From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sunday Night Baseball
Sunday Night Baseball
Sunday Night Baseball to join New York City’s WCBS-TV and CBS Sports in June
2006.[2] On July 2, 2006 Bonnie Bernstein joined the crew
Format Sports as the new field reporter, but did not return in 2007 pri-
Starring Dan Shulman marily due to her request to cut back her schedule be-
Orel Hershiser cause of her continued recovery from a bout with deep
Terry Francona vein thrombosis in October 2006. Beginning in 2006,
Buster Olney
Peter Gammons joined the broadcasts as a field reporter
Wendi Nix
in the scouts position. Gammons, however, suffered a
Country of origin USA brain aneurysm and didn’t return until September
No. of seasons 20th Season 2006.[3]
In 2010, Miller and Morgan began their 21st consecu-
Production tive season working together for ESPN. Among U.S. net-
Running time variable (3 hours approximate) work television sportscasters, only Pat Summerall and
John Madden (who called NFL games for CBS and Fox
Broadcast
from 1981 to 2001) have had a similar length partnership
Original channel ESPN (1990-) in the booth. Following the 2010 season, ESPN announced
that the television contracts of Miller and Morgan would
Original run April 15, 1990 – Present
not be renewed.[4] Miller was offered, but chose to de-
Chronology cline, a continued role with ESPN Radio.[5]
Play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman joined color
Preceded by Baseball Tonight
commentators Hershiser and Bobby Valentine as the new
Followed by SportsCenter Sunday Night Baseball crew beginning in 2011.[6]In an es-
Related shows Monday Night Baseball sential trade deal, following the hiring of Valentine as the
Wednesday Night Baseball Boston Red Sox manager, his predecessor Terry Francona
was hired to join Shulman and Hershiser for the 2012 sea-
External links
son.[7]
Website
Sunday Night Baseball is the Major League Baseball exclu-
Features
sive game of the week that is televised Sunday nights at 8 The telecasts also utilize the K Zone, a computer-generat-
p.m. ET (or occasionally at 7 p.m. ET) on ESPN during the ed on-screen graphic that accurately outlines the strike
regular season. (The official name is ESPN’s Sunday Night zone and pitch location. A Skycam is also used; it is usual-
Baseball Presented by Taco Bell; previous presenting spon- ly mounted 20 feet above the stands in foul territory and
sors included Nextel and Bank of America.) travels back and forth along the first base line from be-
The games are preceded most weeks by the studio hind home plate to the foul pole.
show Baseball Tonight. Both Baseball Tonight and Sunday
Night Baseball are also televised in high definition on
ESPNHD. A few telecasts each season appear on ESPN2
Commentators
and ESPN2HD rather than ESPN due to conflicts with oth- A complete list of broadcasters, with their period of
er programming. tenure on the show (beginning years of each season
shown).
Brief history Current
The series debuted in 1990, and from its inception • Dan Shulman: (play-by-play, 2011–present)
through 2010 featured the broadcast team of play-by- • Orel Hershiser: (analyst, 2010–present)
play commentator Jon Miller and color commentator Joe • Terry Francona: (analyst, 2012–present)
Morgan. Steve Phillips joined them for the 2009 season, • Buster Olney: (field reporter, 2011–present)
and Orel Hershiser did so for the 2010 season following • Wendi Nix: (field reporter, 2011–present)
Phillips’ dismissal by the network.[1] From 2004 until
2006, Sam Ryan served as the field reporter, but she left
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sunday Night Baseball
Former dinals relief pitcher Josh Hancock was killed in a car ac-
cident earlier in the day at 12:35 A.M. while driving un-
• Bonnie Bernstein: (field reporter, July–September
der the influence. In place of the game, special program-
2006)
ming hosted by Miller and Morgan was shown. The game
• Peter Gammons: (field analyst, 2006–2008)
was later made up on September 10, 2007, where the Cubs
• Alvaro Martin: (field reporter, 2000–2001)
defeated the Cardinals 12–3, though the game was not
• Jon Miller: (play-by-play, 1990–2010)
broadcast as the Game of the Week.
