Major League Baseball on TBS

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future events. It may contain information of a tentative nature and the content may change dramatically as the event approaches and more information becomes available.

Major League Baseball on TBS
Genre	Baseball
Starring	Chip Caray Tony Gwynn Ernie Johnson Jr. Cal Ripken Jr. (for more, see below)
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	3 hours
Broadcast
Original channel	TBS (2007-)
Original run	July 1, 2007 – Present

Major League Baseball on TBS is a broadcasting agreement between Major League Baseball and the Turner Broadcasting System to broadcast baseball via cable television nationwide, beginning in 2007.

Contents 1 The agreement 1.1 Coverage 1.2 Availability 1.3 League Championship Series 2 Announcers 3 See also 4 References

[edit] The agreement

TBS joins FOX and ESPN as national broadcast partners of Major League Baseball.

[edit] Coverage

Under an agreement signed on July 11, 2006, TBS earned exclusive rights to all Division Series playoff games, as well as rights to the All-Star Selection Show held in late June or early July, beginning in 2007. A national Sunday afternoon baseball package is also part of the deal, starting in 2008. The Sunday games will not be exclusive to TBS and will be blacked out in local markets (an alternate game is currently scheduled to be offered). TBS does not currently have a high-definition feed, and has not announced plans to create one, but the creation of one seems likely in the near future.

TBS will also be able to air any tie-breaker games for divisional or wild card championships. Should multiple tie-breaking games be played, or if multiple Division Series game are scheduled at the same time, those additional games would air on TBS’ sister station, TNT. This part of the deal started immediately, with possible 2006 tiebreakers on TBS, although there were none. This means that the first telecast from TBS' new baseball package will be the 2007 All-Star Selection Show.

[edit] Availability

It is believed that playoff games on TBS may not be made available to local over-the-air broadcasters in the participating team's markets, as is the case with TNT's NBA coverage. However, no final decision has yet been made (which teams make the playoffs seems likely to affect the decision).

[edit] League Championship Series

On October 17, 2006, TBS agreed to a seven year agreement with Major League Baseball to broadcast the National League Championship Series and American League Championship Series in alternating years from 2007 to 2013. TBS will have the NLCS in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013 and the ALCS in 2008, 2010 and 2012. As part of another deal reached earlier this summer, FOX will continue to broadcast the ALCS, in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013, and the NLCS, in 2008, 2010 and 2012.

[edit] Announcers

On January 28, 2007, TBS' executive producer Jeff Behnke said that Chip Caray "is definitely going to be TBS' lead play-by-play announcer for division series and LCS games."^[1]. On April 5, 2007, TBS announced that joining Caray in the lead booth will be Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, who has experience in broadcasting with ESPN and the San Diego Padres.^[2]

It has also been confirmed that Joe Simpson will be a part of postseason coverage, but it is not known what capacity he will serve.

Also on April 5, 2007, TBS announced that the studio team for it's baseball coverage (beginning with the All-Star Game Selection Show on July 1) will be Inside the NBA host Ernie Johnson Jr. along with the other member of the 2007 Baseball Hall of Fame class, Cal Ripken Jr.^[3]

It is still not known if they will add another analyst to the studio show whether current player or coach this postseason or full time analyst next season. It is also yet to be known what the name of the pregame show will be.

• Chip Caray: Play-by-play
• Tony Gwynn: Game Analyst
• Ernie Johnson Jr.: Studio Host
• Cal Ripken Jr.: Studio Analyst
• Joe Simpson: Analyst

[edit] See also

• Braves TBS Baseball
• Major League Baseball on FOX
• ESPN Major League Baseball
• List of American League Championship Series broadcasters
• List of National League Championship Series broadcasters

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.ajc.com/search/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/01/27/0128sportsbiz.html
2. ^ http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-ripkengwynn&prov=ap&type=lgns
3. ^ http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-ripkengwynn&prov=ap&type=lgns

• Press Release: MLB, FOX, and Turner reach new television agreements
• Press Release: TBS signs on to air LCS games

Major League Baseball on national television
Contract history: Sports television broadcast contracts | Major League Baseball television contracts
Broadcast partners: ABC | CBS | ESPN | FOX | NBC | TBS | USA | The Baseball Network | Baseball Channel
General media: World Series television ratings | Major League Baseball Game of the Week | Cable television | Monday Night Baseball | ESPN DayGame | Wednesday Night Baseball | Thursday Night Baseball | Sunday Night Baseball | Broadcasting firsts | Telecasts technology
Broadcasters by event: World Series | American League Championship Series | National League Championship Series | All-Star Game | American League Division Series | National League Division Series