Monday 14th October - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Josh Chetwynd and Erik Janssen

Baseball: National League Championship Series, Game Three
St. Louis Cardinals @ Los Angeles Dodgers - Vin Scully, Charley Steiner and Rick Monday (commentary provided by KLAC AM 570 - "The Dodgers Radio Network")

5LSE came on-air later than scheduled, with their coverage starting at around 1.25am to join the game in the top of the second inning, citing technical difficulties for this which I presume would have come from Josh's end (who I believe still broadcasts his part of the programme from wherever he is based in the States). Josh was broadcasting via an audibly weak ISDN line throughout while Erik, the commentary and telephone guests sounded as clearly as they usually would. There were no further problems and they stayed with the game until the finish.

The commentary split on the Dodgers Radio Network during the postseason is that long-serving announcer Vin Scully handles the first three innings on his own (as per home games during the regular season) before Charley and Rick take over. They commentate on innings 4-6 before Vin returns in the seventh to commentate on the game until its conclusion.

As I speculated might be the case, Josh announced that the next live baseball on 5LSE will be Game Five of the NLCS on Wednesday night from 9pm.

Wednesday 16th October - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Nat Coombs and Josh Chetwynd

Baseball: National League Championship Series, Game Five
St. Louis Cardinals @ Los Angeles Dodgers - Vin Scully, Charley Steiner and Rick Monday (commentary provided by KLAC AM 570 - "The Dodgers Radio Network")

The next live baseball on 5LSE will be Game Five of the ALCS between the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers tonight (or rather from just after 1am BST). I'm pretty sure that Nat also mentioned something about them covering a decisive Game Seven should one be necessary, which is obviously a welcome move ahead of the World Series.

The live baseball is coming thick and fast now - to think I had been a bit disappointed that they hadn't covered a game on the final day of the regular season or one of the single game Wild Card Playoffs, both of which they did last year, seeing as since then they have excelled themselves by carrying commentaries on at least eight games from the Division Series and Championship Series rounds of the playoffs. Well done to all involved in their coverage at both 5LSE and USP Content for broadcasting so many live games in both evening and overnight timeslots UK time.

Thursday 17th October - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Josh Chetwynd and Erik Janssen

Baseball: American League Championship Series, Game Five
Boston Red Sox @ Detroit Tigers - Dan Dickerson and Jim Price (commentary provided by Talk Radio 1270AM WXYT - "The Detroit Tigers Radio Network")

They'll be yet another live MLB game on 5LSE tonight/tomorrow morning from 1.30am in the form of Game Six of the NLCS. It wouldn't surprise me if the station carries all of the remaining games from the MLB season between now and the end of the month given their level of coverage this week and that that we're now into the state of play where each LCS game going forward is a potential series decider and then we get to the World Series.

On the subject of the Fall Classic, I have listened to the vast majority of 5 Live Baseball's coverage this week but have still not heard anything concrete about how they are planning to cover it. However, at one point during this morning's show Josh spoke about working with Simon Brotherton at the 2011 World Series (in the context of Simon's superb commentary on David Freese's Game Six winning home run for the St. Louis Cardinals) but didn't go any further with that trail of thought - perhaps this is reading too much into things, but if Simon and Josh were to be covering the World Series on-site then perhaps he'd have mentioned it at that point. I'm wondering if Simon's newly-established BT Sport commentary commitments alongside his BBC work may prevent him from travelling to the States or if there's another reason why they at least haven't announced any details of their World Series coverage yet. It'll be interesting to see if Simon gets any football commentary appointments this weekend, I'd expect the BBC to give him the weekend off if he's going to be jetting out to the States in the week.

Dave Farrar has tweeted that Cheltenham Radio have replaced their Timeform Service with a service from LloydBell. Dave does not seem too happy about it.

BBC RADIO LEICESTER

HEINEKEN CUP - POOL STAGES
Leicester Tigers v Treviso - Charles Dagnall presenting from Welford Road with Bleddyn Jones and Steve Johnson (commentary)
Saracens v Toulouse - Simon Ward

BBC WM DAB and BBC Solent AM and FM

Tuesday 15th October

Elite League Speedway Final Second Leg
Birmingham Brummies v Poole Pirates - Mike Taylor (Presenter and Commentator) , Andy Moon (In the Pits) and Steven Allen (Along side Mike)

LloydBell being the production company directed by the talkSPORT horse racing, rugby union and golf commentator Rupert Bell.

