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Major League Baseball on TBS
Major League Baseball on TBS
Major League Baseball on TBS Format Starring Baseball Chip Caray Tony Gwynn Craig Sager Ernie Johnson, Jr. Cal Ripken, Jr. Buck Martinez (for more, see below) United States
Country of origin Production Producer(s) Broadcast Original channel Original airing External links Official website
Turner Sports
TBS (2007-) July 1, 2007
Major League Baseball on TBS is a presentation of Major League Baseball games on the television channel TBS.
planned starting in the 2008 season. As a part of the deal, it was decided that Atlanta Braves games would now only air locally. On October 1, 2007, WTBS severed its ties with the TBS network to become an independent under the call letters WPCH-TV, branding as Peachtree TV. Along with this, the national TBS feed became available in Atlanta for the first time. Peachtree TV still airs Braves games, but only within the team’s market and in Canada due to local laws currently not allowing the "cable" TBS to be shown in Canada. TBS’ games are shown on Rogers Sportsnet in Canada. TBS missed most of the first inning of Game 6 of the 2008 American League Championship Series, with viewers getting a rerun of The Steve Harvey Show instead. TBS picked up the game just prior to the last out in the bottom of the first, with announcer Chip Caray apologizing to viewers for "technical difficulties." TBS acknowledged there was a problem with one of their routers used in the broadcast transmission of the relay of the telecast from Atlanta.[2][3][4][5]
History
Pre-2007: Relationship with the Braves
See also: Braves TBS Baseball Atlanta Braves baseball games had been a local staple on Atlanta station WTBS (which were both owned by Ted Turner), and subsequently nationally with the launch of its national feed, one of America’s first superstations. Along with WGN-TV, the station was one of the few broadcasting local sports broadcasts nationally, with some even giving the Braves the title "America’s Team".[1]
Coverage debuts
2007
• First program: July 1 - The 2007 MLB AllStar Selection Show • First game: October 1 - The one game playoff between the San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies for the 2007 NL Wild Card. • First postgame show: October 2 (Eastern Time Zone), October 1 (Rest of the country) - Inside MLB presented by Captain Morgan hosted by Ernie Johnson, Jr. and Cal Ripken, Jr. immediately after the NL Wild Card playoff. • First pregame show: October 3 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time - Chevy MLB on Deck • First postseason game: October 3 - Game 1 of the NLDS between the Colorado Rockies and Philadelphia Phillies. • First over-the-air game to begin on TNT and move to TBS: October 4 - Game 1 of the ALDS between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians.
2007: Going national
Under an agreement signed on July 11, 2006, TBS earned exclusive rights to all Division Series playoff games, one of the League Championship Series, as well as rights to the All-Star Selection Show held in late June or early July, from 2007–2013. A national Sunday afternoon baseball package was also
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Major League Baseball on TBS
championships. Should multiple tie-breaking games be played, or if multiple Division Series games are going on at the same time, those additional games air on TBS’ sister station, TNT. All games in the Division Series round are presented back-to-back, with each game scheduled for a 3½-hour window. If a game exceeds this window, the first pitch of the next game will be switched to TNT. If a game ends within 3½ hours, the studio team will return for interstitial programming.[7] TBS’s League Championship Series coverage will alternate yearly. TBS will air the NLCS in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013 and the ALCS in 2008, 2010 and 2012, alternating with FOX.[8] In 2007, TBS switched the starts of four games to TNT in the Division Series round because the previous games exceeded the time limit. TNT was also scheduled to air Game 4 of the Diamondbacks-Cubs series, which overlapped with Game 3 of the Red Sox-Angels series, but the former game was not played; the night before, the D-Backs completed a three game sweep of the Cubs.
2008
• First regular season game: April 6 Boston Red Sox vs. Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. • First postponed game: May 11 - New York Yankees vs. Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. This game was rained out and postponed to September 1. • First interleague game: May 18 Milwaukee Brewers vs. Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park
Scheduling
TBS typically begins coverage with the pregame show MLB on Deck, followed by the first pitch of the first game about 38 minutes later. Each day’s coverage ends with Inside MLB, its version of Inside the NBA. TBS does not show commercial breaks after the third and sixth innings. Instead, it airs a "Game Break" allowing the studio host and analysts more air time (similar to what is done for British television coverage of an American sporting event). The studio shows originate from Studio J in Atlanta, Georgia, the same one used for TNT’s NBA coverage.
