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.
