MLB on Five

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
MLB on Five

Jonny and David on the set of the show
Genre Sports
Running time 3:00 - 6:00 (per episode)
Creator(s) Sunset + Vine for five
Starring Jonny Gould
Josh Chetwynd
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original channel Five
Original run 1997–
No. of episodes 500+ (as of April, 2006)

MLB on Five is a sports television programme featuring live and as live coverage of Major League Baseball games. It is usually broadcast on Sunday and Wednesday nights, with broadcasts usually beginning at around 1am British time. The show also provides live coverage of the All-Star Game and World Series. The show is currently presented by Jonny Gould and Josh Chetwynd and produced by Erik Janssen.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] 1997 - 2001: The Todd Macklin Years

The show first aired on opening day in 1997 with the game between the defending World Series champion New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners. The show was initially part of the channel's Live & Dangerous late night sport strand. However, by the 1998 season it had been spun off and renamed MLB on Five. For its first year and a half the show was sponsored by Coors Extra Gold, complete with break bumpers with the voiceover "Major League Baseball: a taste of real America in association with Coors Extra Gold". By the June of the 1998 season this sponsorship deal had ended and the show has not had a sponsor since.

The original hosts of the show were Tommy Boyd and Todd Macklin. Macklin had originally been hired as a producer on the show and was only thrust into the analyst role when no one else could be found. However, a little over a month into the show's first season, Boyd phoned in ill before a show and would never return (joking references are still occasionally made on the show to his long illness). Boyd has since made comments stating that he hated baseball, including describing it as glorified rounders.

"Did Elvis like baseball?" enquired Boyd in one memorable exchange. "Could he eat it?" replied Macklin.

After a few shows with a number of guest hosts Jonny Gould was brought in on a three show trial and remains the host to this day (since the cancellation of the soap opera Family Affairs Jonny is now also the longest serving five employee).

During the Jonny and Todd's stint as hosts the popularity of the show blossomed with audiences reaching over 1 million (a huge figure for a show broadcast in the early hours of the morning) during the 2000 World Series. during this time the show also increased audience participation encouraging viewers to write (and later e mail) their comments, questions and anything else. During the 1998 season they encouraged viewers embarking on trips to ballparks in the US to send in postcards of the stadiums they visited with the aim of collecting one from every ballpark in the league, a goal in which they succeeded.

At this point in the programme's history the show was broadcast from the same studio as Channel 5 news which went on air at 6am; therefore, if a game ever went past 5am hasty alternative studio arrangements had to be made. And example of this was during game 5 of the 2000 World Series in which the presenters, suddenly in a tiny studio without the benefit of monitors to watch the post game presentation, mused on who the MVP may be.

In 2001 Todd returned to Canada with his wife, whose job in London was the reason Todd had become involved in the show in the first place. The departure of the man who had educated the majority of the show's audience about the complexities of baseball was a sad occasion and the show was deluged with e-mails, letters and cards wishing Todd well and pleading with him to stay (events that would be repeated during Josh Chetwynd's and David Lengel's departures).

[edit] 2001 - 2003: JG and JC

A replacement was eventually found in the shape of Josh Chetwynd, a catcher for the British who had played the game at college and Minor League level and was now working for MLB International in London. Josh quickly became a favourite with the audience despite one e mailer describing him as looking like a cheeseball lawyer on his first show. Josh also demonstrated a great on screen chemistry with Jonny and the two have become very good friends away from the show. His previous experience as a player at a high level also meant that Josh could offer a players perspective on the game and excelled at presenting the more technical aspects of the game to the audience. In addition, he kept his audience up to date on "the Chet Factor," those Major League Players with whom he had a personal connection.

Josh left the show in the middle of the 2004 season to study a postgraduate Law degree at the University of Arizona, as he quipped on his last show inspired by the e mail received on his first show.

[edit] 2003 - 2005: David Lengel The Ultimate Commuter

In July of 2003, Josh was replaced by David Lengel who had stood in for Josh as analyst several times on the show. Prior to his stint in the 'hotseat' (as Jonny refers to the pundit's chair) David had also presented reports for Five from the World Series.

For part of his stint on MLB on Five David was also working as a producer on ESPN's 25th Anniversary series called Who's #1, and as a result commuted some 7000 miles between shows, doing so for ten consecutive weeks in the Spring of 2004. His trip involved leaving New York on Saturday night, arriving Sunday morning, working on MLB on Five that night, and leaving London on the first flight out on Monday morning. He showed no sign of jet lag however and developed a winning repartee with Jonny and endeared himself with his regular 'off on one' rants, quite often as a result of Jonny's constant references to fantasy baseball.

After a year and a half in the job at the start of the 2006 season it was announced that David would not be returning for the upcoming season as he had a new job as presenter on mlb.com. He is currently a reporter for State of the Yankees, which is released every Wednesday on yankees.com.

Note: David is a fan of the New York Mets...