Regular season
During the later portion of the regular season, TBS broadcasts a weekly game nationally on Sunday afternoons. These games are not exclusive to TBS and are blacked out in local markets. Under the deal, TBS can show an alternate game in those markets, but have decided not to. Also, despite initial reports that TBS would carry games on Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day, these holiday games are not part of the contract. For many years, games on these holidays were shown on ESPN, but that network has discontinued them (with the occasional exception of when they fall into the regular Sunday/Monday/Wednesday night slots) in favor of other live sports events. TBS released a partial schedule of its inaugural slate of Sunday games on February 27, 2008. More games would be added as the season progresses, generally two weeks before each telecast date.[6] TBS has the second pick of game after ESPN.
Announcers Critics of TBS’ coverage
TBS’ coverage has been met with criticism by some critics and viewers. As with TNT’s NBA playoff coverage, MLB playoff games on TBS are not made available[9] to local over-the-air broadcasters in the participating teams’ markets[10]. Under the previous contract, ESPN was required to make those games available on the air in local markets. Some sports media critics were critical of the announcers[11] used in the coverage as being more skewed towards the National League than the American League, along with the choice of Chip Caray as the lead voice of the network’s coverage, as he had only done Braves baseball telecasts in the 2007 season before the launch of TBS’ playoff coverage.[12] Frank Thomas’ work as a studio analyst was panned by various newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. His most notable moment came when he was asked three times whether he hated to face Angels’ pitcher John Lackey or Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett more; he declined to respond each time. In
Postseason
Before the postseason, TBS will air any tiebreaker games for divisional or wild card
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fairness, Thomas was still an active player with the Oakland Athletics, a member of the American League along with the Angels and the Red Sox.
Major League Baseball on TBS
Digital on-screen graphics
See also: Baseball telecasts technology Before TBS’ broadcast the 2007 postseason, they used a score bug on the top left-hand corner of the screen for their Braves telecasts. It has been upgraded midway into the 2004 season to what it was through 2007.
2007The on-screen score graphic[13] covers the entire top of the screen, unlike the Braves TBS Baseball graphic, which only took up the left half of the top. The look is almost identical to that of from FOX’s baseball coverage[13], except that the illustration of the basepaths is near the left side of the screen instead of flush on the right. The batting order starting lineup used since 2008 resembles that of a cellphone.
Ratings References
[1] Wulf, Steve (1982-08-09), America’s Team II, Sports Illustrated, http://dynamic.si.cnn.com/si_online/ covers/issues/1982/0809.html [2] Viewers see ’Steve Harvey’ instead of • Press Release: MLB, FOX, and Turner Rays-Red Sox reach new television agreements [3] Game 6 TV broadcast interrupted • Press Release: TBS signs on to air LCS [4] On TBS, Long Wait for Game’s First games Pitch • http://www.tbs.com/stories/story/ [5] TBS problems keep first part of ALCS off 0,,133704,00.html air [6] Singer, Tom (2008-02-27). "TBS releases 2008 baseball schedule". MLB.com. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/ article.jsp?ymd=20080227&content_id=2392359&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb. Retrieved on 2008-03-02. [7] DirecTV onscreen program guide, retrieved September 26, 2007
[8] Dear MLB, We Need to Talk About Your TBS Contract [9] Hiestand, Michael (2007-10-09). "Fox’s Buck makes pitch for late show". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ columnist/hiestand-tv/ 2007-10-09-hiestand-column_N.htm. [10] Postseason exclusivity boosted the price for TBS. If MLB continued to allow local outlets to air their team’s games, the rights would have been "significantly diluted," according to Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports who now runs a broadcast consulting company. "The TBS sales people now can assure advertisers that this is the only place where people can see the games," Pilson said. "It’s a judgment baseball had to make. It had to balance the revenue stream, which is formidable, against the loss of a certain number of homes." [11] Dear TBS: Please Stick to Dawson’s Creek Reruns or Just Shoot Me [12] Sandomir, Richard (2007-10-10). "Yes, There Is Crying in Baseball (and It’s O.K.)". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/ sports/baseball/ 10sandomir.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adx [13] ^ Deitsch, Richard (2007-10-11). "TBS takes its shots". Sports Illustrated. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/ writers/richard_deitsch/10/10/ tbs.baseball/index.html.
External links
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_on_TBS" Categories: Major League Baseball on television, 2007 television series debuts, 2000s American television series, TBS network shows, Turner Sports
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Major League Baseball on TBS
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