According to Rupert's Twitter feed, he is covering the Champions Day meeting at Cheltenham with Aly Rowell, Oli Bell and Niall Hannity for RSL station Cheltenham Radio 87.7FM.

Friday 18th October - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Josh Chetwynd and Erik Janssen

Baseball: National League Championship Series, Game Six
Los Angeles Dodgers @ St. Louis Cardinals - Mike Shannon and John Rooney (commentary provided by KMOX 1120AM - "The St. Louis Cardinals Radio Network")

Spoiling the information below in case anyone reading this has recorded last night's game and wants to avoid the outcome, includes scheduling information:

Northampton Saints v Ospreys (Heineken Cup RU)

BBC Radio Wales - Ross Harries (host from ground) Gareth Charles and Martyn Williams (All frequencies / Online)
BBC Radio Cymru - Cennydd Davies (studio host) Huw Llewellyn Davies and Dwayne Peel (commentary / Online)
BBC Radio 5 Live - Iain Robertson and Paul Grayson

Dwayne managed to get to his commentary point for Radio Cymru just over a minute into the game due to traffic difficulties in the area.

Saturday 19th October - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Josh Chetwynd and Jason Hirsh

Baseball: American League Championship Series, Game Six
Detroit Tigers @ Boston Red Sox - Dave O'Brien, Joe Castiglione and Lou Merloni (commentary provided by WEEI 93.7FM - "The Boston Red Sox Radio Network")

Co-host Jason Hirsh is a former Major League Baseball starting pitcher who was part of the Colorado Rockies team that reached the 2007 World Series.

Sunday 20th October - Absolute Radio 90s

NFL on Absolute Radio 90s with Adam Hunt and Mark Hunter

American Football: NFL Week 7
Houston Texans @ Kansas City Chiefs - Tom McCarthy and Rod Woodson (commentary provided by Westwood One)

Nat Coombs joined Adam and Mark at half-time. Tom McCarthy is normally the lead commentator on the Philadelphia Phillies MLB team's local television broadcasts.

Josh Chetewynd confirmed on Twitter earlier that 5 Live will be covering the World Series but won't be on site.

I suspected that might be the case - Josh asked Jason Hirsh during Saturday's ALCS coverage whether he'd be willing to join him at some point during the World Series (he said yes), which lead me to assume that they'll be doing studio coverage with Josh and others. Perhaps this is down to Simon Brotherton's new commitments on BT Sport, BBC cost-cutting or a combination of the two - either way, if a small amount of the money saved in not sending Simon and Josh to the World Series has been ploughed into covering as many matches from the Division Series and Championship Series as they did, then that is some consolation at least.

Of course the coverage will be broadcast in full on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, but I wonder if Radio 5 Live will be carrying the latter stages of a few of the games during their Up All Night programme. They have taken the final few innings (at least up until Morning Reports at 5am) of most/all the matches of the last two World Series, which Simon and Josh were on-site for, but only did so on the weekend Games Three and Four - and not the decisive Game Five - of the 2010 World Series, which was the first they covered since launching their weekly 5LSE baseball coverage and the last one they covered by simulcasting US local radio coverage.

Major League Baseball Postseason 2013, Team Radio Networks in the USA

American League

Boston Red Sox - Dave O'Brien, Joe Castiglione and Lou Merloni (WEEI)
Detroit Tigers - Dan Dickerson and Jim Price (WXYT)
Oakland Athletics - Ken Korach, Vince Cotroneo and Ray Fosse (KGMZ)
Tampa Bay Rays - Dave Wills and Andy Freed (WDAE)
Cleveland Indians - Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus (WTAM)
Texas Rangers - Eric Nadel and Matt Hicks (KESN)

National League

St. Louis Cardinals - Mike Shannon and John Rooney, with Mike Claiborne and Rick Horton (KMOX)
Los Angeles Dodgers - Vin Scully, Charley Steiner and Rick Monday (KLAC)
Pittsburgh Pirates - Greg Brown, Tim Neverett, Bob Walk, Steve Blass and John Wehner (KDKA)
Atlanta Braves - Jim Powell and Don Sutton (WCNN)
Cincinnati Reds - Marty Brennaman, Jim Kelch and Jeff Brantley (WLW)

