Originally Posted by shaun_d:
“Josh Chetwynd has tweeted that there are no plans for regular season MLB commentaries this year but there are plans to be onsite for the World Series. Seems strange to me but I'm sure there's some logic there.”
“Josh Chetwynd has tweeted that there are no plans for regular season MLB commentaries this year but there are plans to be onsite for the World Series. Seems strange to me but I'm sure there's some logic there.”
Very disappointing news (the bit I've emboldened rather than the bit about them planning to cover the World Series on-site), thanks for posting about it along with the rest of the information you have provided. Josh has also tweeted that USP Content and Radio 5 Live are "discussing ways for some coverage during the regular season" so it will be interesting to see if they can work something out.
I think if BBC Radio Sport needs to make cutbacks then something that is not UK-based and of minority interest like their Major League Baseball coverage will always be an obvious target to cut back on. As a regular listener over the past four years, I've come to accept that 5 Live Baseball will always (almost always rightly so) take a back seat to coverage of other sports, with it being off-air for weeks on end when Radio 5 Live Sports Extra is needed for things like Olympic Games and Wimbledon. In many ways I think fans of NFL radio coverage in the UK were fortunate that a commercial broadcaster in Absolute Radio 90s arrived with the intention to give the NFL a similar level of weekly coverage as 5LSE did at the time they did, you cannot blame the BBC for stepping aside given the circumstances, but when this happened things did not look good for the future of 5 Live Baseball. In the current climate I suppose I should be grateful that the BBC have at least committed to covering the World Series this year.
Given that Josh mentions the regular season in his tweets, I'm hoping that they are not just planning to cover the World Series in 2014 but also the earlier rounds of the MLB Playoffs, which have received really extensive coverage on 5LSE during the past two years. But I'd hope they can come to some kind of arrangement to continue 5 Live Baseball in the months prior to October too, even if it doesn't take a weekly Thursday/Sunday evening slot during the weeks when 5LSE is free. And if you gave me the choice between having on-site World Series commentaries and little else or relays of US radio commentaries on the Fall Classic with studio presentation, but with considerably more coverage of MLB games prior to the World Series, I personally would opt for the latter.
