MLB Off-Topic

[Cod]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I feel like there could be some entertaining reactions to this

If you look online, the ongoing jokes are that Cashman and Steinbrenner saw Devin Williams' jawline and thought "Hmmm, yeah, we need to cover that up"

lol

[Cod]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

The days of baseball being as relevant as it was 20 years ago, with that classic Sunday Night Baseball presentation ever week, are long gone tho. And it's not ESPN's fault, tbf.

TV ratings don't line up with this though. MLB is the only one of the major American sports leagues to see a ratings increase in 2024...even the NFL was down 2%.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

ESPN didn't kill baseball on ESPN, MLB Network killed baseball on ESPN.
And that's not a bad thing. I go to ESPN and its sister stations for college ball, MLB Network for MLB type stuffs.

[Majingir]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

The interesting part of all that isn't even that MLB has an issue with ratings, they have an issue with lack of coverage outside of the games.

But...if they go to another network, who is covering them outside of games either? Or is that the point? The benefit of ESPN was also getting the SC coverage, but that doesn't matter if SC doesn't spend much time on the MLB, so why not just go to some other network where your deal isn't also paying for extra coverage outside of the games?

Would CBS or NBC look at getting the MLB? MLB is slowly partnering with Peacock the past few years, maybe looking for something bigger?

[Cod]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Would CBS or NBC look at getting the MLB? MLB is slowly partnering with Peacock the past few years, maybe looking for something bigger?

100%. MLB is probably in discussions with all the giant tech companies as they've made it very clear they're targeting live sports.

[Majingir]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

100%. MLB is probably in discussions with all the giant tech companies as they've made it very clear they're targeting live sports.

NBC getting MLB rights too, this would really be like the 90s again with NBA and MLB on NBC.

[phenom1990]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Given that NBC has Sunday night packages with the NFL and NBA, I don’t see a natural Sunday night package for them unless Peacock is being used exclusively.

[Blzer]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

ESPN didn't kill baseball on ESPN, MLB Network killed baseball on ESPN.
And that's not a bad thing. I go to ESPN and its sister stations for college ball, MLB Network for MLB type stuffs.

NFL Network didn't kill football on ESPN, and NBA TV didn't kill basketball on ESPN.

Sent from my SM-S938U1 using Tapatalk

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

NFL Network didn't kill football on ESPN, and NBA TV didn't kill basketball on ESPN.

Sent from my SM-S938U1 using Tapatalk

When comparing NFL MLB and NBA Networks, we're comparing apples to pencils.

People can't get enough of anything NFL, see the interest in the NFL draft.
The NFL Network alone couldn't kill ESPN NFL even if it tried. Only the NFL could kill NFL on ESPN.

NBA Network is garbage (IMO) compared to NFL and MLB Networks. NBA Network could learn a thing or two from TNT's coverage of the NBA. So in it's present state, NBA Network has no chance of killing ESPN NBA.

[Blzer]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

When comparing NFL MLB and NBA Networks, we're comparing apples to pencils.

People can't get enough of anything NFL, see the interest in the NFL draft.
The NFL Network alone couldn't kill ESPN NFL even if it tried. Only the NFL could kill NFL on ESPN.

NBA Network is garbage (IMO) compared to NFL and MLB Networks. NBA Network could learn a thing or two from TNT's coverage of the NBA. So in it's present state, NBA Network has no chance of killing ESPN NBA.

Perhaps.

The point is ESPN abandoned the MLB long ago. Games, programs, highlights, and talking segments. The only reason MLB was brought up yesterday was because of the Yankees' facial hair policy. Otherwise every hot take show that they have won't ever care to cover anything on the regular for the MLB.

Meanwhile, those shows have no problem with every conversation being about NBA and NFL, no matter how many stations may be covering them simultaneously (and during both off-seasons, no less). You'd think that late June and early July is ruled by the MLB on ESPN, but nope.

The good news is that ESPN Radio has yet to completely abandon it, but that's very program-dependent.

[DrJones]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Apologies for the self-serving spam, but today is a special anniversary for me and a few friends of mine.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/02/22/we-did-it-right-how-krukow-kuiper-became-voices-of-mvp-baseball-2005/

For those curious, I signed the ball, "Barry, keep on sluggin'! Jon Dowd #51"

I wonder which Bay Area landfill that ball resides in today.