Major League Baseball Postseason 2013, ESPN Radio (USA)

American League Wild Card Tiebreaker Game

Tampa Bay Rays @ Texas Rangers - Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton

National League Wild Card Game

Cincinnati Reds @ Pittsburgh Pirates - Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser, with Bob Holtzman as field reporter

American League Wild Card Game

Tampa Bay Rays @ Cleveland Indians - Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton, with Buster Olney as field reporter

National League Division Series

Los Angeles Dodgers v Atlanta Braves - Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser, with Tim Kurkjian as field reporter
Pittsburgh Pirates v St. Louis Cardinals - Dave Flemming and Rick Sutcliffe, with Bob Holtzman (games 1, 2, 4 and 5) and T.J. Quinn (game 3) as field reporters

American League Division Series

Detroit Tigers v Oakland Athletics - Michael Kay and Aaron Boone, with Pedro Gomez as field reporter
Tampa Bay Rays v Boston Red Sox - Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton, with Buster Olney as field reporter

National League Championship Series

Los Angeles Dodgers v St. Louis Cardinals - Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser, with Tim Kurkjian as field reporter

American League Championship Series

Detroit Tigers v Boston Red Sox - Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton, with Buster Olney as field reporter

World Series

St. Louis Cardinals v Boston Red Sox - Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser, with Jon Sciambi, Chris Singleton and Peter Pascarelli as field reporters

ESPN Radio's Baseball Tonight pregame, ingame and postgame presenters from their Bristol, Connecticut studios during the postseason have been Marc Kestecher, Kevin Winter and John Brickley (in that order of seniority). For the World Series, Marc Kestecher is presenting Baseball Tonight from the studios with Jon Sciambi, Chris Singleton and Peter Pascarelli joining him for analysis and interviews from the field at Fenway Park and Busch Stadium.

Wednesday 23rd October - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Josh Chetwynd and Jason Hirsh

Baseball: World Series, Game One
St. Louis Cardinals @ Boston Red Sox - Dave O'Brien, Joe Castiglione and Lou Merloni (commentary provided by WEEI 93.7FM - "The Boston Red Sox Radio Network")

BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night also had coverage of Game One of the World Series. Just before 3am, they crossed to Fenway Park for a brief pre-news update from a Boston-based radio engineer called Mike Wilkins and then following the 4am news and sports bulletins, they began simulcasting 5LSE's live coverage going into the bottom of the eight inning, staying with it until the conclusion of the game and 5 Live Baseball at 4.30am. On the back of the 4.30am news, Josh Chetwynd joined Up All Night presenter Rhod Sharp to chat about the game and the series for a few minutes (what ESPN Radio would call a "postgame extra").

Josh and Jason will be in the chairs again for Game Two. By the way, nice to see Josh evoking memories of the halcyon days of MLB on Channel 5 by wearing the only acceptable presenting attire for the World Series.

Thursday 24th October - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Josh Chetwynd and Erik Janssen

Baseball: World Series, Game Two
St. Louis Cardinals @ Boston Red Sox - Dave O'Brien, Joe Castiglione and Lou Merloni (commentary provided by WEEI 93.7FM - "The Boston Red Sox Radio Network")

BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night began their simulcast of Game Two of the World Series just after their 3.30am news and sports bulletins during the seventh inning stretch. They stuck with the game (uninterrupted with no breaks for news and sport bulletins) until the conclusion of the match and 5LSE's coverage. Not long after 5LSE had gone off-air, Josh joined Up All Night presenter Dotun Adebayo for a postgame chat on 5 Live.

Not sure why Erik was in the co-presenters chair rather than Jason Hirsh, who I'm sure was stated to be joining Josh for Game Two at the end of their coverage of the series opener. It'll be interesting to find out who will co-host the remainder of the series with JC, I doubt we'll hear Nat Coombs over the weekend given his commitments with Channel 4's NFL coverage (with them covering the second Wembley game as well as Sunday Night Football, which will rule him out of Game Four at least). It always seems a shame that Nat misses out on covering the World Series after being so involved in 5 Live Baseball throughout the regular season and the early rounds of the postseason, but that's just the way it goes I suppose. It'd be great if they could get the original 5 Live Baseball host and former MLB on Five TV presenter Jonny Gould on at some point, if only for old time's sake.

