When Baseball Met the Eye

Back in 1990, CBS TV not only abtained rights to broadcast Major League Baseball for the very first (and so far only time) from long time baseball partners NBC and to a lesser extent ABC, it did an unheard of thing in modern times. The network locked up exclusive rights (paying over $1.1 billion for a four year contract) for for the such major events like the All-Star Game, playoffs, and World Series. But serious things went wrong along the way. Major money losses, drastically declining ratings for the World Series, weird scheduling, etc.

For about 15 years or so, NBC and ABC shared the major TV rights for Major League Baseball. NBC would air a "Saturday Game of the Week" during afternoons where as ABC would present "Monday Night Baseball" which would usually begin it run in the summer. Unlike in the CBS' deal which ran from 1990-1993, NBC and ABC annually alternated coverage of the All-Star Game, playoffs, and World Series. In the same respects, the new deal with CBS was dramatically different.

Regular season games for starters were practically cut in half as they were reduced to only 12 Saturday afternoon games per season. Then again, incoming cable station ESPN greatly made up with this by broadcasting up to 4 or 5 games a week! The announcing team was made up of Red Sox play-by-play man Sean McDonough, who replaced Cardinal broadcaster Jack Buck, who for some reason, got run out after the 1991 season, and ABC hold-over Tim McCarver. The #2 team was made up of Dick Stockton, who previously worked with CBS for their NBA coverage up until they lost the rights to NBC interestingly enough, after the 1989-1990 season and pitcher Jim Kaat.