(I never did hear back from Barry - we did get a generically signed ball from Bonds at some point, but it was raffled off to someone else on the team.)

[Blzer]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Apologies for the self-serving spam, but today is a special anniversary for me and a few friends of mine.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/02/22/we-did-it-right-how-krukow-kuiper-became-voices-of-mvp-baseball-2005/

For those curious, I signed the ball, "Barry, keep on sluggin'! Jon Dowd #51"

I wonder which Bay Area landfill that ball resides in today.

(I never did hear back from Barry - we did get a generically signed ball from Bonds at some point, but it was raffled off to someone else on the team.)

No need to apologize! That was a wonderful read, and this is my favorite broadcasting duo of all time.

It saddened me that we never got an "OUTTA HERE!" home run call, and in some ways I'm surprised to hear that they actually got to ad-lib some because a lot of it sounds like they're reading off a script (specifically Kuiper).

That's awesome that you were the one who signed the ball, too.

[DrJones]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

No need to apologize! That was a wonderful read, and this is my favorite broadcasting duo of all time.

It saddened me that we never got an "OUTTA HERE!" home run call, and in some ways I'm surprised to hear that they actually got to ad-lib some because a lot of it sounds like they're reading off a script (specifically Kuiper).

I remember being surprised as well that the "OUTTA HERE!" HR call was never recorded. (Or perhaps it was recorded, but the audio triggers didn't work.) And yeah, a lot of Kuiper & Krukow's lines would've written for them (probably by Ben Brinkman, aka Anthony Friese, who was production liaison at the time), but ad-libbing was always encouraged.

I never met Kruk and Kuip, as their recordings were done in California, and Ben (being a California native) was the natural choice to work with them. Each recording session typically included one EA producer (to work with the talent, make sure we got all the takes we wanted, player name pronunciations, etc.) and one EA audio engineer to deal with tech issues, etc.

I did work with Jim Hughson and Buck Martinez and wrote the majority of the dialogue for Triple Play 2001, including the goofy HRD stuff in the living room, etc. (They recorded their dialogue in Vancouver.) Also wrote a fair amount of Sean McDonough and Harold Reynolds' stuff in TP (no year) Baseball. Never met McDonough, but I worked with Harold in both Vancouver and Bristol, Connecticut (Harold gave me and an EA audio guy a tour of the ESPN campus, met Buck Showalter, Karl Ravech, and a few non-baseball folks like Mike Tirico, Steve Levy, Tom Jackson). I remember the exact date - October 21, 2001 - because it was Game 4 of the Yankees/Mariners ALCS and an Eagles/Giants SNF game. Bristol is a weird place.

Also worked with Bob Costas once in St. Louis. Costas is extremely guarded when it comes to his image. Rather than directly writing dialogue for him, I worked with his personal script writer (nice guy) instead. When it came to player names, he refused to record any names unless I was 100% certain of the pronunciation (with Hughson and McDonough, we'd often record multiple pronunciations for rookies & cup of coffee guys, then choose the correct version once we ascertained the proper pronunciation - this'd be easy today with MLB TV, more time-consuming 20-25 years ago). Sometimes I'd be questioned on certain things: "Are you sure about this, Jon?" and uh... well, I'm usually pretty confident in my baseball knowledge (or at least I was back then), but not at a "Bob Freaking Costas is calling me out" level of confidence, if you know what I mean. Kinda intimidating! Oh, and we were paying him 175K US for 5 days of work, LOL.

That's awesome that you were the one who signed the ball, too.

Yeah, that was fun. According to Ben, Kruk and Kuip enjoyed playing pranks on Barry.

[slickdtc]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

So when’s the podcast coming out? Because this behind the scenes storytelling is gold. Got me feeling like a youngster again. I remember where I was when I got my hands on a copy of some of these old baseball games so to hear the background behind some of my favs is a sweet nostalgia trip.

[DrJones]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

So when’s the podcast coming out? Because this behind the scenes storytelling is gold. Got me feeling like a youngster again. I remember where I was when I got my hands on a copy of some of these old baseball games so to hear the background behind some of my favs is a sweet nostalgia trip.

I did a podcast a couple years ago with some Red Sox guys (one of them was Steve Perreault or something?) after they found out I was a "real person". Feel free to ask me Triple Play/MVP questions if you want.