The Baseball Network

The list of dates for Baseball Night in America on ABC and NBC respectively for the 1994[96][97][98][99][100][12] and 1995[101][102] seasons.

After the All-Star Game was complete,[103] ABC took over coverage with what was to be their weekly slate of games.[104] ABC was scheduled to televise six[105] regular season games on Saturdays[106] or Mondays[107] in prime time. NBC[108][109] would then pick up where ABC left off by televising six more regular season Friday night[110][111][112] games. Every Baseball Night in America game was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (or 8 p.m. Pacific Time if the game occurred on the West Coast[113]). A single starting time gave the networks the opportunity to broadcast one game and then, simultaneously, cut to another game when there was a break in action.

The networks had exclusive rights for the twelve regular season dates, in that no regional or national cable service (such as ESPN or superstations like Chicago's WGN-TV[114] or Atlanta's WTBS) or over-the-air[115] broadcaster was allowed[116] to telecast a Major League Baseball game on those dates. Baseball Night in America[117] (which premiered[118] on July 16, 1994) usually aired up to fourteen games[119] based on the viewers' region (affiliates chose games of local interest to carry) as opposed to a traditional coast-to-coast format.[120] Normally, announcers who represented each of the teams playing in the respective games were paired with each other. More specifically, on regional Saturday night broadcasts and all non-"national" broadcasts, TBN let the two lead announcers from the opposing teams call the games involving their teams together.

Games involving either of the two Canadian-based MLB teams at the time, the Toronto Blue Jays and Montreal Expos, were not always included in the Baseball Night in America package. Canadian rightsholders were allowed to broadcast the games. When TSN (which owned the cable rights to the Blue Jays and Expos) covered the games in Canada, they re-broadcast the BNIA feed across their network. Typically, if the Blue Jays were idle for the day, the Expos would be featured on TSN. Also, CBET (the CBC affiliate in Windsor, Ontario) would air Blue Jays games if the Detroit Tigers were not playing at home that night or if the Blue Jays were scheduled to play in Detroit. Whether or not the game would air in the opposing team's market would depend on which time zone they were from, or if they shared a market with another team.

All of the 1994 games aired on ABC; due to the strike[121][122] NBC was unable[123] to air its slate of games, which were supposed to begin on August 26.[124][125]

Hi everyone, and welcome to Baseball Night in America, I'm Al Michaels. And those of us at ABC are delighted to be back in the business of broadcasting baseball for the first time since the 1989 World Series. And it's a brand new concept, we'll have six[126] regular season games on ABC, including tonight and again on Monday night. Then, we'll bring you the Division playoffs in October, part of baseball's new expanded playoff format, and the World Series[127] in late October. Baseball Night in America, a regionalized[128] concept, you'll see a game in your region that's important to those of you in those particular areas. It also gives us the capability of updating games as never before. So sit back, relax and enjoy the premiere of Baseball Night in America as we take you out to the ballgames.

— ABC's Al Michaels on site at Seattle's Kingdome on the premiere broadcast of Baseball Night in America on July 16, 1994.

In even-numbered years, NBC would have the rights to the All-Star Game and both League Championship Series while ABC would have the World Series[129] and newly created Division Series.[130][131] In odd-numbered years, the postseason and All-Star Game[132] television rights were supposed to alternate. When ABC and NBC last covered baseball together from 1976 to 1989, ABC had the rights to the World Series in odd-numbered years while NBC would cover the All-Star Game and both League Championship Series in said years. Likewise, this process would alternate in even numbered years, with ABC getting the All-Star Game[133][134] and both League Championship Series in years that NBC had the World Series.[135]

The networks also promised not to begin any World Series weekend broadcasts after 7:20 p.m. Eastern Time.[136] When CBS held the television rights, postseason games routinely aired on the East Coast at 8:30 p.m. at the earliest. This meant that Joe Carter's dramatic World Series clinching home run in 1993 occurred after midnight in the East. As CBS' baseball coverage progressed, the network dropped the 8 p.m. pregame coverage (in favor of airing sitcoms such as Evening Shade) before finally starting its coverage at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The first pitch would generally arrive at approximately 8:45 p.m.

