By: Jim Williams
The Examiner
Tony Petitti, President and Chief Executive Officer, MLB Network was like a kid on Christmas morning. The season is only a couple of days away and he and his team are ready to give baseball fans nightly coverage like they have never seen it before.
The network’s signature program, MLB Tonight, will debut on Opening Day, Monday, April 6th at 4p.m and roll on until the last out of the last game finishes on the West coast.
Most nights MLB Tonight will air live beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET until the final game of the night ends each Monday through Saturday, featuring live look-ins of games in progress, updates, highlights, reporting and analysis. On Thursday nights, the show will lead in to Thursday Night Baseball and provide viewers with highlights and analysis after the game as well as live studio updates during the game broadcast. That is about seven to eight hours a night.
Tuesday afternoon I spoke to Petitti about the network and their ambitious plans.
JW: Tell me about the show and how you see this fitting into the baseball fans night?
Petitti: “We feel that we are the perfect place for the baseball fans to supplement their viewing. They will watch their home team’s games and switch back and forth to us as they watch their game. Then after that fans game is done we feel that they come to us to follow what is happening throughout baseball. We also expect after time fans will watch us if their team isn’t playing that night. We will simply offer baseball fans so much content that we feel strongly that they will want to watch as long as their time allows because we will make things both fun and interesting.”
JW: You plan on using Studio 42 your interactive set where the analysts can show fans a number of different plays. How does that work?
Petitti: “Well let’s say that a key play happens that is a pick off play. Rather than just showing you the replay and explain it which we will do of course. We can have say Sean Casey at first base, Harold Reynolds as the runner and Al Leiter on the mound and we can show you how the play took place but also show how the runner might have been able to steal the base.”
The MLB Tonight studio crew will have Matt Vasgersian in the host chair with his round table of analysts led by Sean Casey, Al Leiter, Joe Magrane, and Harold Reynolds.
The network will also as we mentioned air Thursday Night Baseball live:
April 9 7:00 p.m. Brewers @ Giants Matt Vasgersian & Joe Magrane
April 16 1:00 p.m. Indians @ Yankees Bob Costas, Harold Reynolds & Jim Kaat
April 16 8:00 p.m. Blue Jays @ Twins Victor Rojas & Dan Plesac
April 23 8:00 p.m. Dodgers @ Astros Matt Vasgersian & Joe Magrane
April 30 7:00 p.m. Red Sox @ Rays Victor Rojas & Joe Magrane
May 7 7:00 p.m. Phillies @ Mets Bob Costas & Al Leiter
May 14 8:00 p.m. Orioles @ Royals TBD
May 21 8:00 p.m. Cubs @ Cardinals TBD
