MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL ON TBS

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

Contents

The agreement

Coverage

Availability

League Championship Series

Announcers

Personalities

Announcing teams

See also

References

External links

The agreement

TBS expands their role as a national broadcast partner of Major League Baseball.

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. Additional games are planned for Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day. These 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 will also 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.
The first telecast from TBS' new baseball package was the 2007 All-Star Selection Show, which was delayed from a scheduled start time of 4 p.m. Eastern time to nearly 6 p.m. due to the previous program (Atlanta Braves at Florida Marlins) lasting 10 innings after a 90-minute rain delay.
TBS has announced the launch of a high-definition feed, as of September 1, 2007. A regional feed for the Southeast is also possible in the future, as WTBS (renamed WPCH) will continue to broadcast 45 Braves games per season in Atlanta. Turner Sports has not yet announced how they will make those games available outside Atlanta. Turner also expects to offer TBS' national feed in Atlanta as TBS and WPCH will have some differences in programming beyond baseball.

Availability

Playoff games on TBS will not be made avaliable to local over-the-air broadcasters in the participating team's markets. Under the previous contract, ESPN was required to make those games avaliable on the air in local markets.

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.

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 and other members of the Braves broadcast team will be a part of postseason coverage, but it is not known what capacity they will serve. It has also been reported that the network was in talks with former Braves announcer Don Sutton if he agrees to a playoff only contract.
Also on April 5, 2007, TBS announced that the studio team for its 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.^[2]
It is currently (as of July 2007) unknown if they will add another analyst to the studio show. The additional analyst could be a current player or coach during the postseason; TBS could also add another full-time analyst alongside Ripken for the following regular season. The exact name of the pregame show is also unknown.

Personalities

★ Chip Caray: #1 Play-by-play

★ Skip Caray: #2 Play-by-play

★ Marc Fein: Fill-in Host

★ Tony Gwynn: #1Game Analyst

★ Ernie Johnson Jr.: Studio Host

★ Cal Ripken Jr.: Studio Analyst

★ Craig Sager: #1 Field Reporter

★ Joe Simpson: #2 Game Analyst

Announcing teams

'''Major League Baseball on TBS''' 'announcing teams'

'Season'	'Event'	'Play-by-play'	'Color commentators'	'Field Reporter(s)'
2007	2007 MLB Playoffs	Chip Caray	Tony Gwynn	Craig Sager
		Skip Caray	Joe Simpson	Marc Fein
		TBA	TBA	TBA
		TBA	TBA	TBA

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''

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

External links

★ Press Release: MLB, FOX, and Turner reach new television agreements

★ Press Release: TBS signs on to air LCS games