ABC won the rights to the first dibs at the World Series in August 1993 after ABC Sports president Dennis Swanson won a coin toss[137][138] by calling "heads." Ken Schanzer,[139] who was the CEO of The Baseball Network, handled the coin toss. Schanzer agreed to the coin toss by ABC and NBC at the outset as the means of determining the order in which they would divide up the playoffs.

What separated The Baseball Network from previous television deals with Major League Baseball, and was by far the most controversial part of the deal, was that not all postseason games (aside from the World Series) were guaranteed to be shown nationally.[140][141][142][143] To increase viewership by preventing games from being played in the afternoon (the league was the only professional sports league in the country to play postseason games on weekday afternoons), the National League and American League's division and championship series games were instead played simultaneously[144] in primetime, and affiliates could only air one game each night, which were again determined regionally.[145][146] If one playoff series had already concluded, the remaining games would be aired nationally.[147]

Ken Schanzer, The Baseball Network's president[148] said "We've been given a responsibility to broadcast the games regionally[149] and, within that context, we tried to come up with a plan that makes it as exciting as possible". On that end, The Baseball Network implemented a strategy that included cutting in to one game with highlights from other games—sometimes between batters, and more often, between pitches. Therefore, viewers watching one divisional series or League Championship Series game would often see action continuing on one reduced screen while a clip from another game is shown on another screen and vice versa. The theory was that by inserting highlights, even live action from other games, into the natural lulls, The Baseball Network could produce an exciting, technology-enhanced experience. Despite the frustration of not being able to see both League Championship Series on a national level, the 1995 LCS averaged a 13.1 rating.[150]

Besides the 1994 All-Star Game and Game 6 of the 1995 World Series,[151] arguably, the most famous Baseball Network broadcast was Game 5 of the 1995 American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners,[152] broadcast on ABC.[153] It ended with the Mariners winning in 11 innings (via Edgar Martínez's game winning double), to clinch both their first postseason series win, and their first ever trip to the American League Championship Series. However, because the public would only be permitted to see one postseason game per day, the Division Series between the Mariners and Yankees would only be seen in its entirety by 20% of the country.[154] Meanwhile, 30% could see the Braves-Rockies series, 27% could see the Reds-Dodgers series, and 23% could see the Red Sox-Indians series.[155]

For example, in New York City, WNBC-TV broadcast the first two games of the Yankees-Mariners series, while WABC-TV aired the final three contests. In the neighboring Hartford–New Haven television market in Connecticut, NBC affiliate WVIT aired the first two games of the Boston–Cleveland series, but ABC station WTNH would alternate with the Yankees in Game 3, the Red Sox in Game 4, and the Yankees in Game 5.

In Ohio, NBC stations in Cleveland, Steubenville, Columbus, Toledo, and Youngstown would get to see the Red Sox–Indians series. Viewers of WLWT in Cincinnati and all other cities would receive the Reds–Dodgers series. The remaining telecasts, on WSYX, the ABC affiliate in Columbus, would be of the Indians series. In South Dakota, viewers would get the Braves-Rockies series, while North Dakotans would have access to the Red Sox-Indians series. Only about 20%[156] of the country in itself, had access of the 15-inning long second game of the Mariners-Yankees series.

A major problem with Baseball Night in America[157] was the idea that viewers could not watch "important" games. Marty Noble put it in perspective by saying "With the Network determining when games will begin and which games are made available to which TV markets, Major League Baseball can conduct parts of its pennant races in relative secrecy." What added to the troubles of The Baseball Network was the fact that Baseball Night in America held exclusivity[158] over every market. This most severely impacted markets with two teams, specifically New York City (Mets[159] and Yankees), the Greater Los Angeles Area (Dodgers and Angels), Chicago[160] (Cubs and White Sox), the San Francisco Bay Area (Giants and A's), and to a lesser extent, the state of Texas[161] (Houston Astros and Texas Rangers). For example, if Baseball Night in America showed a Yankees game, this meant that nobody in New York could see that night's Mets game and vice versa.

