Cheers to the new MLB Network as it showed right away on Opening Day (Night) that it will capture and retain a lot of baseball fans every night throughout the season. For those of us that love ESPN Baseball Tonight, the MLB Network's MLB Tonight won't shock anyone by being different than ESPN, but it will make it seem like Baseball Tonight is on live for hour after hour. It's a dream come true, especially for those of us baseball fans who grew up in an era when radio was the dominant source for live baseball and only a fraction of the games were televised.
Meanwhile, Fox-TV gets its Saturday Game of the Week package underway this Saturday (4/11), and again this year will have a game every Saturday. Most weeks the telecasts will start at 4 PM ET, with certain weeks moved ahead 1/2 hour due to NASCAR telecast schedules.
2009 MLB on FOX tentative REGULAR SEASON BROADCAST SCHEDULE
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Boston Red Sox at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox
Houston Astros at St. Louis Cardinals
Saturday, April 18, 2009 (*3:30 PM ET)
Cleveland Indians at New York Yankees
St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs
Colorado Rockies at Los Angeles Dodgers
Saturday, April 25, 2009
New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox
Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals
Saturday, May 2, 2009 (*3:30 PM ET)
New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies
Houston Astros at Atlanta Braves
Cleveland Indians at Detroit Tigers
Saturday, May 9, 2009 (*3:30 PM ET)
Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox
Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies
San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers
Saturday, May 16, 2009
New York Mets at San Francisco Giants
Cleveland Indians at Tampa Bay Rays
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Texas Rangers
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Philadelphia Phillies at New York Yankees
Texas Rangers at Houston Astros
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Los Angeles Dodgers at Chicago Cubs
Atlanta Braves at Arizona Diamondbacks
Minnesota Twins at Tampa Bay Rays
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Philadelphia Phillies at Los Angeles Dodgers
Cleveland Indians at Chicago White Sox
Minnesota Twins at Seattle Mariners
Saturday, June 13, 2009
New York Mets at New York Yankees
St. Louis Cardinals at Cleveland Indians
Chicago White Sox at Milwaukee Brewers
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Tampa Bay Rays at New York Mets
Los Angeles Dodgers at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Milwaukee Brewers at Detroit Tigers
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Boston Red Sox at Atlanta Braves
Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Arizona Diamondbacks
Saturday, July 4, 2009
New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies
Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins
Oakland Athletics at Cleveland Indians
Saturday, July 11, 2009
New York Yankees at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs
Saturday, July 18, 2009
New York Mets at Atlanta Braves
Baltimore Orioles at Chicago White Sox
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Oakland Athletics
Saturday, July 25, 2009
St. Louis Cardinals at Philadelphia Phillies
Minnesota Twins at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers
Saturday, August 1, 2009
New York Yankees at Chicago White Sox
Los Angeles Dodgers at Atlanta Braves
Houston Astros at St. Louis Cardinals
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees
Texas Rangers at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves
Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona Diamondbacks
Cleveland Indians at Minnesota Twins
Saturday, August 22, 2009
New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox
Chicago Cubs at Los Angeles Dodgers
Saturday, August 29, 2009
New York Mets at Chicago Cubs
Tampa Bay Rays at Detroit Tigers
Houston Astros at Arizona Diamondbacks
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Boston Red Sox at Chicago White Sox
Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians
San Francisco Giants at Milwaukee Brewers
Saturday, September 12, 2009
New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies
Chicago White Sox at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Atlanta Braves at St. Louis Cardinals
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals
Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins
San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers
Saturday, September 26, 2009
TBA*
Saturday, October 3, 2009
TBA*
NEW YORK - No word yet about the future of ousted WNBC-TV Sportscaster Len Berman, being forced out this month after nearly 25 years with the station. Also no word yet about whether Channel 4 will continue with a regular sports segment or not on its newscasts. I'll keep saying this. These local TV stations cutting out their sports segments are making a mistake if they want ratings from the male audience.
These stations are really telling the "casual" sports fan to tune over to a local or regional cable sports channel and/or to ESPN to get scores and highlights. I'm betting they will - and will do so INSTEAD of watching the local news. There are nights when I would rather get local highlights and headlines in a 4 minute segment than sit through a half hour of sports news that doesn't excite me in order to see the highlights important to me.
