Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio: Difference between revisions

Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio
Genre	Major League Baseball
Running time	3 hours (approximate)
Country of origin	US
Home station	ESPN Radio (1998–present)
Starring	Jon Sciambi; Doug Glanville; Marc Kestecher
Original release	March 31, 1998 –; Present

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Latest revision as of 19:05, 18 July 2024

Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio is the brand name for exclusive play-by-play broadcast presentation of Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio. The coverage has most recently been presented by Indeed, along with AutoZone for the postseason; previous presenting sponsors included Wendy's, Barbasol, Nesquik, DraftKings, Xerox, AutoZone, Excedrin, United States Postal Service and Mercedes-Benz.

History

In 1997, ESPN Radio outbid CBS Radio to become the exclusive national radio broadcaster of Major League Baseball beginning the following year. CBS Radio had been the national radio broadcaster since 1976.

The agreement lasted seven years through 2004 and gave ESPN Radio the rights to broadcast numerous games including Sunday Night Baseball, Saturday Game of the Week, Opening Day and holiday games, September weekday pennant race games, the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby, and all of the playoffs, including the World Series.

In 2004, ESPN Radio extended the deal with a five-year, $55 million dollar contract extension through the 2010 season.

The agreement also added a weekly program devoted to baseball, which became The Baseball Show from 3 p.m. ET to 7 pm. ET on Sundays during the regular season. The program was hosted by John Seibel and Steve Phillips.

Coverage overview

As previously mentioned, in beginning in the 1998 season, ESPN Radio took over from CBS Radio as the official, national radio broadcaster for Major League Baseball. The network's contract with MLB currently runs through 2028, and as of 2022, Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio is part of ESPN Radio’s main lineup, instead of in an opt-in/opt-out basis as in previous years. However, affiliates retain the ability to opt out of broadcasts involving in-market teams during the regular season.

The games include Opening Day, Sunday Night Baseball, Saturday games (usually the same matchup as the Sunday Night game with case-by-case exceptions, mainly due to start time conflicts), holiday games (during Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day; occasionally broadcast as doubleheaders) and September pennant race games. ESPN Radio holds exclusive radio rights to the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby. The postseason (including the Wild Card Games, Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series) is a semi-exclusive arrangement. The participating teams' flagship stations are allowed to air play-by-play using their own announcers and production. The national ESPN Radio feed may, however, be carried live on another station in those markets as well (for instance, WHB in Kansas City aired the ESPN feed of Kansas City Royals postseason games in 2014 and 2015, competing directly with the Royals Radio Network broadcast on KCSP). If affiliate stations on the teams' radio networks wish to carry coverage of postseason games they must use the national feed. Since the inaugural World Baseball Classic in March 2006, the semi-finals and the championship have also been broadcast as part of Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio. The network also broadcast the MLB at Field of Dreams game in 2021.

In addition to affiliate stations on AM/FM radio, ESPN Radio's game broadcasts are carried as part of Sirius XM Radio's MLB coverage (with Sunday night games also being simulcast on MLB Network Radio). However, they are not included in the subscription "Gameday Audio" package on MLB.com with the exception of the All-Star Game, for which no other radio play-by-play feed is available.

Since June 2011, the games can also be heard online at ESPN Radio.com and on mobile devices via the ESPN app and other applications such as TuneIn. They can also be heard on televisions using connected devices (such as video game consoles) via their respective iHeartRadio and TuneIn apps. Previously, rights restrictions prevented ESPN Radio.com from live-streaming the games. Despite MLB not enforcing blackouts for radio coverage, game coverage on the ESPN mobile app and TuneIn are restricted to listeners in the United States and that are located outside the markets of both teams involved in that broadcast, regardless if said teams are home or away.

Broadcasters

As of 2022, the primary ESPN Radio crew for Sunday Night Baseball consists of play-by-play announcer Jon Sciambi and color analyst Doug Glanville. In 2010, Sciambi succeeded Gary Thorne, who had called play-by-play in 2008–09; Thorne had succeeded Dan Shulman, did so from 2002 to 2007; Shulman, in turn, had been preceded by Charley Steiner from 1998 to 2002. Glanville succeeded Chris Singleton, who served as analyst from 2011-2021. Singleton, in turn, succeeded Dave Campbell, who was an analyst from 1999 to 2010. Campbell replaced Kevin Kennedy as analyst in 1999, after the latter had worked with Steiner in the network's inaugural season of coverage. Marc Kestecher currently serves as the network's primary Baseball Tonight studio host, with Jim Basquil or Kevin Winter substituting for him if Kestecher was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts (mainly with his NBA on ESPN Radio play-by-play duties); he was preceded by Joe D'Ambrosio from 1998 to 2007.

