The Major League Baseball Game of the Week is the de facto title for nationally televised coverage of regular season Major League Baseball games. The Game of the Week has traditionally aired on Saturday afternoons. When the national networks began televising national games of the week, it opened the door for a national audience to see particular clubs. While most teams were broadcast, emphasis was always on the league leaders and the major market franchises that could draw the largest audience.
Year | Network(s) | Play-by-play | Color commentary |
1959 | CBS | Dizzy Dean Jack Whitaker Bob Finnegan | Buddy Blattner Frankie Frisch Gabby Hartnett |
NBC | Lindsey Nelson Chuck Thompson | Leo Durocher Al Rosen | |
1958 | CBS | Dizzy Dean Bob Finnegan | Buddy Blattner Frank Reynolds |
NBC | Lindsey Nelson Chuck Thompson | Leo Durocher Bill Veeck | |
1957 | CBS | Dizzy Dean Bob Finnegan | Buddy Blattner Jim McKay [101] |
NBC | Lindsey Nelson [102] Jim Woods | Leo Durocher | |
1956 | CBS | Dizzy Dean Bill McColgan | Buddy Blattner Bob Finnegan |
1955 | CBS | Dizzy Dean Bill McColgan | Buddy Blattner Bob Finnegan |
1954 | ABC | Dizzy Dean Bill McColgan | Buddy Blattner Bob Finnegan |
1953 | ABC | Dizzy Dean | Buddy Blattner Bob Finnegan |
Year | Network(s) | Play-by-play | Color commentary |
2021 | ESPN | Jon Sciambi | Chris Singleton |
2020 | ESPN | Jon Sciambi | Chris Singleton |
Year | Network(s) | Play-by-play | Color commentary |
2009 | ESPN | Gary Thorne | Dave Campbell |
2008 | ESPN | Gary Thorne | Dave Campbell |
2007 | ESPN | Dan Shulman | Dave Campbell |
2006 | ESPN | Dan Shulman | Dave Campbell |
2005 | ESPN | Dan Shulman | Dave Campbell |
2004 | ESPN | Dan Shulman | Dave Campbell |
2003 | ESPN | Dan Shulman | Dave Campbell |
2002 | ESPN | Dan Shulman | Dave Campbell |
2001 | ESPN | Charley Steiner | Dave Campbell |
2000 | ESPN | Charley Steiner | Dave Campbell |
Year | Network(s) | Play-by-play |
1949 | Liberty | Gordon McLendon |
Mutual | Hal Totten | |
1948 | Mutual | Hal Totten |
1947 | Mutual | Hal Totten |
1946 | Mutual | Hal Totten |
1945 | Mutual | Hal Totten |
1944 | Mutual | France Laux |
1941 | Mutual | France Laux |
1940 | Mutual | France Laux |
1939 | Mutual | France Laux |
Major League Baseball (MLB) has been broadcast on American television since the 1950s, with initial broadcasts on the experimental station W2XBS, the predecessor of the modern WNBC in New York City. The World Series was televised on a networked basis since 1947, with regular season games broadcast nationally since 1953. Over the forthcoming years, MLB games became major attractions for American television networks, and each of the Big Three networks would air packages of baseball games at various times until the year 2000. Fox would rise to major network status, partially on its acquisition of MLB rights in 1996; Fox has been MLB's primary broadcast television partner ever since.
Matt Vasgersian is an American sportscaster and television host. Vasgersian is a play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Angels, as well as a studio host for MLB Network and FOX Sports. In the past, he has served as an announcer for Fox Sports' National Football League and Major League Baseball coverage, ESPN's coverage of Major League Baseball, NBC Sports' coverage of the Olympic Games, and NBC Sports' coverage of the original XFL. He formerly called play-by-play for the Milwaukee Brewers and the San Diego Padres.
Major League Baseball on CBS is the branding used for broadcasts of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States.
The Baseball Network was an American television broadcasting joint venture between ABC, NBC and Major League Baseball (MLB). Under the arrangement, beginning in the 1994 season, MLB produced its own broadcasts in-house which were then brokered to air on ABC and NBC. The Baseball Network was the first television network in the United States to be owned by a professional sports league.
The Major League Baseball Game of the Week (GOTW) is the de facto title for nationally televised coverage of regular season Major League Baseball games. The Game of the Week has traditionally aired on Saturday afternoons. When the national networks began televising national games of the week, it opened the door for a national audience to see particular clubs. While most teams were broadcast, emphasis was always on the league leaders and the major market franchises that could draw the largest audience.
Monday Night Baseball was an American live game telecast of Major League Baseball (MLB) that aired on Monday nights during the regular season.
On December 14, 1988, CBS paid approximately $1.8 billion for exclusive television rights for over four years. CBS paid about $265 million each year for the World Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the Saturday Game of the Week. It was one of the largest agreements between the sport of baseball and the business of broadcasting.
In 1980, 22 teams took part in a one-year cable deal with UA-Columbia. The deal involved the airing of a Thursday night Game of the Week in markets at least 50 miles (80 km) from a major league park. The deal earned Major League Baseball less than $500,000, but led to a new two-year contract for 40-45 games per season.
In 1950 the Mutual Broadcasting System acquired the television and radio broadcast rights to the World Series and All-Star Game for the next six years. Mutual may have been reindulging in dreams of becoming a television network or simply taking advantage of a long-standing business relationship; in either case, the broadcast rights were sold to NBC in time for the following season's games at an enormous profit.
In 1960, ABC returned to baseball broadcasting with a series of late-afternoon Saturday games. Jack Buck and Carl Erskine were the lead announcing crew for this series, which lasted one season. ABC typically did three games a week. Two of the games were always from the Eastern or Central Time Zone. The late games were usually San Francisco Giants or Los Angeles Dodgers' home games. However, the Milwaukee Braves used to start many of their Saturday home games late in the afternoon. So if the Giants and Dodgers were both the road at the same time, ABC still would be able to show a late game.
By 1969, Major League Baseball had grown to 24 teams and the net local TV revenues had leaped to $20.7 million. This is in sharp contrast to 1950 when local television brought the then 16 Major League clubs a total net income of $2.3 million. Changes baseball underwent during this time, such as expansion franchises and increasing the schedule from 154 games to 162, led to a wider audience for network and local television.
In September 2000, Major League Baseball signed a six-year, $2.5 billion contract with Fox to show Saturday baseball, the All-Star Game, selected Division Series games and exclusive coverage of both League Championship Series and the World Series.
NBC made history in the 1980s with an announcerless telecast, which was a one-shot experiment credited to Don Ohlmeyer, between the Jets and Dolphins in Miami on December 20, 1980), as well as a single-announcer telecast, coverage of the Canadian Football League during the 1982 players' strike, and even the first female play-by-play football announcer, Gayle Sierens.
Sunday Afternoon Baseball is the de facto branding used for nationally televised live game telecasts of Major League Baseball games on Sunday afternoons during the regular season.
The following article details the history of Major League Baseball on NBC, the broadcast of Major League Baseball games on the NBC television network.
CBS.
Crack of the Bat: A History of Baseball on the Radio.