Furthermore, Chicago's NBC affiliate, WMAQ-TV was unable to televise any Friday night Cubs game from Wrigley Field.[162] Even though Wrigley Field had lights installed and was capable of holding night games since 1988, a city ordinance at the time, prohibited regular season Friday and Saturday night games to be played there. The Baseball Network regardless, owned the broadcasting rights to those entire dates.

Things got so bad for The Baseball Network that even local broadcasters objected to its operations. KSMO-TV in Kansas City, the primary over-the-air station for the Kansas City Royals, went as far as to sue the Royals for breach of contract resulting from their broadcasts being "overexposed" and violating its territorial exclusivity. Worse yet, even if a market had only one team, the ABC or NBC affiliate could still not broadcast that team's game if the start time was not appropriate for the time zone. For example, if the Detroit Tigers (the only team in their market) played a road game in Seattle, Oakland[163] or Anaheim[164] beginning at 8 p.m. Pacific Time (a late game), Detroit's Baseball Network affiliate (either WXYZ-TV or WDIV, depending on the network which held the rights to the game) could not air the game because the start time was too late for the Detroit area (11 p.m. Eastern Time[165]). Detroit viewers only had the option of viewing the early game of the night.

Sports Illustrated columnist Tom Verducci for one, was very harsh on The Baseball Network, dubbing it both "America's regional pastime" and an "abomination." ABC Sports president Dennis Swanson,[166] in announcing the dissolution of The Baseball Network, said "The fact of the matter is, Major League Baseball seems incapable at this point in time, of living with any long term relationships, whether it's with fans, with players, with the political community in Washington, with the advertising community here in Manhattan, or with its TV partners."[167]

While on assignment at the 1993 World Series, CBS Sports broadcaster Sean McDonough told the New York Times[168] that The Baseball Network's strategy of regionalizing the playoffs irked him because with both League Championship Series now being played simultaneously, no market would be able see both games; rather, the two playoff series would be regionalized into areas of natural interest. The only exception would be Games 6 and 7 of the two series, which would have staggered starting times. McDonough said that certainly didn't account for people who move. McDonough added that if a Boston native like him moved to Atlanta and the Red Sox were in the playoffs (which would incidentally, actually happen under the watch of The Baseball Network in 1995), then it was too bad. He also believed that his call of Sid Bream's slide to clinch the National League pennant for the Atlanta Braves in Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, wouldn't have had the impact if you couldn't see the whole game, to see what led up to it. To put things into further perspective, McDonough believed that even with a staggered starting time from the American League Championship Series game, many fans would not have seen parts of Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS had it been broadcast under The Baseball Network's regionalized plan.

Shortly after the start of the strike, Stanford University's Roger Noll[169] argued that the Baseball Network deal (and the bargain-basement ESPN cable renewal, which went from $100 million to $42 million because of their losses) reflected "poor business judgment on the part of management about the long-run attractiveness of their product to national broadcasters." He added that the $140 million that owners expected to share for the 1994 season (before the strike) from TBN was underestimated by "one-third to one-half" and fell below the annual average of $165 million needed to renew the TBN deal after two years. Meanwhile, Andy Zimbalist, author of Baseball and Billions, and a players' union consulting economist, insisted that baseball could have done better than the TBN deal with some combination of CBS (which offered $120 million last-ditch bid for renewal), Fox and TBS. Baseball shut out CBS and could have waited longer before closing them out."

