A new 7 year MLB deal for Fox

[Reds Fanatic]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/baseball/mlb/07/11/fox.deal/index.html

PITTSBURGH -- Major League Baseball has reached a new seven-year TV deal with Fox, baseball executives told SI.com on Tuesday morning.

The new agreement, which will be announced at 5:30 p.m. today by commissioner Bud Selig, will guarantee baseball more than the $400 million it received from the network's previous contract, which expires after this season.

According to the new deal, Fox will air the World Series, the All-Star Game, a schedule of Saturday games and one League Championship Series each year, alternating between the leagues from year to year. The other League Championship Series is still up for bids.

Also, TBS is expected to get rights to the Division Series starting in 2007 and weekly regular-season games in '08.

[dabvu2498]

Nuts

[goreds2]

Wow, no ESPN mentioned. :thumbdown

Side Note: XM Radio is signed with MLB through the 2015 season.
(11 years / 650 Million Dollars)

http://www.xmradio.com/newsroom/screen/pr_2004_10_20.html

[macro]

I was kinda hoping NBC would get it back. Baseball and Bob Costas belong together.

[goreds2]

I was kinda hoping NBC would get it back. Baseball and Bob Costas belong together.

Very good point!

The other League Championship Series is still up for bids though.
(Fingers crossed)

[Roy Tucker]

7 more years of sound effects.

[dabvu2498]

7 more years of sound effects.
And Tim McCarver.

[Handofdeath]

Wow, no ESPN mentioned. :thumbdown

Side Note: XM Radio is signed with MLB through the 2015 season.
(11 years / 650 Million Dollars)

http://www.xmradio.com/newsroom/screen/pr_2004_10_20.html


That is a good thing. ESPN was once young and fresh. Now they are old, tired, and have way too much power.

[redsfan30]

I was kinda hoping NBC would get it back. Baseball and Bob Costas belong together.
Agree 150%.

[registerthis]

Great. Seven more years of swishes, bloops, bleeps and other assorted space-age sound effects nonsense.

[Tornon]

Don't forget that little talking baseball(I forget his name) that teaches us why a fastball is called a fastball and such

[Sea Ray]

So how much time is left on ESPN's contract?

[Reds Fanatic]

So how much time is left on ESPN's contract?
ESPN still has 7 years after this year on their regular season contract. They only thing they may be out of is the postseason. They will have division playoffs this year but maybe no playoffs on ESPN after this year unless they get the one LCS that is still being bid on.

[Sea Ray]

It was posted earlier that TBS is expected to get the division playoffs but I'd be surprised if one network got them all since there's sure to be conflicts. ESPN was ideally set up to handle them with all of its networks. I don't know if TBS has a similar arrangement with the likes of TNT and others.

[Reds Fanatic]

Looks like Turner sports at some point is going to start airing a weekly Sunday afternoon national game that would be blacked out in local areas.

[MrCinatit]

Don't forget that little talking baseball(I forget his name) that teaches us why a fastball is called a fastball and such

Ballie...slider...curvy wurvy...knucks...skipper....stampy.
Something along those lines.
That animation makes me want to create a very powerful cannon which will shoot cute, furry kittens to the moon

[GOREDSGO32]

FOX isn't so bad. I enjoy baseball announcers a heck of a lot more than knuckheads like James Brown, Terry Bradshaw, Jimmy Johnson, and Howie Long yucking up the NFL broadcasts to an unbearable level.

[KronoRed]

At least they are only the pregame guys ;)

[RBA]

James Brown is gone off the network.

[RollyInRaleigh]

What happened to Brown?

[RBA]

What happened to Brown?

this.....


Brown Leaving Fox to Host CBS Pregame Show

Tuesday, February 7, 2006; E02



James Brown is switching jerseys.

The veteran broadcaster and Washington native is stepping down as host of the "Fox NFL Sunday" pregame show to join CBS, where he'll take on the same role for "The NFL Today" starting next season. At CBS, Brown also will be a play-by-play announcer for the network's coverage of college basketball, including the NCAA tournament.

Brown replaces current "NFL Today" host Greg Gumbel , who will return to play-by-play duties next fall. Gumbel will team with Dan Dierdorf as the network's number two announcing team behind Jim Nantz and Phil Simms .

In a conference call yesterday, Brown said he prefers to characterize his move to CBS as "going back home" rather than jumping to a competing network. Brown worked at CBS -- where he handled NFL, NBA and college basketball duties -- from 1984 until 1994, when he joined Fox for the network's inaugural season of football.

"I started at CBS," Brown said. "It's amazing how many Freudian slips there were throughout the stretch [at Fox] where I continued to reference CBS."

Fox Sports spokesman Dan Bell said yesterday that the network is "evaluating our options" for Brown's replacement but that no decision is imminent.

Brown got his start calling Washington Bullets games for local television in 1978 and later joined WUSA-9 as a reporter and anchor.


-- John Maynard

[Strikes Out Looking]

Once again, baseball goes for the dollars instead of building its fan base.

Fox baseball coverage is horrid. Tim McCarver is the worst announcer--talking down to people, and saying things that make no sense. Here's an example: At last night's all-star game he said someone was having a Matt Damon moment, Catch me if you can. I think he was trying to say someone was slippery but Matt Damon wasn't in Catch Me If You Can, that was Leo DeCaprio. McCarver should just follow Steve Carlton around and leave us alone.

Baseball deserves to be on NBC with the quality announcers we had in the
70s and 80s. Fox is slowly killing the game with the blessing of Bud Selig.