For other regular season games (especially Saturday games) as well as select Sunday night games, different play-by-play announcers are used with Glanville remaining as analyst (or, if Ganville is unavailable, a substitute analyst). This is mainly due to Sciambi’s unavailability as he is also the play-by-play announcer for Chicago Cubs games televised on the Marquee Sports Network. Backup play-by-play announcers for MLB on ESPN Radio included John Schriffen, Karl Ravech, Mike Couzens, and Roxy Bernstein among others.

Sciambi and Glanville also call the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby each year.

As of 2018, Dan Shulman called the World Series and one of the two League Championship Series with Singleton each year (Jessica Mendoza joined this crew in 2020, while Eduardo Pérez joined in 2021, in place of Singleton, who was co-hosting the pregame and postgame segments with Kevin Winter), while Sciambi calls the other LCS with Mendoza. Various other announcers work the network's secondary regular-season, Wild Card Game and Division Series broadcasts as needed. Starting in the 2023 season, Sciambi will also call the World Series and a League Championship Series, succeeding Shulman in those roles.

For the 2020 season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sciambi and Singleton called each game working remotely, rather than at the ballpark. For the 2020 postseason, they and all of ESPN Radio's announcers called the games from the ESPN studios in Bristol, Connecticut.

References

External links

MLB on ESPN Radio

Preceded by CBS	Major League Baseball national radio broadcast partner 1998 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 {{refimprove|article|date=March 2007}}
 {{Infobox Radio Show
-|show_name=MLB on ESPN Radio
+| show_name = Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio
-|image=Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio logo.svg
+| image = Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio logo.svg
-|imagesize=200px
+| imagesize = 200px
-|caption=
+| caption =
-|format=[[Major League Baseball]]
+| format = [[Major League Baseball]]
-|runtime=3 hours (approximate)
+| runtime = 3 hours (approximate)
-|starring=[[Jon Sciambi]]<br>[[Chris Singleton (baseball)|Chris Singleton]]<br>[[Marc Kestecher]]
+| starring = [[Jon Sciambi]]<br />[[Doug Glanville]]<br />[[Marc Kestecher]]
-|country=US
+| country = US
-|home_station=[[ESPN Radio]] (1998–present)
+| home_station = [[ESPN Radio]] (1998–present)
-|first_aired=March 31, 1998
+| first_aired = March 31, 1998
-|last_aired=Present
+| last_aired = Present
 }}
 '''''Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio''''' is the brand name for exclusive play-by-play broadcast presentation of [[Major League Baseball]] on [[ESPN Radio]]. The coverage has most recently been presented by [[Indeed]], along with [[AutoZone]] for the postseason; previous presenting sponsors included [[Wendy's]], [[Barbasol]], [[Nesquik]], [[DraftKings]], [[Xerox]], [[AutoZone]], [[Excedrin]], [[United States Postal Service]] and [[Mercedes-Benz]].
@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 In 2004, ESPN Radio extended the deal with a five-year, [[United States dollar|$]]55 million dollar contract extension through the 2010 season.
-The agreement also added a weekly program devoted to baseball, which became ''[[The Baseball Show]]'' from 3 p.m. [[North American Eastern Time Zone|ET]] to 7 pm. ET on Sundays during the regular season. The program was hosted by [[John Seibel]] and [[Steve Phillips]].
+The agreement also added a weekly program devoted to baseball, which became ''The Baseball Show'' from 3 p.m. [[North American Eastern Time Zone|ET]] to 7 pm. ET on Sundays during the regular season. The program was hosted by [[John Seibel]] and [[Steve Phillips]].
 ===Coverage overview===
-As previously mentioned, in beginning in the 1998 season, ESPN Radio took over from [[Major League Baseball on CBS Radio|CBS Radio]] as the official, national radio broadcaster for [[Major League Baseball]]. The network's contract with MLB currently runs through 2021, and as of 2006, ''Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio'' is heard on over 321 stations across the United States.
+As previously mentioned, in beginning in the 1998 season, ESPN Radio took over from [[Major League Baseball on CBS Radio|CBS Radio]] as the official, national radio broadcaster for [[Major League Baseball]]. The network's contract with MLB currently runs through 2028, and as of 2022, ''Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio'' is part of ESPN Radio’s main lineup, instead of in an opt-in/opt-out basis as in previous years. However, affiliates retain the ability to opt out of broadcasts involving in-market teams during the regular season.