• Joe Morgan: (analyst, 1990–2010)
On August 5, 2007, Tom Glavine of the New York Mets
• Steve Phillips: (analyst, 2009)
became the 23rd pitcher in history to record his 300th
• Sam Ryan: (field reporter, 2004–2006)
win. He did it in a 8–3 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
• Bobby Valentine: (analyst, 2011)
Sunday Night Baseball broadcasted the Washington
Nationals’ very first game at Nationals Park on March 30,
Notable games aired on Sunday 2008. The Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves, 3–2, on Ryan
Zimmerman’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the
Night Baseball ninth. President George W. Bush, who threw out the cere-
ESPN was on hand for the Cleveland Indians’ historic monial first pitch prior to the game, joined Jon Miller and
comeback against the Seattle Mariners on August 5, 2001. Joe Morgan in the ESPN booth during the telecast.
The Indians trailed 14–2 after six innings, but scored The final game played at Yankee Stadium on Septem-
twelve runs in the final three innings before winning ber 21, 2008, pitting the New York Yankees against the
in the bottom of the eleventh, 15–14. The twelve-run Baltimore Orioles, was broadcast on Sunday Night Baseball.
comeback tied the Major League record for largest deficit The Mariano Rivera 500th career save (and also his
overcome in a game. 1st lifetime RBI) was broadcasted on Sunday Night Baseball
On May 28, 2000, Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens from Citi Field (home of the New York Mets).
faced off in an epic pitchers duel at Yankee Stadium. During the May 1, 2011 broadcast between the New
Both pitchers threw complete games and combined for York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, ESPN announced the
22 strikeouts, 13 for Clemens, 9 for Martinez. The game death of Osama bin Laden at the end of the 8th inning. At
was scoreless until Trot Nixon hit a two run home run in the top of the 9th inning with 1 out and Daniel Murphy
the top of the ninth inning. Martinez then got the final at bat, fans at Citizens Bank Park erupted with U-S-A!
three outs in the bottom of the inning to secure the vic- chants despite not hearing the broadcast nor of the fact
tory. that no announcement of the news in the stadium.
On September 2, 2001, Mike Mussina of the New York On July 17, 2011, a game between the Boston Red Sox
Yankees came within one strike of a perfect game against and Tampa Bay Rays went scoreless into the 16th inning
the Boston Red Sox. The effort was broken up on a single before the Red Sox scored in the top of the inning, lead-
by Carl Everett, with Mussina settling for a one-hitter. ing to a 1-0 victory. This game was also notable for a foul
The game itself was an exciting pitchers’ duel, with the ball hit by the Rays’ Sean Rodriguez that hit and broke a
Red Sox’ David Cone also shutting out the Yankees for lamp in the catwalks of Tropicana Field. As the grounds
eight innings, before allowing an RBI double by Enrique crew cleaned up the broken glass that fell onto the field,
Wilson in the ninth. It was the only scoring of the Yan- the stadium PA system played the music from The Natur-
kees’ 1–0 win. Additionally, Cone was the most recent al.
pitcher to record a perfect game having done so 2 years
earlier as a Yankee against the Montreal Expos. History missed
Rafael Furcal completed an unassisted triple play for ESPN was scheduled to televise the game between the
the Atlanta Braves against the St. Louis Cardinals on Au- New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles from Oriole
gust 10, 2003. It was the 12th such play in baseball his- Park at Camden Yards on September 20, 1998. However,
tory. In the fifth inning, the shortstop caught pitcher 1998 was the first year of ESPN’s contract to air Sunday
Woody Williams’ liner with the runners moving in a hit Night Football through the entire season, as opposed to
and run attempt, stepped on second base to retire catch- the second half of the year as in previous years, and
er Mike Matheny and tagged Orlando Palmeiro before he the NFL games took precedence. ESPN sought permission
could return to first. from Major League Baseball to move the game, as well
On April 22, 2007, the Red Sox became the fifth team as two other late-season contests, to ESPN2, but Major
in Major League history to hit four consecutive home League Baseball denied the request (They had never ob-
runs, doing so in the third inning of a 7–6 victory over the jected when early season games were bumped to ESPN2
Yankees. by events such as the Women’s Final Four and the Stanley
On April 29, 2007, A canceled broadcast occurred be- Cup playoffs, perhaps because those are championship-
tween the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals when Car- deciding events). As such, ESPN missed televising the
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sunday Night Baseball
game where Orioles third baseman Cal Ripken, Jr. elected
to end his consecutive games played streak at 2,632.
