Asheville – Cameron Maybin still grins on television — no longer after making a hit as a major league baseball player, but instead when analyzing games as a television announcer.
Maybin, 35, graduated from T.C. Roberson in 2005. He was the 10th overall draft pick that summer. He is the WNC player drafted highest ever. He swung with exceptionally quick wrists for power as a 6-foot-3 teen. He entered the draft that included college players rated by Baseball America as the most promising outfielder and third-best hitter. Maybin was the second high school player picked, after Justin Upton. Maybin also targeted collegiate players Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Braun, and Troy Tulowitzki, just ahead of Andrew McCutcheon and Jay Bruce, and well ahead of Jacoby Ellsbury.
Maybin retired on Jan. 3 after 15 seasons with seven franchises. That leaves WNC’s reigning MLB player as Smoky Mountain High School alumnus Cal Raleigh, 25, a Seattle catcher with 14 homers so far in ’22.
Maybin batted .254 in his career. Best of all, the swift outfielder stole 187 bases, including 40 in 2011, 33 in ‘17 and at least 23 other times. In more than three-quarters of the attempts, he was safe. He hit .315 with a 383 on-base percentage for the Tigers in 2016.
A year later, he landed with the Houston Astros en route to a World Series triumph. He soon after told the Tribune it felt “exciting” and “humbling” to finally become a champion after a decade without reaching the playoffs. “My experience there was definitely different,” he recently told Emmy-winning Yankee announcing colleague Michael Kay. Houston was rising, a “team transitioning up. Starting to win. Understanding how to catch up; how to win.”
Maybin made a good impression as a Yankee in 2019, batting .285 with a career-best 11 homers in equivalency of a half-season.
That inevitably helped him land his job covering the Yankees in about 40 (mostly road) games — a fourth of a season — for the YES Network. Yes, the nation’s most-watched regional sports network for two decades. Veteran Kay does the play-by-play. His cohorts in-game and post-game include Maybin and/or fellow retired NYY players Paul O’Neill and David Cone.
The Marquee Sports Network soon thereafter hired Maybin as an analyst on the Chicago Cubs’ pre-game and post-game shows, not in-game. Maybin played for the Cubbies briefly in 2020 and then some for the N.Y. Mets last season. New York and Chicago are two of the largest TV markets.
As either a pre-game analyst or in-game color commentator, Maybin has to prepare for the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing team’s starting pitchers, key relievers, and star hitters. He tracks their recent trends. He has to blend prepared comments with off-the-cuff remarks.
He has to overcome technical difficulties. The other day, Kay and O’Neill were distracted by a temporary glitch, resulting in hearing their own voices echoing loudly in their headsets. O’Neill stammered.
Maybin’s bonus as an announcer is his exuberance from his playing days. “My wife (Courtney) says, ‘It’s not always about what you say. It’s about the energy in it,” he told Michael Kay. Kay is also enthusiastic. He is famous for enthusiastically saying “See ya!” whenever a Yankee hits a home run. Kay tweeted that Maybin was “incredible” auditioning in a preseason game… He was a natural… he is going to be a TV star. Yes, he’s that good.”
YES Network studio analyst Jack Curry wrote on Facebook, “Cameron Maybin was a delightful personality when he played for the Yankees in 2019. Cameron will now share that personality and his insight…”
Maybin made his mark with various observations. During a mid-July NYY victory, he clued viewers into why promising but erratic Yankee infielder Gleyber Torres sometimes does not fully run out groundouts. “I think that’s more of a frustrated swing. Ball (hittable) out in the middle of the plate, and Gleyber pulling off,” he said in his style of partial sentence phrasing. “You know, he just wanted to get something going for his team. When you see his mechanics break down and when he’s good, we’ve seen him going (opposite field for greater bat control) to right-center and right field—driving the ball. Right here, he’s just doing a little too much in pulling off.”
Maybin underscored the importance after New York stormed from behind to defeat another super-hitting American League East power-Toronto. “Winning games in your division is crucial… also for confidence when guys are scuffling. It keeps the confidence going. It keeps the morale high. And it keeps the energy up.”
Struggling reliever Aroldis Chapman, the former closer, had a good outing. “They need Chappy to be that guy” so the team can “rely on him to make the big outs,” Maybin said urgently. Maybin uses colorful phrases. He said new closer Clay Holmes “throws 97 mph ‘bowling balls’ out there.” The positive encourager also praised starting pitcher Jameson Taillon for “getting out of that first inning,” allowing only one run, ending that rally and settling in for the victory.
Kay cues Maybin when they sit beside each other simply by looking at him while talking to him, then stops talking. Maybin often gestures with his hands while speaking on-air.
Maybin also passes on life lessons. As a guest on the MLB cable network’s hit show MLB Tonight on May 1, he said how “character goes a long way, boys and girls. Remember that. Be a good teammate. It works!”