Photo courtesy of Fox Sports
Burkhardt said he’s fortunate to have taken the path he did, which is certainly different from Fox colleagues like Joe Buck and Kenny Albert who got big-time broadcasting gigs in their 20s. “Growing up listening to him on the radio and then getting to work with him was just really special,” Burkhardt said. “And we became really tight. We became really good friends.”
“If you’re looking at it from the sense of could you be happy doing the Mets job for 30 years? Me in that role, no, I don’t think I could’ve done that for 30 years.,” he said. “I enjoyed the hell out of it. I thought it was a great job, it was a dream job. But that physically and mentally wears you down, that baseball grind. It just does. And for some people, they love it. I loved a lot of it, but I didn’t love the grind.
As Burkhardt was beginning to feel a bit burnt out from the full-time baseball grind, the last year of Burkhardt’s contract with SNY was in 2014 and the wheels were already in motion for a full-time departure to Fox. “All he cares about is making sure the show’s good. He could care less about himself,” Shah-Rais said. “He’s really good at balancing everything that’s going on without the viewer at home knowing what’s going on in his ear.”Fox Sports/Frank Micelotta/Anthony Washington
“He’s gonna take you for who you are,” Davis said. “And if you turn out to be a jerk or whatever, I’m sure he’s not gonna suffer that fool very gladly. But if you’re meeting him where you’re supposed to, piece of cake. And I’m tellin’ you, there’s not a better person in this business than Kevin Burkhardt.”
The secret to balancing both play-by-play and studio duties, Burkhardt and Macheska agreed, is taking no shortcuts when you prepare for a broadcast.