Notes
Major League Baseball finally gave ESPN permission [1] http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/
to move the late season games in 2000, and ESPN contin- story?id=4965563
ued that practice until its loss of the Sunday night foot- [2] [1]
ball package to NBC at the end of the 2005 season. [3] "Gammons to make three in ESPN announcing
team". USA Today. March 5, 2006.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/
Other networks hiestand-tv/2006-03-05-hiestand_x.htm.
In addition to the game being on ESPN, ESPN Domingo de [4] Sandomir, Richard (November 8, 2010). "ESPN
Grandes Ligas (Major League Sunday) is also broadcast on Breaks Up ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ Team". The New
ESPN Deportes, the Spanish version of ESPN. On ESPN De- York Times. http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/
portes, Ernesto Jerez does play-by-play, former baseball 11/08/espn-breaks-up-sunday-night-baseball-
player Candy Maldonado is the color commentator, and team/?src=twt&twt=nytimesbats.
Guillermo Celis is the field reporter. This version is al- [5] Sandomir, Richard (2010-11-22). "Miller Declines
so presented on the Spanish feed of ESPN Latin America. ESPN’s Radio Offer". The New York Times.
The Brazilian feed, in Portuguese, has Everaldo Marques http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/sports/
doing the play-by-play and Paulo Antunes as the analyst. 23miller.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss.
They broadcast from ESPN Brasil studios in São Paulo. [6] Smetlz, Nate (2010-12-01). "ESPN’s Shulman,
ESPN Radio also has a weekly radio broadcast of Sun- Hershiser and Valentine Form New Sunday Night
day Night Baseball. Currently, Jon Sciambi calls play-by- Baseball Booth". ESPN MediaZone.
play on the ESPN Radio broadcasts. Sciambi succeeded http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2010/12/
Gary Thorne, who called the radio broadcasts in 2008-09; espn%E2%80%99s-shulman-hershiser-and-
Thorne, in turn, was preceded by Dan Shulman (2002–07) valentine-form-new-sunday-night-baseball-
and Charley Steiner (1998–2001). Chris Singleton will booth/.
serve as the color commentator on ESPN Radio’s Sunday [7] "Francona replaces Valentine as ESPN Sunday
night games beginning in 2011, succeeding Dave Camp- analyst". Yahoo Sports. 2011-12-06.
bell, who had held the role since 1999; Campbell was pre- http://http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/
ceded by Kevin Kennedy in the network’s inaugural sea- news;_ylt=AjX0iWbLLCUJZ.FSJXwtmOARvLYF?slug=ap-
son of 1998. espn-francona.
Prior to 1998, CBS Radio aired Sunday night games,
usually with Jerry Coleman and John Rooney announc-
ing.
References
Outside the USA, this weekly game was also broadcast • USA Today- Gammons to join Sunday Night Baseball
live on Five in the UK from 1997 until 2008 and at the • "Mediaweek - ESPN’s Ryan Joins CBS Sports".
time was the longest running programme on the chan- Archived from the original on 2006-06-25.
nel. In Latin America the game is broadcast on ESPN Latin http://web.archive.org/web/20060625031829/
America. When the NFL season begins, the game is moved http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/networktv/
to ESPN Dos only for the audience in Mexico, Central article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002650807.
America, Venezuela, Colombia and the Caribbean Islands. Retrieved 2006-06-12.
In Canada, Sunday Night Baseball has aired on TSN2 • ESPN.tv
since May 16, 2010, under a sublicensing agreement with
Rogers Sportsnet, the Canadian rightsholder for Major
League Baseball. That deal came in exchange for
External links
TSN/TSN2 transferring their remaining rights to Toronto • Baseball on ESPN.tv
Blue Jays games to Sportsnet, which is now the exclusive
carrier of Blue Jays games. However, individual SNB
games may be reclaimed by Sportsnet in the event both
TSN and TSN2 have other programming commitments.
Previous carriers of Sunday Night Baseball were TSN
(1990–2000), The Score (2001–2002), and Sportsnet
(2003–May 9, 2010).
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sunday_Night_Baseball&oldid=464368355"
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sunday Night Baseball
Categories:
• 1990s American television series
• 2000s American television series
• 2010s American television series
• ESPN network shows
• Major League Baseball on television
• ESPN Radio shows
• Major League Baseball on the radio
• American sports television series
• 1990 television series debuts
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