[Déjà Bru]

Here is a smile for you, perhaps. From The Athletic:

Yankees announcers biggest fear? Turning Cam Schlittler’s name into an expletive on air

By Brendan Kuty



HOUSTON — For YES Network broadcaster Ryan Ruocco, it was going to be another quick recap, a way to get viewers up to speed as the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox dragged into the bottom of the 11th inning Saturday. With one out and the Yankees ahead, 5-2, Ruocco gathered his thoughts. Then Schlit happened.

“This game, started by Cam S— … sh, sh … Schlittler,” he said.

He let out a light, knowing laugh, and continued.

“Bound to happen one time.”

The foul-mouthed flub — which lasted mere seconds in a game that ran three hours and 13 minutes — was what Yankees announcers told The Athletic was the inevitable outcome after weeks of worry among them.

They figured that one day, one of them would simply try to pronounce the name of the most impressive Yankees rookie pitcher in years, only to instead utter a curse word in front of baseball’s largest audience — and for a clip of the embarrassing moment to be recycled endlessly on social media.

“It’s a name fraught with peril,” YES’ lead play-by-play announcer Michael Kay said.

“Had to happen eventually,” said Dave Sims, Yankees play-by-player for WFAN.

As of Wednesday evening, a post from the “Talkin’ Yanks” podcast of Ruocco’s mistake on X had racked up 155,600 views.

For Schlittler, it was nothing new. The 24-year-old righty, who has put up a sparkling 2.61 ERA and a 2-2 record in nine starts since debuting July 9, has been dealing with people mispronouncing his name all his life. He said most people miss one of the L’s in his last name, which is German, leading to “Schitler” or “Schlitter.”

He said he hadn’t heard the clip of Ruocco stumbling over it, but he didn’t mind the miscue. Growing up in Walpole, Mass., most people got it wrong the first time, and his friends don’t even try anymore. To those close to him, and to most in the Yankees’ clubhouse, he’s simply “Schlit.”

To pitching coach Matt Blake, he’s Cam or “Schlit Dawg.” Reliever David Bednar had difficulty pronouncing his last name, too, first saying “Schitler” when asked how he would pronounce it earlier this week.

“It’s just a tough last name,” Schlittler said.

Despite Schlittler’s graciousness, Yankees broadcasters know he has a chance to be around for a long time, with his 100 mph fastball and unflinching confidence on the mound. They know they have to get it right, every time.

They all have their own techniques. Kay said he’s “really careful.” He likes to pause before saying Schlittler, but prefers to “stay away from it as much as I can.” He has used Schlittler’s full name upon first reference, and then he’s gone with a smattering of “Cam” and “the big right-hander,” which he admitted feels a little too cliche at times.

“I figure the more times you say Schlittler,” Kay said, “the better chance you have of messing it up.”

Ruocco agreed. He said that when he does NBA games, he prefers to use Giannis instead of Antetokounmpo when referring to the Milwaukee Bucks star to guard against stumbling over it or breaking up “the flow of the way you’re calling a play.”

Growing up in Philadelphia in the 1960s, Sims recalls watching ads for Schlitz Beer, and he uses it as a cue when pronouncing Schlittler.

“You just take the extra effort to move your tongue over your teeth and — boom! — there it is,” he said.

It also helps to move quickly past any mistakes, Sims said.

“(Longtime NFL broadcaster) Don Criqui once told me, ‘Hey, it’s already out to Pluto, nothing you can do about it. Move on,'” Sims said.

YES Network Yankees clubhouse reporter Meredith Marakovits said she just tries not to get “too much in your head” before saying Schlittler. But she also walked over to Schlittler on his first day with the team and apologized in advance.

“I’m really sorry,” Marakovits told him, “I know I’m going to say your name wrong at some point in time.”

Marakovits remembered Schlittler looking back at her and smiling.

“You wouldn’t be the first one,” he said.

For WFAN analyst Suzyn Waldman, it’s about concentration. She said she hasn’t struggled with his name yet, and that she only mispronounces names “if I don’t know who they are.”

“Watch,” she said, “I’ll probably do it today.”

Ruocco had prepared extensively to say Schlittler. He said that the “Schl” part of his name “isn’t an easy, roll-off-the-tongue one.”

“With the letters around it, if it doesn’t roll off your tongue, you land in s—, quite literally,” he said. “It’s definitely a name that I’ve had to be more conscious of than any other that I can remember during my time calling Yankees games.”

All of the announcers said they have battled with pronouncing various names over the years. But none of them came with the added risk of accidentally cursing at an audience with a sizable number of teens and children, Kay said. The Federal Communications Commission threatens penalties for on-air profanity, but it determines “how (its) rules apply” to specific instances depending on the nature of the content, the time of day it aired and context, according to its website.

Ruocco does like the idea of taking risks, though, pointing to a call that referenced the name of the “Fudd Around And Find Out” podcast by UConn women’s basketball star Azzi Fudd.

On the night of his Schlittler stumble, he had actually punctuated the end of the sixth inning with, “Quality Schlit from Cam!”

It wasn’t off the cuff. Ruocco had been thinking about ways to make a pun using Schlittler’s name, wanting it to capture the moment without being over the top. He thought about it for a while and considered using “Filthy Schlit” or “Nasty Schilt” if Schlittler finished the frame with a strikeout. But since Chicago’s Will Robertson flew out to end it, Ruocco changed it up.

Was the pun perhaps still on Ruocco’s mind when he botched Schlittler’s name later in the broadcast? Maybe, he said.

He recalled a time, years ago, when Jimmy Rollins tied Mike Schmidt’s Philadelphia Phillies franchise hits record, and he accidentally said “Mike S—” instead of Schmidt on the air because he had accidentally been saying it that way while rehearsing in his office earlier in the night.

More than a decade later, he stepped in it again.

To Ruocco — and the rest of the Yankees announcers — it’s about getting past the “Schl” in Schlittler, and then they’re home free.

“And if you screw up, guess what it’s going to be?” Ruocco said. “It’s going to be s—.”