TALK ABOUT TURNING up the heat on baseball's Hot Stove - MLB Network launches Thursday at 6 p.m.
Around the dial
West Virginia and North Carolina not only got one of ESPN's best announcing crews for its bowl game in Charlotte, N.C., but one of the network's busiest. Sean McDonough and Chris Spielman are working four bowl games for ESPN this season - three with Rob Stone on the sidelines (the other with Holly Rowe). For the record, ESPN's other busiest teams during the bowl season are: Dave Pasch and Andre Ware, Joe Tessitore and Rod Gilmore and Dave Barnett and Dennis Franchione. Each of those three announcing pairs are working three bowl games this year.
From the "in case you missed it the first time" dept. - ESPN will replay six consecutive hours of the "World's Strongest Man Competition" taped in Charleston from 1 to 7 p.m. today, and ESPNU will replay the Meineke Car Care Bowl tonight at 9.
From the NFL, the network pregame shows are all over Chad Pennington's return to New York today (4 p.m., WOWK locally) to face the Jets with a playoff berth and the AFC East title on the line. Pennington has engineered an amazing turnaround in Miami, from 1-15 in 2007 to 10-5. On ESPN's "NFL Countdown," Rachel Nichols reports on the ties that bind Pennington and the Jets' Brett Farve. "The NFL Today" on CBS also is featuring the Pennington-Farve showdown as its top feature this morning.
He said it
From CBS's Boomer Esiason on today's Dolphins-Jets game: "Since the Jets cannot muster a pass rush without blitzing, the last thing they want to do is let Chad Pennington sit in the pocket all comfy-cozy. You have to blitz and get pressure on Chad Pennington any way you can. You can't just let him sit back there. Brett Favre has to get out of this malaise."
Reach Dave Weekley at week...@yahoo.com.
TALK ABOUT TURNING up the heat on baseball's Hot Stove - MLB Network launches Thursday at 6 p.m.
Major League Baseball avoided the carriage problems that the NFL Network is still experiencing by bringing in Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner and Cox Communications as minority partners in the new channel. MLB Network's initial availability into 50 million homes later this week will be the largest debut in cable television history.
When it hits the air on New Year's Day, MLB Network will have a one-hour Hot Stove studio show, immediately followed by a showing of the long-lost television broadcast of Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Larson's Game 5 gem against the Dodgers will also include new postgame commentary by Larsen and Yankees catcher Yogi Berra.
MLB Network will have the ability to go live to any game for in-progress updates and will have a 26-game package of games on Thursday nights once the regular season begins in April. The network's new studio show, "MLB Tonight," will also be a godsend for baseball fans that are night owls, with live updates and cut-ins until all of the West Coast games are completed each night. Until the regular season begins, MLB Network's programming will include classic games, spring training games and action from the second World Baseball Classic in March.
MLB Network will broadcast from MSNBC's former base in Secaucus, N.J. Among its new broadcast facilities will be a half-scale infield called "Studio 42" which will have seating for over 125 people and features a real-time out-of-town scoreboard, similar to the one at Pittsburgh's PNC Park.
MLB Network's initial staff of on-air talent will feature some familiar faces.
Matt Vasgersian will be MLB Network's main studio host. Vasgersian called last year's Fiesta Bowl win by West Virginia for Fox and has extensive baseball play-by-play experience, most recently as the voice of the San Diego Padres. A bit of trivia - after graduating from Southern Cal in 1989, Vasgersian's first broadcasting job in baseball came as the radio voice of the long-gone Huntington Cubs in the Appalachian League in 1991.
Barry Larkin has also joined on with MLB Network. A 19-year major leaguer with the Cincinnati Reds and a 12-time All-Star, Larkin moves into broadcasting after a two-year stint as a special assistant to Washington general manager Jim Bowden, specializing in player development and scouting.
"I'm excited to join my new team," said Larkin. "It's great to be part of something from the development stages, and I'm looking forward to working with the group to build a great program."
FSN Pittsburgh alum Trenni Kusnierek also resurfaces as a reporter. Kusnierek was at FSN Pittsburgh from 2003-07 where she filled a variety of roles, including roving reporter on Pirates' telecasts.
For DirecTV customers, MLB Network will be on channel 213, one click above the NFL Network (DTV 212) and close to the ESPN series of channels (DTV 206-209).
Around the dial
West Virginia and North Carolina not only got one of ESPN's best announcing crews for its bowl game in Charlotte, N.C., but one of the network's busiest. Sean McDonough and Chris Spielman are working four bowl games for ESPN this season - three with Rob Stone on the sidelines (the other with Holly Rowe). For the record, ESPN's other busiest teams during the bowl season are: Dave Pasch and Andre Ware, Joe Tessitore and Rod Gilmore and Dave Barnett and Dennis Franchione. Each of those three announcing pairs are working three bowl games this year.
From the "in case you missed it the first time" dept. - ESPN will replay six consecutive hours of the "World's Strongest Man Competition" taped in Charleston from 1 to 7 p.m. today, and ESPNU will replay the Meineke Car Care Bowl tonight at 9.
From the NFL, the network pregame shows are all over Chad Pennington's return to New York today (4 p.m., WOWK locally) to face the Jets with a playoff berth and the AFC East title on the line. Pennington has engineered an amazing turnaround in Miami, from 1-15 in 2007 to 10-5. On ESPN's "NFL Countdown," Rachel Nichols reports on the ties that bind Pennington and the Jets' Brett Farve. "The NFL Today" on CBS also is featuring the Pennington-Farve showdown as its top feature this morning.
He said it
From CBS's Boomer Esiason on today's Dolphins-Jets game: "Since the Jets cannot muster a pass rush without blitzing, the last thing they want to do is let Chad Pennington sit in the pocket all comfy-cozy. You have to blitz and get pressure on Chad Pennington any way you can. You can't just let him sit back there. Brett Favre has to get out of this malaise."
Reach Dave Weekley at week...@yahoo.com.
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