Couch Potatoes Gear Up For A Full Season Of Diamond Fun
Labor peace for the first time since 1992.
What a relief!
Interleague play, like it or not.
What a concept!
For the first time, more than 1,000 games will be televised by Fox on its broadcast and cable networks alone; add to that those games on ESPN, TBS, and WGN.
What choices!
More former players will join familiar voices on the broadcasts and on the screen; make way for more graphics.
What a sensory overload!
The Red Sox-Mets game at Shea on Sunday, June 15, will be ESPN’s interleague opener. Fox will regionalize several interleague games on Saturday afternoons.
The new players on the field are Fox’s national and regional cable arms, which will air weeknight games: Monday nights on FX and Thursday nights on Fox Sports Net.
Chip Caray and Steve Lyons, Fox’s Saturday studio hosts, will moonlight in the booth as the No. 1 cable broadcast team. Another newcomer to Fox’s coverage will be Rob Dibble, the former Reds reliever, who will co-host a cable pregame show.
Fox Sports Net also will carry the first out-of-market telecast of an interleague game on Thursday, June 12. East Coast fans will see the Giants at Rangers; fans on the West Coast can watch the Mariners host the Rockies.
Nationally, ESPN’s 86-game, regular-season schedule begins on Tuesday, opening day, with a triple-header: White Sox at Blue Jays at 1 p.m., Cubs at Marlins at 4 p.m. and Yankees at Mariners at 8 p.m.
ESPN then settles in to its Wednesday night doubleheaders and Sunday night games, featuring Jon Miller and analyst Joe Morgan, in their eighth season together.
Fox, which begins its second season of Saturday afternoon games beginning May 31, will televise the All-Star Game from Cleveland, the American League Championship Series and up to five division series games.
NBC has the rights to the World Series, the National League Championship Series and two or three division series games.
As for the bells and whistles, ESPN plans to display a running box score every three innings, a score box with illustrated runners (a concept Fox debuted last season) and pitch speed. Fox is continuing its spray charts, hot and cold zones and audio enhancements, and is experimenting with more cameras, including one on the goalie-style catchers’ masks.
And what would a baseball story be without some friction? There’s already some static between TBS, which will televise 125 regular-season Braves games nationally, and ESPN.
Fans in Atlanta won’t see Tuesday’s season opener of the N.L. champs against the Astros. They’ll have to watch the Yankees - who beat the Braves in the World Series - on ESPN because the 24-hour sports network, which has exclusivity on that night, won’t allow a local or regional station to carry the game.