Originally Posted by
The Difference:
“Some positive news to report from the USA and ESPN's coverage of Major League Baseball.
Having announced that he was in remission from mouth cancer last month, Curt Schilling returned to ESPN's MLB coverage this past week. His first appearance back on the channel came on Thursday when he was a panellist on highlights show Baseball Tonight, before he did his first colour commentary stint of the year on Sunday Night Baseball, joining Dan Shulman and John Kruk in the booth at Camden Yards for the New York Yankees @ Baltimore Orioles game. Great to see Curt back covering the sport.
”
Good news indeed. He was in the booth last night alongside Shulman and Kruk for ESPN's coverageo of Detroit v Kansas City.
Incidentally, some details of this year's postseason coverage emerged last week (detailed by Awful Announcing
here). There are a few changes this season with it being the first year of a new national TV contract.
- ESPN has the National League wildcard game, which Shulman, Kruk and hopefully Schilling will call.
- TBS wil have the American League wildcard game as well as the AL Division and Championship Series. Ernie Johnson, Ron Darling, and Cal Ripken will call the wildcard, one ALDS series and the ALCS, while Brian Anderson, Dennis Eckersley, and Joe Simpson will call the other division series. Previously, TBS covered both NLDS contests too. This reduction in their coverage means there's no place for the likes of Don Orsillo, Dick Stockton and Buck Martinez.
- The National League Division and Championship Series as well as the World Series will air on Fox and Fox Sports 1, apart from two NLDS games that will appear on MLB Network. Fox's main commentary trio of Joe Buck, Tom Verducci, and Harold Reynolds will call one NLDS series, the NLCS and the World Series, with Matt Vasgersian and John Smoltz calling the other NLDS matchup.
- Game one of the NLCS will be on Fox and Fox Sports 1 with the latter channel airing an alternative, stats- and sabermetrics-friendly broadcast featuring Kevin Burkhardt, Rob Neyer, Gabe Kapler, and C.J. Nitkowski. I really hope this feed is available via MLB.TV, but I'm not too hopeful.
- MLB Network's two NLDS games will presumably feature Bob Costas and Jim Kaat on commentary, but I haven't seen that confirmed.
- No word on the international feed where Gary Thorne and Rick Sutcliffe will presumably be reunited. I'd expect them to cover the NLCS as well as the World Series, and this will likely be the feed that BT/ESPN take in the UK.