Five years after The Baseball Network dissolved, NBC Sports play-by-play announcer Bob Costas[170] wrote in his book Fair Ball: A Fan's Case for Baseball[171] that The Baseball Network was "stupid and an abomination." Costas further wrote that the agreement involving the World Series being the only instance of The Baseball Network broadcasting a nationally televised game was an unprecedented surrender of prestige, as well as a slap to all serious fans. He also acknowledged that the most impassioned fans in baseball were now prevented[172] from watching many of the playoff games that they wanted to see, as all playoff games had been broadcast nationally[173] for decades. Costas added that both the divisional series and the League Championship Series now merited scarcely higher priority than regional coverage provided for a Big Ten football game between Wisconsin and Michigan. When Costas was preparing call the 1995 American League Division Series between Boston-Cleveland for NBC, he told the New York Times that "It's baseball's objective to market itself nationally, but TBN makes it a local sport." Costas added "Baseball says the wild card is supposed to save baseball, but TBN shows you as little as possible."

According to Curt Smith's book, The Voice – Mel Allen's Untold Story, the longtime New York Yankees broadcaster and This Week in Baseball host was quoted as saying "You wonder how anything would be worse [than CBS]. What kind of show cancels a twenty-six-week-season's first fourteen weeks?"[174] (in response to TBN's tagline, "Welcome to the Show"[175][176]).

During the 1995 Division Series, the fan frustration with The Baseball Network was so bad that the mere mention of it during the Mariners–Yankees ALDS from public address announcer Tom Hutyler at Seattle's Kingdome brought boos[177] from most of the crowd. To further put things into perspective, 55%[178] of the country was able to get the American League Championship Series (Cleveland-Seattle) while 45% got the National League Championship Series (Atlanta-Cincinnati) for at least the first two games on ABC.

While ABC and NBC would provide some production personnel and their own announcers[179][180] for the games,[181][182] all of would be coordinated from the office of Ken Schanzer,[183][184][185] the chief executive officer of The Baseball Network and former executive vice president for NBC Sports. The graphics, camera placements, and audio quality were intended on looking and sounding about the same on both networks.

When critiquing The Baseball Network's coverage of the 1995 postseason, Jerry Trecker of the Hartford Courant wrote[186] that the broadcasts suffered from having too many men in the booth, sloppy camera work, and a lack of consistency in graphics. Trecker also felt that the ABC and NBC crews during the World Series, spent too much time in story-telling and not enough in nuts-and-bolts game setup. Instead, the coverage according to Trecker, proceeded as if fans have followed the game with the same attention as in the past. As for the graphics, Trecker argued that not only were the game graphics provided by The Baseball Network not there all the time as was the case with ESPN's, but it was too big.

Trecker would however, praise ABC's production of the 1995 All-Star Game[187] in Arlington. He said that the broadcast crew of Al Michaels, Jim Palmer, and Tim McCarver paced their broadcast as if they had never been away, and the different looks, especially ground level cameras, had always been a trademark of effective work by ABC. ABC also according to him, made effective use of graphics to recap season leaders. ABC Sports' technical coverage as a whole, included[188] 21 cameras from all vantage points, including one in the Goodyear Blimp, and an unmanned camera directly above home plate. Coaches would wear wireless microphones.

Trecker did however, point out that times, the broadcasters seemed to be ahead of the production people, especially when they wanted to talk about Raul Mondesi's speed getting to a drive into the right field corner. They never showed it. Trecker also believed that ABC's usage of dugout reporters (in this case, Lesley Visser, John Saunders, and Rick Dempsey), even in showcase games like the All-Star Game, was overkill. Visser in particular, was singled out for asked such lengthy questions of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo that it was almost farcical when his answers came back in translation.

For the 1995 World Series,[189] ABC and NBC shared 17 cameras and 13 tape machines, two of the "Super Slo-Mo" variety.

Among the key sponsors for The Baseball Network were Anheuser-Busch,[190] MCI Inc.,[191] Sherwin-Williams,[192] Texaco,[193] and Russell Athletic. The sponsorship with Anheuser-Busch in particular, was worth over $20 million for two years with an option of a third. Budweiser was announced as the presenter during the starting line-up were announcements during The Baseball Network's telecasts. According to Busch Media president Tony Ponturo, Anheuser-Busch liked The Baseball Network's idea of broadcasting games, including the Division Series and League Championship Series regionally instead of to the entire nation all at once.

