Troy Benjamin living a baseball dream as YES Network producer

NEW YORK -- Troy Benjamin never played or coached for the Yankees, but he impacts an important part of the day-to-day operation with his skills behind the scenes.

Benjamin is the lead TV producer for Yankees games that appear on the YES Network. It's a role he has had since 2021. Benjamin has been with YES since its inception in 2002. During his 22 years at the station, he’s earned 34 New York Emmy Award nominations, winning nine of them.

This has been a dream job for Benjamin, a native of Harlem, N.Y., who grew up a Yankees fan in the 1980s and early ’90s.

“I'm extremely blessed, and fortunate to be in the position that I am,” Benjamin said during an interview with MLB.com in recognition of Black History Month. “When you are around your friends and family, then you realize, 'Hey, I accomplished something great here.'

"They knew me as a young kid when I loved the Yankees. So, when you are around your peers that you grew up with, ... sometimes I say, ‘Hey, maybe I am lucky in some ways because I get to do what I love to do.'”

Benjamin has taken his love for baseball and transferred it to a terrific TV career. His knowledge of the Bronx Bombers has impacted the fan experience when watching a Yankees telecast -- Benjamin introduced numerous industry firsts and other features to the games.

Among them are a variety of innovative graphic packages that provide home-plate umpires’ strike zone tendencies, outfielders’ arm strength, pitch sequences, pitch types and bullpen availability.

“I’ve seen a lot of accolades about [the umpires’ strike zone tendencies],” lead television announcer Michael Kay said. “I think that is so invaluable. ... I think it’s a great idea. It tells you what the home-plate umpire is like. What does he call? Does that fit the way the pitcher pitches? It’s just amazingly good.”

Benjamin credited his ability to think on a broader scale to his boss, John J. Filippelli, the president of production and programming, whose willingness to put resources into the telecasts has made a world of difference.

Aaron Judge’s home run chase is one example. The broadcast had extra cameras in Toronto’s Rogers Centre, because Benjamin wanted to get Patty Judge’s reaction after her son tied Roger Maris’ single-season home run mark of 61, which had been the American League record until Judge hit 62 in 2022.

“Anything that we needed in that aspect, ‘Flip’ had our backs with it because he wanted to cover the event with the best,” Benjamin said. “We were ready for anything. With the support from management, it was great during that time.”

Born in Antigua in the Caribbean, Benjamin was a cricket fan and played the game regularly as a kid. When he was 10, his family moved to Harlem, N.Y. Baseball was the closest thing to cricket, so at the suggestion of his mother, Naomi Carr, Benjamin started to follow the Yankees. He was soon hooked.

As he grew older, Benjamin had dreams of becoming a sports talk radio host or sports reporter. He went to West Virginia University to study broadcast journalism and was a runner whenever TV stations came to the campus. He saw how the TV trucks operated.

“As a kid, you don’t know these jobs exist,” Benjamin said. “You can see a newspaper writer. You see a TV anchor. You see a radio host. You go to college and you start discovering you can be a camera guy and other things.”

After graduating, Benjamin started his career as a production assistant at WWOR-TV in Secaucus, N.J., working closely with sports anchor Russ Salzberg. Benjamin then went to MSG Network and ABC Sports in the same role, and he joined YES in '02 as a production assistant.

Benjamin moved up the ranks, becoming an associate director on YES’ Yankees and Nets game telecasts. By 2009, he was producing Nets games, Yankees pregame and postgame shows, as well as college basketball and football game telecasts.

“I’ve been at YES from Day 1," Benjamin said. "I worked my way up the ladder -- big time. I’m a lifer here. I love this place. I want to be great at this job.”

Kay noted the joy that Benjamin brings to his work -- at a job that “he has wanted to do his whole life.”

“From the time he was a little kid, he was a Yankee fan,” Kay said. “He just comes to work with an unbelievable attitude. It rubs off on all of us in the booth and in the truck as well.

“He has made me better because we are on the same wavelength and I trust him so much. He has this institutional knowledge of the Yankees the way I do. ... He never gives you bad information. We both grew up Yankees fans. We both know the history of the franchise because we lived it.”