Ospreys v Newport-Gwent Dragons (RaboDirect Pro12 RU)

BBC Radio Wales - Rick O'Shea (hosting from the stadium) with Huw Bennett and Paul Williams (All frequencies) (occasional commentary)

Bath v Gloucester (Aviva Premiership RU)

BBC Bristol/Somerset - Dan Albutt (studio host) Andrew Sheridan and Tom Bradshaw (95.5FM / 104.6FM / DAB / Online)

Saturday 26th October - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Josh Chetwynd and Jason Hirsh

Baseball: World Series, Game Three
Boston Red Sox @ St. Louis Cardinals - Mike Shannon and John Rooney (commentary provided by KMOX 1120AM - "The St. Louis Cardinals Radio Network")

BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night began their simulcast of Game Three of the World Series just after the clocks went back an hour and into GMT, after their second 2am news and sports bulletins (thus at the start of the third hour of the show at what would have been 3am BST), joining Josh and Jason just before the top of the six inning. Without giving too much away, the game slowed down somewhat from that point onwards and coverage continued until the conclusion of the match about two hours later, with it not being interrupted for (half) hourly news and sport bulletins. There wasn't an addition postgame chat between Josh and Dotun Abebayo as there has been after the previous games, but given the length of the simulcast I don't think you can blame them for that! Josh and Jason will be back in the presenting chairs this evening.

Sunday 27th October - Absolute Radio 90s

NFL on Absolute Radio 90s with Adam Hunt (from the studio throughout) and Dan Louw (from Wembley Stadium during the earlier game, before joining Adam in the studio for the later game)

American Football: NFL Week 8
San Francisco 49ers @ Jacksonville Jaguars (Wembley Stadium) - Darren Fletcher and Rocky Boiman (5pm GMT commentary)
Washington Redskins @ Denver Broncos - Matt Smith and Tony Hill (8.25pm GMT commentary provided by Compass Media Networks)

There was no overlap between the Wembley game and the later game and I think AR90s filled the time between the games by playing some music. Not sure how Dan Louw got from Wembley to their studio so quickly, but he has made it in as I type this during the first quarter. I'm not sure if any guest summarisers joined Darren and Rocky at Wembley. Owen Hargreaves was among their guests, but I think they were a two-man tandem for the match itself.

Forces station BFBS Radio 2 simulcast much of AR90s' coverage of the Wembley game, joining the game through until its conclusion from 6pm after their coverage of Chelsea v Manchester City in the Premier League.

Not as summarizers but they were joined by Fred Biletikoff, hall of fame Raider, for Q1, Hargreaves for Q2, and Alistair Kirkwood (MD of NFL UK) for Q3. They were on their own for Q4.

Fletcher and Boiman also confirmed they will be in New York in February to again call the Super Bowl, having done so from New Orleans for BBC 5 live earlier this year.

Sunday 27th October - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Josh Chetwynd and Jason Hirsh

Baseball: World Series, Game Four
Boston Red Sox @ St. Louis Cardinals - Mike Shannon and John Rooney (commentary provided by KMOX 1120AM - "The St. Louis Cardinals Radio Network")

BBC Radio 5 Live did not simulcast any live commentary on Game Four of the World Series, with Up All Night being largely devoted to ongoing coverage of the storm that hit the south of England and Wales last night. Josh Chetwynd did pop up for a postgame chat with Up All Night presenter Dotun Adebayo after 4am though.

Monday 28th October - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Josh Chetwynd and Jason Hirsh

Baseball: World Series, Game Five
Boston Red Sox @ St. Louis Cardinals - Mike Shannon and John Rooney (commentary provided by KMOX 1120AM - "The St. Louis Cardinals Radio Network")

BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night began their simulcast of Game Five of the World Series at about 2.45am while the game was in a pitching change during the bottom of the eighth inning. They continued with 5LSE's coverage of the game until its conclusion, with Josh joining Up All Night host Rhod Sharp for a postgame chat on 5 Live shortly after they had gone off-air on 5LSE.

