Red Sox manager criticizes ESPN for very surprising reason

If the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are playing a weekend series, you can be almost certain that their Sunday game is going to be the nationally televised night game on ESPN.

That is the case this weekend, with the two teams set to play Sunday's primetime game for the second week in a row, this time from Fenway Park in Boston.

It might get annoying for baseball fans who do not cheer for the Yankees or Red Sox.

It is also starting to annoy at least one person connected with those teams – Red Sox manager Alex Cora.

"I think it's too much sometimes. Back-to-back Sunday night games, with all due respect to ESPN, come on," Cora said this weekend, via Jen McCaffery of The Athletic. "There's other teams out there and people want to watch them."

The only thing ESPN -- or any network televising games -- cares about is ratings and they know the Yankees and Red Sox are going to do major ratings. The franchises have two of the biggest fanbases in the league, have nationwide appeal and (given the nature of their longstanding rivalry) their fans are going to flock to those games. 

But there is also some truth to the idea that Major League Baseball should want other teams and players under the lights. 

Whether it be established stars like Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout on an Angels team that might actually compete for a playoff spot or young emerging stars like Julio Rodriguez with the Seattle Mariners or Elly De La Cruz with a rapidly improving Cincinnati Reds team. 

Those teams and players see some airtime, but everybody knows they are taking a backseat to the Yankees and Red Sox when they take the field, even if they are no longer among the league's elite teams.

It is just a little strange to hear somebody associated with the teams, themselves, not welcome that spotlight.