By; Jim Williams
The Examiner
For Jon Miller, Joe Morgan and the rest of the ESPN gang Sunday will mark the 20th season of Major League Baseball coverage. They will welcome Steve Phillips to the booth for the debut of the networks first ever full time Sunday Night Baseball three man broadcast team
Miller and Morgan the national broadcast team on television. The addition of Steve Phillips should be a good add to the booth because of his knowledge of what is going on throughout baseball.
They open with Opening Night when the defending World Champion Philadelphia Phillies hosting the Atlanta Braves Sunday, April 5, at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2 HD. The Braves/Phillies game will also be available via ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes, ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV.
Gary Thorne will call the Opening Night game for ESPN Radio – broadcast beginning at 7:15 p.m. – with analyst Dave Campbell. ESPN Deportes commentary will be provided by Ernesto Jerez with analyst Candy Maldonado.
Baseball Tonight, with long-time host Karl Ravech (15th season) and analysts Peter Gammons, John Kruk and Dave Winfield, will preview the game at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
The network is doing 80 regular season games on Sunday and Wednesday however there will be a few special days that they will change that schedule and Monday is one of those days.
Opening Day is always a big day for ESPN and this one is no different with a full slate of games.
New York Mets at Cincinnati Reds, 1 p.m. on ESPN HD, ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV – Dan Shulman will call the game with Phillips;
Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox, 2 p.m. on ESPN2 HD, ESPN Radio and ESPN360.com – Karl Ravech will provide commentary with analyst John Kruk from Fenway (following the game, Ravech and Kruk will commute to ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., headquarters for the evening editions of Baseball Tonight); Jon Sciambi and Dave Campbell will call the game for ESPN Radio;
New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles, 4 p.m. on ESPN HD, ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV – Miller and Morgan will call the game from Camden Yards;
Chicago Cubs at Houston Astros, 7 p.m. on ESPN2 HD – ESPN’s Wednesday Night Baseball team of Dave O’Brien and Rick Sutcliffe will be behind the mike;
Oakland Athletics at Los Angeles Angels, 9 p.m. on ESPN HD – Sean McDonough will handle play-by-play with analyst Orel Hershiser.
Huge Opening Day for ESPN and ESPN2
Plenty more baseball news to come…so stay tuned!