Other sponsors for The Baseball Network included Gillette,[194] Avis (who paid The Baseball Network approximately $6.5 million[195]), Chevrolet, Fruit of the Loom, Gatorade,[196] General Motors[197] (who was expected to pay The Baseball Network at least $40 million), Upper Deck, and Toyota.[198] Chevrolet in particular, sponsored the "player of the game" award that would be announced towards the end of the telecasts.

All in all, The Baseball Network was said[199] to have more than 20 corporate sponsors and advertisers. In the event of a strike, these sponsors either had the option of taking back the money that they otherwise, would've used to support The Baseball Network and be able to spend it elsewhere or, they would've been able to delay any spending on baseball telecasts until the strike was resolved. At the time of the actual strike's start on August 12, 1994, The Baseball Network was reportedly able to sell approximately $130 million in advertisement time. Unfortunately, about $100 million of that was expected to run through the entire postseason, including the World Series, which would ultimately be canceled on September 14, 1994.

In the end, the venture lost US$95 million in advertising[231] and nearly $500 million[232] in national and local spending. The Baseball Network generated only about $5.5 million per team in revenue for each of the two years that it operated. To put things into proper perspective, in 1993 alone, CBS generated about $14.7 million per team. Much of this could possibly be traced back to the strike causing a huge drop in revenue, which in return caused baseball salaries to decrease by approximately $140,000 on average in 1995.

Both ABC and NBC soon publicly vowed to cut all ties with Major League Baseball for the remainder of the 20th century,[233][234] and Fox[235][236] signed on to be the exclusive network carrier of Major League Baseball regular season games in 1996.[237] However, NBC backtracked and kept a postseason-only schedule — with the exception of even-numbered years when NBC had the rights to the All-Star Game — signing a deal to carry three Division Series games, one of the League Championship Series (the ALCS in even numbered years and the NLCS in odd numbered years; Fox televised the other LCS in said years), and the 1997[238] and 1999 World Series respectively (Fox had exclusive rights to the 1996, 1998 and 2000 World Series). Beginning in 2001, Fox became the exclusive broadcast network for the World Series.

Fox's end of the new contract[239] (which the network paid US$575 million for the initial five-year contract) restored the Saturday afternoon Game of the Week broadcasts[240] during the regular season (approximately 16 weekly telecasts annually that normally began on Memorial Day weekend), although it continued to offer a selection of games based on region, with usually three regionalized telecasts airing each week.[241][242]

With ABC[243] being sold to The Walt Disney Company in 1996, ESPN picked up daytime and late-evening Division Series games with a provision similar to its National Football League games, in which the games would only air on network affiliates in the local markets of the two participating teams. ESPN's Major League Baseball contract was not affected then, but would take a hit in 1998 with the new National Football League contract. It was rumored that ABC would only offer Major League Baseball about $10 to $15 million less per year than what CBS[110] was reportedly willing to offer for the 1996 season. At the time, it was reported that Major League Baseball was expecting a combined total of over $900 million in rights fees from two networks.

In 2012, Fox would revive the Baseball Night in America title (previously used for The Baseball Network's games) for a series of Saturday night games.[244] Unlike The Baseball Network, Fox did not carry every game that was scheduled for a given Saturday, only choosing five to six games to distribute to its affiliates.

As far as the primary announce teams for The Baseball Network were concerned, they mostly went their separate ways. Al Michaels remained at ABC until 2006 (his final assignment for ABC Sports was Super Bowl XL), when he moved to NBC to become the voice of their Sunday night NFL coverage. Tim McCarver joined Fox as its primary analyst alongside Joe Buck and stayed there until his retirement from national television broadcasts in 2013. Jim Palmer, meanwhile, would rejoin the Orioles as their television analyst, where he still remains.