Along with former Colorado Rockies pitcher Jason Hirsh, Radio 5 Live Sports Extra has also called upon another former Major League Baseball player during the World Series in former St. Louis Cardinals catcher Gary Bennett. Thus far Bennett, who is an analyst for Fox Sports Midwest (the regional sports network that broadcasts the Cardinals' local telecasts during the regular season), has joined them for a couple of breaks between half innings during their coverage of every game of the series so far except for Game Three.

Seeing as last night's game will be the last time we should hear from the Cardinals radio network this year, I'll add in how their commentary set-up works what with both Mike Shannon and John Rooney alternating between the play-by-play and analyst roles. Typically Shannon leads the commentary during innings 1-2, 5-6 and 9 with Rooney heading the team during innings 3-4 and 7-8. It has been a similar situation on the Red Sox radio network, with Dave O'Brien leading the commentary during innings 1-2, 5 and 8-9 and Joe Castiglione doing so during innings 3-4 and 6-7, although rather than alternating between stints as co-commentator as they normally would during the regular season, that role has instead been taken by Lou Merloni for the Red Sox home games in the ALCS and throughout the World Series.

Wednesday 30th October - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Josh Chetwynd and Jason Hirsh

Baseball: World Series, Game Six
St. Louis Cardinals @ Boston Red Sox - Dave O'Brien, Joe Castiglione and Lou Merloni (commentary provided by WEEI 93.7FM - "The Boston Red Sox Radio Network")

BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night called upon Josh for an update on Game Six of the World Series while it was in play in the top of the fifth at about 1.55am, before beginning their simulcast of 5LSE's live coverage at 2.45am during the seventh inning stretch. 5 Live carried uninterrupted coverage of the game from that point onwards until its conclusion, before returning to Up All Night after a brief postgame summary. 5LSE's coverage continued for a further 20 minutes or so with them taking interviews from the field, primarily those conducted by WEEI's Joe Castiglione but also some from the trophy presentation with Fox's Erin Andrews doing the honours.

Unfortunately 5 Live Baseball was hit by a few technical problems in linking up with their commentary at the crucial point in Game Six, with Josh and Jason having to call Shane Victorino's three-run RBI double in the third inning while their line was down, which is a shame as otherwise their coverage has been terrific, not just over the past week of the World Series but across the whole of this month's postseason and throughout the regular season as well.

Josh put a nice touch into his final sign-off for the season at the end of 5LSE's coverage by thanking everyone who had been involved in 5 Live Baseball during 2013 - as well as Josh and Jason, there's been regular host Nat Coombs, substitute presenters and analysts in Erik Janssen, Mike Carlson, Tony Husband and Andy Gibb, plus all of the producers and assistant producers from production company USP Content, who were Rob Jones, Simon Crosse, Charlie Jones, Gavin Nesbitt, Jonjo Neeves and Max Whittle.

I'd like to echo Josh's thoughts and his thanks to the entire crew at both Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and USP Content for another fantastic year of Major League Baseball coverage, which like last year particularly came into its own in the postseason with an impressive amount of live games being broadcast. As you might have been able to tell from my posts on here since April, I listen on a regular basis and really enjoy being able to do so! Here's hoping that 5 Live Baseball will be back on the airwaves in April 2014 for another exciting season. When it was first announced that NFL coverage was leaving 5LSE, I feared this could indicate the end of the road for 5 Live Baseball at the conclusion of the season, but since then it has been reassuring to see Absolute Radio 90s pick up NFL UK radio rights and my hope is that this was simply a case of the BBC yielding those rights to a commercial station who could do them justice and nothing more than that. If anything, with the NFL no longer on 5LSE I'd love to see 5 Live Baseball returning to its original Sunday evening timeslot in the New Year as had happened on quite a few occasions at the back end of this season. Well done again to everyone involved in the coverage in 2013, have a great offseason.

As we head into November, with summer sports such as cricket (both county and England's home series), rugby league's Super League, speedway and now Major League Baseball all being wrapped up for another year, I thought it was high time to start a new thread for 2013/14. We've got some great sport on the calendar ahead, what with England's Ashes series in Australia and rugby union's Autumn Internationals all on the immediate horizon, as well as the Rugby League World Cup having just gotten underway.

The new thread can be found here: Radio Sports Commentators and Reporters 2013/14 (non-football)