-The games include Opening Day, ''[[Sunday Night Baseball]]'', Saturday ''[[Major League Baseball Game of the Week|Game of the Week]]'' (usually the same matchup as the Sunday Night game), holiday games and September pennant race games. ESPN Radio holds exclusive radio rights to the [[Major League Baseball All-Star Game|All-Star Game]] and [[Home Run Derby]]. The postseason (including the [[Major League Baseball Wild Card Game|Wild Card Game]]s, [[Division Series]], [[League Championship Series]] and [[World Series]]) is a semi-exclusive arrangement. The participating teams' flagship stations are allowed to air play-by-play using their own announcers and production. The national ESPN Radio feed may, however, be carried live on another station in those markets as well (for instance, [[WHB]] in [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] aired the ESPN feed of [[Kansas City Royals]] postseason games in 2014 and 2015, competing directly with the Royals Radio Network broadcast on [[KCSP (AM)|KCSP]]). If affiliate stations on the teams' radio networks wish to carry coverage of postseason games they must use the national feed. Since the inaugural [[World Baseball Classic]] in March 2006, the semi-finals and the championship have also been broadcast as part of ''Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio''.
+The games include Opening Day, ''[[Sunday Night Baseball]]'', Saturday games (usually the same matchup as the Sunday Night game with case-by-case exceptions, mainly due to start time conflicts), holiday games (during [[Memorial Day]], [[Independence Day (United States)|Independence Day]] and [[Labor Day]]; occasionally broadcast as doubleheaders) and September pennant race games. ESPN Radio holds exclusive radio rights to the [[Major League Baseball All-Star Game|All-Star Game]] and [[Home Run Derby]]. The postseason (including the [[Major League Baseball Wild Card Game|Wild Card Game]]s, [[Division Series]], [[League Championship Series]] and [[World Series]]) is a semi-exclusive arrangement. The participating teams' flagship stations are allowed to air play-by-play using their own announcers and production. The national ESPN Radio feed may, however, be carried live on another station in those markets as well (for instance, [[WHB]] in [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] aired the ESPN feed of [[Kansas City Royals]] postseason games in 2014 and 2015, competing directly with the Royals Radio Network broadcast on [[KCSP (AM)|KCSP]]). If affiliate stations on the teams' radio networks wish to carry coverage of postseason games they must use the national feed. Since the inaugural [[World Baseball Classic]] in March 2006, the semi-finals and the championship have also been broadcast as part of ''Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio''. The network also broadcast the ''[[MLB at Field of Dreams]]'' game in 2021.
 In addition to affiliate stations on AM/FM radio, ESPN Radio's game broadcasts are carried as part of [[Sirius XM Radio]]'s MLB coverage (with Sunday night games also being simulcast on [[MLB Network Radio]]). However, they are not included in the subscription "Gameday Audio" package on [[MLB.com]] with the exception of the All-Star Game, for which no other radio play-by-play feed is available.
-Since June 2011, the games can also be heard online at ESPN Radio.com and on mobile devices via the ESPN app and other applications such as [[TuneIn]]. They can also be heard on televisions using connected devices (such as video game consoles) via their respective [[iHeartRadio]] and Tunein apps. Previously, rights restrictions prevented ESPN Radio.com from live-streaming the games.
+Since June 2011, the games can also be heard online at ESPN Radio.com and on mobile devices via the ESPN app and other applications such as [[TuneIn]]. They can also be heard on televisions using connected devices (such as video game consoles) via their respective [[iHeartRadio]] and TuneIn apps. Previously, rights restrictions prevented ESPN Radio.com from live-streaming the games. Despite MLB not enforcing blackouts for radio coverage, game coverage on the ESPN mobile app and TuneIn are restricted to listeners in the United States and that are located outside the markets of both teams involved in that broadcast, regardless if said teams are home or away.
 ===Broadcasters===
 {{see also|List of Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio broadcasters}}
-As of 2011, the primary ESPN Radio crew for ''Sunday Night Baseball'' consists of [[play-by-play]] announcer [[Jon Sciambi]] and [[color analyst]] [[Chris Singleton (baseball)|Chris Singleton]]. In 2010, Sciambi succeeded [[Gary Thorne]], who had called play-by-play in 2008–09; Thorne had succeeded [[Dan Shulman]], did so from 2002 to 2007; Shulman, in turn, had been preceded by [[Charley Steiner]] from 1998 to 2002. Singleton succeeded [[Dave Campbell (infielder)|Dave Campbell]], who was an analyst from 1999 to 2010. Campbell replaced [[Kevin Kennedy (baseball)|Kevin Kennedy]] as analyst in 1999, after the latter had worked with Steiner in the network's inaugural season of coverage. [[Marc Kestecher]] currently serves as the network's primary ''[[Baseball Tonight]]'' studio host; he was preceded by [[Joe D'Ambrosio]] from 1998 to 2007.
