On Friday, New York Mets star Juan Soto broke his career-high for home runs in a season in the team’s 12-6 win over the Washington Nationals. But it was how he did it, and in particular how SNY, the Mets broadcast network, covered his milestone home run that was arguably more notable.
Those familiar with Mets broadcasts on SNY know that the organization gives fans a bit of a different experience watching games, which particularly comes from SNY director John DeMarsico, who frequently tries out unique camera angles and references to movies throughout each broadcast that give viewers a far more cinematic viewing experience than your standard baseball game.
Perhaps the best instance of DeMarsico’s cinematic vision came to light came in the bottom of the fourth inning of Friday’s game, during Soto’s third at-bat of the night. In between pitches after the count went to 2-1 in the at-bat, the Mets broadcast zoomed in on a toy Mets apple that someone in the stands was rubbing, seemingly alluding to some kind of magic genie in a bottle, perhaps trying to summon Soto’s 42nd home run of the season.
Moments later, a camera shot of the Mets Home Run Apple in center field was shown on the broadcast before quickly returning back to the field to show the next pitch of Soto’s at-bat.
And like clockwork, Soto took Nationals reliever P.J. Poulin deep for his 42nd home run, which inexplicably happened to land just short of the Home Run Apple.
I mean this is easily a top 5 sports cinematic sequence of all time pic.twitter.com/0sncmbRzAs https://t.co/NqP4bxySfs
— anthony (@HoodieAlonso) September 20, 2025
Obviously, it was merely a stroke of excellent luck for not only the home run to be hit on the very next pitch, but for the hit to go out to the Home Run Apple in center field.
But it just goes to show that when cinematic transitions work, they truly play out exceptionally.
What makes it even more exceptional is seeing how the entire moment was put together behind the scenes, which luckily was released publicly by the SNY Mets X account.
Go inside the SNY truck for Juan Soto’s 42nd home run of the year… which was foretold by a fan’s home run apple 🍎 pic.twitter.com/c5m9eI4k2r
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) September 20, 2025
Naturally, Mets fans took notice of SNY’s perfectly timed shots right before Soto’s home run, singing the praises of the network for how things played out.
The fact that SNY showed a guy rubbing a mini HR apple, next pitch Soto hits it out. Emmy award winning kind of stuff #LFGM https://t.co/I28t8AhVYz
— TJ Festa (@TJ_Festa18) September 20, 2025
SNY showing the guy rubbing the apple bobble before the Soto home run 🤌
— McClutherness (Guardian of the High Galaxy) (@McClutherness) September 20, 2025
This is insane
— Kevin O’Connor (@KevinOConnor) September 20, 2025
Dawg @JohnDeMarsico Scorsese of baseball, https://t.co/mvH1J8hO4A
— Mugshot Randy Travis (@raspberry_bidet) September 20, 2025
