_tape99) October 8, 2024

Has anyone else heard that George Brett is at the Royals-Yankees game tonight? pic.twitter.com/SZlCTU2ij2

— DraftKings (@DraftKings) October 8, 2024

The player who got the most airtime and the most discussion in tonight's Royals-Yankees playoff game on TBS thanks to Bob Costas?

Not Aaron Judge. Not Bobby Witt Jr., not Cole Ragans. Not Juan Soto.

It was George Brett.

And that's no exaggeration.

— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) October 8, 2024

Hey Costas, I don't need to hear about George Brett's career stats, he doesn't play

— David Rifkin (@davidrifkin) October 8, 2024

Try this every time George Brett is mentioned

– des (@desireeloyola) October 8, 2024

Hearing rumors that George Brett is at the stadium

— Desus MF Nice💯 (@desusnice) October 8, 2024

While it would have been perfectly fine to mention Brett once – frankly, it would have been strange not to include his presence in the stadium – Costas and his crew clearly did it one (or two or three) times too often. And it's more than understandable that fans of the teams playing (especially the Yankees) would rather focus on the game at hand than relive the 1970s.

Conversely, Costas' extensive wealth of knowledge is part of his charm. But given the amount of criticism the board-centric broadcast received on Monday night, it will be interesting to see if he changes course or embraces it during Game 3 on Wednesday.

(TBS)