+As of 2022, the primary ESPN Radio crew for ''Sunday Night Baseball'' consists of [[play-by-play]] announcer [[Jon Sciambi]] and [[color analyst]] [[Doug Glanville]]. In 2010, Sciambi succeeded [[Gary Thorne]], who had called play-by-play in 2008–09; Thorne had succeeded [[Dan Shulman]], did so from 2002 to 2007; Shulman, in turn, had been preceded by [[Charley Steiner]] from 1998 to 2002. Glanville succeeded [[Chris Singleton (baseball)|Chris Singleton]], who served as analyst from 2011-2021. Singleton, in turn, succeeded [[Dave Campbell (infielder)|Dave Campbell]], who was an analyst from 1999 to 2010. Campbell replaced [[Kevin Kennedy (baseball)|Kevin Kennedy]] as analyst in 1999, after the latter had worked with Steiner in the network's inaugural season of coverage. [[Marc Kestecher]] currently serves as the network's primary ''[[Baseball Tonight]]'' studio host, with Jim Basquil or Kevin Winter substituting for him if Kestecher was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts (mainly with his ''[[NBA on ESPN Radio]]'' play-by-play duties); he was preceded by [[Joe D'Ambrosio]] from 1998 to 2007.
+For other regular season games (especially Saturday games) as well as select Sunday night games, different play-by-play announcers are used with Glanville remaining as analyst (or, if Ganville is unavailable, a substitute analyst). This is mainly due to Sciambi’s unavailability as he is also the play-by-play announcer for [[Chicago Cubs]] games televised on the [[Marquee Sports Network]]. Backup play-by-play announcers for ''MLB on ESPN Radio'' included [[John Schriffen]], [[Karl Ravech]], Mike Couzens, and [[Roxy Bernstein]] among others.
-As of 2018, Dan Shulman calls the [[World Series]] and one of the two [[League Championship Series]] with Singleton each year ([[Jessica Mendoza]] joined this crew in 2020), while Sciambi calls the other LCS with ''Sunday Night Baseball'' TV analyst [[Jessica Mendoza]]. Various other announcers work the network's secondary regular-season, [[Major League Baseball wild-card game|Wild Card Game]] and [[Division Series]] broadcasts as needed. Sciambi and Singleton also call the [[Major League Baseball All-Star Game|All-Star Game]] and Home Run Derby each year.
+Sciambi and Glanville also call the [[Major League Baseball All-Star Game|All-Star Game]] and Home Run Derby each year.
-For the 2020 season, due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], Sciambi and Singleton called each game remotely [[telecommuting|from their respective homes]] rather than at the ballpark. For the 2020 postseason, they and all of ESPN Radio's announcers called the games from the ESPN studios in Bristol, Connecticut.
+As of 2018, Dan Shulman called the [[World Series]] and one of the two [[League Championship Series]] with Singleton each year ([[Jessica Mendoza]] joined this crew in 2020, while [[Eduardo Pérez]] joined in 2021, in place of Singleton, who was co-hosting the pregame and postgame segments with Kevin Winter), while Sciambi calls the other LCS with Mendoza. Various other announcers work the network's secondary regular-season, [[Major League Baseball wild-card game|Wild Card Game]] and [[Division Series]] broadcasts as needed. Starting in the 2023 season, Sciambi will also call the World Series and a League Championship Series, succeeding Shulman in those roles.
+For the 2020 season, due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], Sciambi and Singleton called each game [[remote work|working remotely]], rather than at the ballpark. For the 2020 postseason, they and all of ESPN Radio's announcers called the games from the ESPN studios in Bristol, Connecticut.
 ==See also==
@@ Line 53: / Line 57: @@
 *[[Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio broadcasters]]
 *''[[Major League Baseball Game of the Week]]''
-*''[[The Baseball Show]]''
 *[[List of Major League Baseball All-Star Game broadcasters]]
 *[[List of American League Division Series broadcasters]]
@@ Line 62: / Line 65: @@
 ==References==
-{{reflist}}
+{{reflist|2}}
 *[http://media.espn.com/ESPNToday/index.jsp?content=2004/Oct_04/mlb_espnradio.htm Press Release: ESPN RADIO AND MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL EXTEND AGREEMENT THROUGH 2010]
 *[http://www.espnmediazone.com/press_releases/2007_10_oct/20071002_MLBPost-SeasonEveryGameonESPNRadio.htm Press Release: MLB Post-Season: Every Game on ESPN Radio]{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
@@ Line 68: / Line 71: @@
 ==External links==
-*[http://espn.go.com/espnradio/show?showId=mlbonespnradio MLB on ESPN Radio]
+*[https://www.espn.com/espnradio/show?showId=mlbonespnradio MLB on ESPN Radio]
+{{s-start}}
+{{succession box|before=[[Major League Baseball on CBS Radio|CBS]]| title=[[Major League Baseball on the radio|Major League Baseball national radio]] broadcast partner| years=[[1998 Major League Baseball season|1998]] – present| after=Incumbent}}
+{{s-end}}
 {{Navboxes|list1=
@@ Line 78: / Line 85: @@
 [[Category:American sports radio programs]]
-[[Category:ESPN Radio shows]]
+[[Category:ESPN Radio programs]]
 [[Category:Major League Baseball on the radio|ESPN Radio]]