The second annual All-MLB Weekend presented by MGM Rewards is taking place in Las Vegas, highlighted by the All-MLB Awards Show on Thursday night . Comedian Roy Wood Jr. is back to host for a second straight year as the program brings current baseball stars and former legends together to celebrate the season and those who exceled. And with an incredible year in the rearview, capped by a spectacular World Series, there's plenty of good vibes.
Wood, a lifelong baseball fan himself, spoke to about hosting the unique event, how the sport helped him find his comedic voice and what he hopes the annual event can become.
Sports Illustrated: What's your personal history with baseball? What's it meant to your life?
Roy Wood Jr.: I started playing Little League like most kids about first grade or so and just never left it. I got cut my freshman year of high school and still stayed on to be an equipment manager for varsity just so I could watch. Just so I could see if Let me watch them and then maybe that will get me better. It did not get me better but it is where I developed my sense of humor.
SI: Why do you say that? Just being in the dugout with the guys or what?
RW: Yeah, you know man, growing up in the 90s heckling was a form of art. I would literally sit and think of angles all day in class. We would then walk to the field that night or that evening and just yell them. So the objective became to make the opposing parents laugh or to get the umpire to break. If you got the umpire to break then that's the same as a standing ovation at Radio City. It had to be really insane. We would talk about your car, your clothes. We would talk about parents. It didn't matter. We were trying to win, so I need you angry at me so you swing at this slider outside.
But also my father did a radio show with Ernie Banks for some years in Chicago in the 70s. Coming home from school and all of that, it was nothing for the Cubs to just be on. And in those days in the South‚ in Birmingham, Cubs and Braves was all you're getting. You can root for whomever else you want but you ain't going to see them until they play the Cubs or the Braves. That became, to a degree, the thing that was always on in the background of my childhood. I just fell in love with the sport. As I got older and started doing standup, I've always just been pretty open with my baseball fandom.
SI: When you're getting to hang out with the players who are the top of the sport, do you go back and think about what it would mean to the kid who was cut in high school or had the game on in the background? How do you go about putting a show on together with guys?
RW: Baseball was the one thing that I could always come back to. Calm. Peace. I use it as a tool to help teach my son how to deal with failure. It's something that we use to grow closer. To be trusted by Major League Baseball to host the night where the best players from that year are honored while the best players from yesteryear are in attendance, I have to pinch myself. Like, I met and had drinks with Fred McGriff. Then turned around and walked on stage and did a joke about him only having 493 home runs and then turned and saw Fred McGriff laughing.
Because these are the people who have brought me so much joy, there's an air of reciprocity in it. I remember owning a Sports Illustrated For Kids in 1989 that had Ken Griffey Jr. on the cover. I'm performing for the men whose batting stances I imitated. Gary Sheffield is going to be there. Everyone was doing that bat flip. Him and Julio Franco, those were my two over-the-head batting stance guys. Baseball, I think separate and apart from a lot of other sports, baseball is a very specific fraternity of people who only deal with folks who get it. I honestly do not feel like this is the type of award show that anyone could do. You have to have a legitimate appreciation for what has been accomplished. And have a little know-how about it. In terms of meaningful gigs that I have hosted, it's top of the list, even more so than the White House Correspondents Dinner. I think the big difference was that this is a night of love, appreciation and revelry. I'm not going to roast everybody and do a bunch of mean jokes. We're going to celebrate.
SI: Athletes aren't together in a big group like this very frequently. This being in the offseason, with the competition in the past, I would imagine you could feel that fraternity you mentioned.
RW: Yeah, and it felt like that last year. Bartolo Colon is hanging out with Ronald Acuna. Where else would you see that unless Colon was at a Mets-Braves game where he's being honored for something. And even then, Ronald's mind is on preparing for the game. It's interesting because this isn't something that's been done often by Major League Baseball. To even attempt something like this and have players agreeing to come out and kick it is cool. If you're going to get Mookie Betts in the room, then make it worthwhile. The fact that Mookie is there and I get to have a quick conversation with him about almost having his left arm ripped off at Yankee Stadiu. There's nowhere else we can sit as a baseball family and reflect and laugh about the season while paying tribute to a lot of players who busted their ass this year.
SI: How does prepping for something like this and the writing process compare to the White House Correspondents Dinner?
RW: It's very simple. The Correspondents Dinner is a critique of the people in the room. All-MLB is a celebration of the people in the room. Once you start from that magnetic north, everything that you do after that is all in a celebratory place. It really is about wanting the players to loosen up a bit and also trust me. The job title of comedian carries a lot of preconceived assumptions. To just hold the job title of comedian and host doesn't mean you're going to be trusted out there. To be able to come back Year 2 means I did something right. What I really hope for awards to come is that the players themselves all want to come out and hang out. Let that be their bar after the season. Let it be a proper week of hanging out and playing golf with your buddies. Even if you don't come to the show, just come be in Vegas. See a lot of your friends and treat it like that pizza party at the end of the school year.
SI: Or like that travel ball coach who has his crew under a gazebo in the park, breaking it all down.
RW: Right. That last week at the end of the season when you're at a Golden Corral getting trophies. As it grows I really believe this event is going to be the place for current players and veterans to all sit and just feel the love that they have for each other. Let it be the thing other players see and think they missed out on.