On Gammons, ESPN and the MLB Network
TMC
By Tim Lemke on Dec. 9, 2009 into SportsBiz
SubscribeWhen Peter Gammons announced that he'd be leaving ESPN to do
some work for MLB Network, I thought of Harold Reynolds.
It wasn't just because Reynolds and Gammons were once colleagues on
the Worldwide Leader. It was because of something he said repeatedly
when asked about the difference between MLB Network and his former
employer.
"You have time," he said, "to get a full thought out."
Reynolds never said it explicity, but the suggestion was that MLB
Network was a far less annoying place to work as an analyst. ESPN,
with its half-hour Baseball Tonight shows crammed in before games and
in between other programs, didn't offer analysts the chance to really
expound on anything for any length of time.The new all-baseball
network, however, freed analysts to go in-depth without feeling like
they had to wrap up a though before heading to commercial.
Watch "Baseball Tonight" sometime (if you can figure out when it's on)
and then compare it to "Hot Stove" on MLB Network. It's like night and
day in terms of pace.
Gammons, in comments to reporters at the Winter meetings in
Indianapolis, said he was happy to go to an all-baseball network and
hoped to get the chance to report more in-depth on players and their
personalities.
“I think we've become jaundiced when it comes to the players,” Gammons
said, according to BizofBaseball.com. “I love the players and look
forward to covering that side of the game.”
With Gammons now gone, MLB Network truly has the lion's share of top
talent when it comes to analysts. ESPN still has John Kruk, who is
solid, as well as Eric Young and Fernando Vina. Buster Olney and
Jayson Stark are also two of the best in the business. But MLB Network
can boast of former players like Reynolds, Barry Larkin, Al Leiter,
Joe Magrane, Mitch Williams and Dan Plesac, and has relationships with
SI.com's Jon Heyman and Tom Verducci, Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal. Oh,
and MLB Network has a guy by the name of Bob Costas.
It would seem that ESPN needs a renewed focus on its baseball
coverage. To ignore this trend means risking a descent into
irrelevance among fans.