Monday Night Baseball
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| Monday Night Baseball | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sports |
| Running time | 3 hours (approximate) |
| Starring | Dave O'Brien, Rick Sutcliffe, and Erin Andrews |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original channel | ESPN (2002-) |
Monday Night Baseball is live game telecast of Major League Baseball that airs every Monday night on ESPN and is also available in high definition on ESPN HD. The game starts at 7pm ET, following SportsCenter, and usually lasts around three hours with an hour long Baseball Tonight after the game leading up to the 11pm ET SportsCenter. Since the series came to ESPN in 2002, the play-by-play has been done by Dave O'Brien along with Rick Sutcliffe doing color commentary and since 2004, Erin Andrews has served as the field reporter providing news, injury reports and interviews with fans and sports stars. Monday Night Baseball is sponsored by Holiday Inn.
Several things changed to Monday Night Baseball in the eight year television contract that ESPN signed with Major League Baseball on September 14, 2005. Unlike Sunday Night Baseball, the game is non-exclusive, meaning it will co-exist with the teams local carriers. However, Monday Night Baseball will be allowed to co-exist with local carriers up to three times per club, per year. Beyond that, telecasts will be blacked out in the participating teams' markets (Baseball Tonight is shown in its entirety, beginning at 10:00, with the rest of the nation joining after the game). Beginning in 2007, there will be an afternoon Batting Practice program generally from the site of the Monday Night Baseball game (similar to the pre-game shows for ESPN's NFL and college sports coverage). Also, because ESPN will be airing Monday Night Football games, when those begin with the Pre-Season in mid-August, Monday Night Baseball games will move to Friday night. Monday Night Baseball also brings it's Sports Emmy Award winning K Zone, a computer-generated on-screen graphic that accurately outlines the strike zone and pitch location.
Contents |
[edit] Past History
- For more details on this topic, see Major League Baseball on NBC#1970s.
- For more details on this topic, see Major League Baseball on ABC#1970s.
Monday Night Baseball was born on October 19, 1966 when NBC signed a three year contract to televise the game. Under the deal, NBC paid roughly $6 million per year for the 25 Games of the Week, $6.1 million for the 1967 World Series and 1967 All-Star Game, and $6.5 million for the 1968 World Series and 1968 All-Star Game. This brought the total value of the contract (which included three Monday night telecasts) up to $30.6 million. From 1972-1975 NBC televised Monday games under a contract worth $72 million. In 1973, NBC extended the Monday night telecasts to from (with a local blackout) to 15 straight. On September 1, 1975, NBC's last Monday Night Baseball game, in which the Montréal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-5.
ABC would pick up the television rights for Monday Night Baseball games in the following year. Just like with Monday Night Football, ABC brought in the concept of the three-man-booth (originally comprised of Bob Prince, Bob Uecker, and Warner Wolf as the primary crew) to their baseball telecasts. By 1986, ABC only televised 13 Monday Night Baseball games. This was a fairly sharp contrast to the 18 games to that were scheduled in 1978. The Sporting News believed that ABC paid Major League Baseball to not make them televise the regular season. TSN added that the network only wanted the sport for October anyway. For most of its time on ABC, the Monday night games were held on "dead travel days" when few games were scheduled. The team owners liked that arrangement as the national telecasts didn't compete against their stadium box offices. ABC on the other hand, found the arrangement far more complicated. ABC often had only one or two games to pick from for each telecast from a schedule designed by Major League Baseball. While trying to give all of the teams national exposure, ABC ended up with way too many games between sub .500 clubs from small markets.
In 1989 (the final year of ABC's contract with Major League Baseball), ABC moved the baseball telecasts to Thursday nights in hopes of getting leg up against NBC's Cosby Show.
[edit] ABC's Monday Night Baseball Announcers
- Gary Bender (1987-1988)
- Lou Brock (1980)
- Norm Cash (1976)
- Howard Cosell (1977-1985)
- Don Drysdale (1978-1986)
- Bob Gibson (1976-1977)
- Keith Jackson (1977-1982; 1986)
- Jim Lampley (1977-1979)
- Tim McCarver (1984-1989)
- Al Michaels (1976-1989)
- Joe Morgan (1988-1989)
- Jim Palmer (1984-1989)
- Bob Prince (1976)
- Steve Stone (1983)
- Gary Thorne (1989)
- Bob Uecker (1976-1982)
- Earl Weaver (1983-1984)
- Bill White (1976-1979)
- Warner Wolf (1976-1977)
[edit] See also
- ESPN Major League Baseball
- Baseball Tonight
- Sunday Night Baseball
- ESPN DayGame
- Wednesday Night Baseball
- Thursday Night Baseball
- ESPN MLB Broadcast Teams
[edit] External links
| Major League Baseball on national television |
|---|
| Contract history: Sports television broadcast contracts | Major League Baseball television contracts |
| Broadcast partners: ABC | CBS | ESPN | FOX | NBC | TBS | USA | The Baseball Network |
| General media: World Series television ratings | Major League Baseball Game of the Week | Cable television | Monday Night Baseball | Wednesday Night Baseball | Thursday Night Baseball |Sunday Night Baseball | Broadcasting firsts | Telecasts technology |
| Broadcasters by event: World Series | American League Championship Series | National League Championship Series | All-Star Game | American League Division Series | National League Division Series |
Categories: Articles lacking sources from June 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Major League Baseball media | 1967 television program debuts | 1970s TV shows in the United States | 1980s TV shows in the United States | 1990s TV shows in the United States | 2000s TV shows in the United States | ESPN network shows | Monday | Major League Baseball on ABC | ABC network shows | Major League Baseball on NBC | NBC network shows | Major League Baseball on ESPN