Meanwhile, telecast regulations take effect this coming Saturday (4/11) when the Mets fans won't be able to see most of the first hour of their game at Florida. Fox-TV has the exclusive window until 7 PM ET, and the Marlins start their game this Saturday vs. the Mets at 6:05 PM ET. SNY will have to join the game in progress. The game is not scheduled to be televised locally, so it is only Mets fans who are effected by this.
The best idea to work around this is probably the one used by Comcast SportsNet Chicago last season when faced with the same situation for a White Sox telecast. They provided details on the bottom ticker until the telecast started, in progress, almost an hour into the game. Then, right after the game and the post-game coverage was over, they immediately replayed the entire game from start to finish.
SEATTLE: It started on Monday (4/6) when KIRO 710 went all sports on Opening Day to also kick off the return of Mariners broadcasts. The station is carrying ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike Show live starting at 3 AM.
It will be interesting to see how KIRO does with Mariners and Seahawks play-by-play and a heavy dose of ESPN programming against KJR continuing with a lot of locally originated sports talk. While a lot of "major league" markets already support two or more sports stations, Seattle does not have teams in all 4 major pro sports. KJR does carry University of Washington football and basketball, giving it a play-by-play edge with hoops during the first quarter.
SAN DIEGO: Seeing an opportunity, KSWB Channel 5 is adding a regularly scheduled sportscast to its 10 PM Newscast beginning Monday May 4, and has hired Ross Shimabuku from a Phoenix station to handle the duties. The station's "Game On" 15 minute weekend sports recaps will continue at 10:45 PM each Saturday and Sunday with Troy Hirsch remaining as host. XETV Channel 6, which is no longer the local Fox-TV affiliate, had dropped sportscasts last month.
TAMPA: WFLA Channel 8 has laid off sportscaster Dave Reynolds in a cost cutting move. Reynolds reportedly was given the news during a workday just after returning from covering a press conference.
BIRMINGHAM - As of this week, the Atlanta Braves still do not have a Birmingham station carrying its broadcasts. This sort of thing is where the impact of the big signal major market stations not carrying the games has its impact. Had this been years ago when the Braves were always on WSB, this wouldn't have been an issue, as fans could have received the WSB signal most nights. Now, they are stuck unless they subscribe to XM. WJOX will continue to carry ESPN Radio's baseball broadcasts locally.
LITTLE ROCK - The Sports Animal 920 AM made its debut this past Monday (4/6) including the Shawn & Wally Show from 4 to 7 PM. Otherwise, it will be syndicated fare including Jim Rome and Dan Patrick along with Fox Sports programming.
On the TV side Fox Sports Southwest Plus has offered cable providers in Northwest Arkansas a baseball package including 50 Kansas City Royals telecasts, in addition to more than 100 St. Louis Cardinals games and about 15 Houston Astros telecasts for this season. They are scrambling to get the Royals telecasts in place in time for the coming weekend. This is finally being done even though Kansas City is the closest MLB franchise to Northwest Arkansas. In addition, the Royals now have a AA minor league team in Springdale, Arkansas. There is also now an agreement in place to show the 50 Royals games in parts of Oklahoma in addition to a Cardinals package.
SIOUX FALLS: KSOO 99.1 becomes an ESPN sports station beginning on Monday (4/13), except for a local afternoon show. However, the local show, co-hosted by Brad Peterson and University of South Dakota play-by-play voice Warren Swain, is scheduled to air only from 3 to 5 PM.
Believe it or not, this will give Sioux City two sports stations. KWSN 1230, which dropped ESPN programming last month, has now decided to carry Fox Sports Radio. KWSN will continue its assortment of regional play-by-play including the Minnesota Wild hockey games and Minnesota Vikings football. The station will also keep a local late afternoon show hosted by John Gaskins.
BLOOMINGTON/NORMAL - Plenty of regional MLB games will be available on Comcast cable in these twin central Illinois cities, but it will actually not be quite as many as it could be. In addition to White Sox and Cubs telecasts, the cable system will carry 110 St. Louis Cardinals games. Sounds good, except that the package is for 130 games. Fox Sports reportedly offers the 20 "additional" games to cable systems for an additional cost to help cover production costs.
Huh? So by Comcast Bloomington not carrying these games, Fox doesn't get its "production costs" fee, yet they are showing the games in St. Louis and some other markets anyway. I wish these cable companies and teams would realize that us fans pay a lot of money for cable TV and that we shouldn't miss out on programming that is available.
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