[edit] 2006 JG and JC the Reunion

David was in turn replaced by the returning Josh who having completed his Law course returned to the show at the start of this season and after a brief absence tying up loose ends it would appear that he is back for good. During this season the five team presented coverage live from America for the first time in the shows history. Jonny, Josh and Erik were in PNC Park, Pittsburgh for the 2006 All-Star game which was won by the American League. The regular presenters were joined at the Game by previous pundit David Lengel, who has also appeared on the show in the On the Beat segment and as a stand in pundit on two occasions. Also during this season veteran Canadian sports journalist and former NHL announcer for TSN, Paul Romanuk made a single appearance as guest host when Jonny was unavailable.

[edit] Presenters

  • Pat Garrigan (Analyst, 2001)
  • Brett Barish (Analyst 2001)
  • Josh Chetwynd (Analyst, 2001 - 2003, 2006 - present)
  • Todd Macklin (Analyst, 1997 - 2001)
  • Mike Carlson (Occasional guest analyst since 1998)
  • Vince Garcia (Occasional guest analyst)
  • Paul Romanuk (Guest host 2006)

[edit] Regular Features

[edit] MLB Roundup

Almost every episode features a brief round up of the main events and games of the last few days. In the early years of the show this was usually done in a half hour segment at the start of the show; however as the start of the show has been pushed back closer to the game's first pitch this is now done during breaks in play.

[edit] On the Beat

Because the show generally consists of the ESPN Sunday and Wednesday Night Baseball games there are often many teams that are not shown. To compensate for this David Lengel created the On the Beat segment, which offers a telephone interview with a beat writer or local TV commentator of a given team. The segment has also featured a handful of Hall of Fame writers and broadcasters.

[edit] In Game Trivia

In Game Trivia consists of the producer of the show Erik Janssen (or when Eric is absent whoever is standing in as producer) setting an obscure trivia question which the pundit has to answer. Despite the questions being jokingly referred to a Erik's Stumper both Dave and Josh have comprehensively beaten the shows esteemed Expo loving producer over the course of the season.

[edit] Seventh Inning Stretch (Literally)

In 2002 Jonny started stretching his arm while saying seventh inning stretch. This has quietly become a tradition on the show with Jonny and Josh, and occasional guest analyst Mike Carlson perform 'the stretch' every show. When Dave was the analyst he occasionally participated but preferred not to because of what he described as 'wetness issues' caused by the hot studio lights.

[edit] British Baseball Roundup

Every Sunday during the British Baseball season the show gives an update on the results and standings of the British National League, the top level of British Baseball. Since 1998 the show has also been at the Final Four tournament at Brighton and shown highlights on that weeks show.

[edit] Fantasy Baseball

In the last two seasons the show in conjunction with Baseball Softball UK have organised an internet based fantasy baseball league, which they offer an update on every Sunday. The league and the other fantasy league the presenters are members of have led to Jonny becoming a fantasy bore, often finding ways to work his fantasy team into the conversation and analysis despite his co-host's and producer's protestations.

[edit] 1 Minute Blitz

During the middle of the 7th inning, Josh tries to answer as many viewer emails as he can in under 1 minute. Josh usually replies yes or no to each question instinctively, often getting the answer wrong, much to Jonny's delight. The current record for the 1 Minute Blitz is 17 questions.

[edit] The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Alternatively in the middle of the 7th inning, a series of clips from that weeks MLB games are shown. These range from the best plays of the week (the Good), embarrassing mess-ups (the Bad), and the plain bizarre or excruciating (the Ugly).

[edit] 1 Minute Rant

Another of the middle of the 7th features. It involves one of the presenters talking passionatly (ranting) about an issue in baseball. Topics have included Barry Bonds and the Red Sox handing the American League East title to the Yankees.

[edit] Related Shows

Although not strictly speaking spinoffs there were a number of other baseball shows and features on Five (then Channel 5) from 1997 to 1999.

[edit] Pitch, Hit and Run

Pitch, Hit and Run was a 30 minute show aimed at children and early teens that aired on Sunday mornings usually at 9:15 as part of the Milkshake strand. The show consisted of short instructional features on playing the game along with brief highlights of the game shown live the previous Sunday.

[edit] Turnstyle

Turnstyle was a sports talk show which broadcast of Five (Channel 5) on Saturday mornings between 10am and 12pm. A baseball round up usually showing highlights of the two games aired on five the previous week was a regular feature of the show.

[edit] Live & Dangerous Replayed/ Review of the Year

In 1997 and 1998 a review of the year show was broadcast in which all of the sports broadcast on Channel 5 including the highlights of the baseball year were shown. The 1997 edition featured Todd Macklin discussing the season with Dominik Diamond alongside highlights of the World Series and the seasons top plays. The 1998 edition however simply showed extended highlights of that years world series.

[edit] Trivia

Since the cancellation of Family Affairs at the end of 2005 the show is now Five's longest running non-news show. The first show was broadcast seven days after the channel's launch.

This season (2006) is the tenth season of MLB on Five; next season will be the shows tenth anniversary.

Seven different teams have won the World Series since the shows first season (Yankees (3), Marlins (2), Diamondbacks, Angels, Red Sox, White Sox, Cardinals)

The presenters favourite teams are as follows

Jonny - Atlanta Braves
Josh - Boston Red Sox
Dave - New York Mets
Todd - Boston Red Sox
Mike - Boston Red Sox
Erik (producer) - Montreal Expos and Detroit Tigers

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/l/b/MLB_on_Five_951d.html"