NBC's primary crew remained in place for two more years. Bob Uecker would leave following the 1997 World Series, but Bob Costas and Joe Morgan would continue calling games until NBC's contract expired following the 2000 season. The network's final game at the time, was Game 6 of the 2000 American League Championship Series. Major League Baseball coverage would ultimately return to NBC in 2022 via a deal with the network's streaming service, Peacock. The first game of the agreement, between the Chicago White Sox and the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park was broadcast nationally on NBC — the first since 2000.

Costas has since become the lead broadcaster for MLB Network (as previously alluded towards, MLB Network's self-produced, live MLB Showcase telecasts could be seen as a spiritual successor to The Baseball Network's broadcasts), while Morgan kept working for ESPN until the end of the 2010 season.

On July 8, 2011, Al Michaels and Bob Costas teamed up (with the two announcers alternating between play-by-play and color commentary) to call a game between the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants on MLB Network.[245] It was Michaels' first appearance as a primary announcer on a baseball telecast since Game 5 of the 1995 World Series on ABC (as previously mentioned, Michaels had called Games 1,[246] 4 and 5 of that series with Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver, while Costas called Games 2, 3 and 6 with Joe Morgan and Bob Uecker[247] for NBC). Michaels and Costas also made appearances on SportsNet New York and Comcast SportsNet Bay Area during the game's middle innings, since the MLB Network broadcast was blacked out in the Mets' and Giants' respective home markets.

On September 28, 2020, it was announced that ABC would carry at least four Wild Card Series games for the expanded 2020 Major League Baseball postseason. Produced by ESPN, they marked ABC's first national MLB broadcasts since 1995.[248] And then on July 7, 2021, ESPN announced that a Sunday Night Baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, scheduled for August 8[249] from Wrigley Field would air[250] exclusively on ABC.[251] This was the first regular season Major League Baseball game to be aired on ABC since August 19, 1995.[252] It was also announced[253] that Al Michaels,[254] would join in on the broadcast via FaceTime during the fourth inning.

1995 American League Division Series:

Oh man, oh man, Tony Peña on 3 and 0! Sends everybody home! Tony Peña spells good night! And this team that won 27 games in its final at-bat, that had 48 come-from-behind wins, that was 13–0 in extra inning games...did all those things...when Tony Peña connected.

— Bob Costas, calling the walk-off home run by Tony Peña in Game 1, Cleveland vs. Boston.

(before the pitch) The fans want a dinger out of him...This one by Mattingly, OH HANG ON TO THE ROOF...GOODBYE, HOME RUN! DON MATTINGLY!!!

— Gary Thorne after Don Mattingly's only playoff home run in his last game at Yankee Stadium.

Oh yeah, tie game, Paul O'Neill, GOODBYE into the night of New York!!!!

— Gary Thorne calling Paul O'Neill's game-tying home run off Norm Charlton in Game 2 vs. Mariners.

No balls and a strike to Martinez. Line drive, we are tied! Griffey is coming around! In the corner is Bernie! He's going to try and score! Here's the division championship! Mariners win it, Mariners win it!!!

— Brent Musburger calling the series-winning double by Edgar Martínez.

1995 National League Division Series:

The Braves a strike away from advancing..a half swing and they'll go to Cincinnati for the National League Championship Series.

— Al Michaels, calling the final out, Atlanta vs. Colorado.

1995 American League Championship Series:

The Cleveland Indians, after a 41-year wait, are in the World Series.

— Bob Costas

1995 National League Championship Series:

Wohlers looks...and the strike two pitch to Sanders...a swing and a miss! And the Atlanta Braves have won the 1995 National League pennant! And as you can imagine the celebration begins, down on the natural surface of this ballpark...

— NBC's Greg Gumbel.

1995 World Series:

Back to Georgia!

— Al Michaels calling the final out of Game 5 as the Cleveland Indians won the game; Bob Costas also said this four years later when the New York Mets won Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS.

Dave Justice, all is forgiven in Atlanta.

— Bob Costas after Justice's Game 6 home run which would prove the deciding run.

Left-center field...Grissom, on the run...the team of the '90s has its World Championship![295]

— Bob Costas calling the final out in Game 6.[296]