![]() “Today, we have significantly enhanced the value of our summer cornerstone television programming with increased team appearances on Sunday nights, extensive blackout lift rights on Monday nights and more game and studio flexibility to showcase the great sport of baseball like no other media company.”Ĭommissioner Selig added, “On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am pleased that we will continue our excellent relationship with ESPN for another eight years. “This caps a series of comprehensive, ‘new world’ agreements, clearly demonstrating that ESPN and Major League Baseball share the same vision – to serve fans through the highest quality content and cutting edge technology,” Bodenheimer said. ESPN and MLB.com share exclusive rights to sell the MLB.com subscription packages MLB.TV and All Access, and ESPN has the exclusive right to sell advertising associated with those packages. Among the highlights of those agreements: ESPN has exclusive national terrestrial radio rights to regular season games and every playoff match-up through the end of the World Series, ESPN has rights to baseball video highlights on all of its platforms and ESPN Mobile and ESPN360 have cut-in video rights to baseball telecasts on ESPN networks. The agreement, which runs from 2006-2013, was announced today by ESPN and ABC Sports President George Bodenheimer and Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud SeligĮSPN and MLB had already reached long-term agreements covering rights across ESPN’s extensive multimedia assets, including ESPN Radio ESPN ESPN360, the company’s growing interactive and customizable broadband service ESPN Mobile, ESPN’s recently announced mobile phone service and the company’s wireless content licensing business. In addition, a weekly Wednesday baseball game and Baseball Tonight, with its in-progress highlights and live cut-ins, continue on ESPN or ESPN2. ESPN’s new Monday Night Baseball franchise will mostly co-exist with local carriers, meaning ESPN will have virtually no blackouts for these two franchises. Together, for over 20 years, they made baseball tick.ESPN and Major League Baseball have reached an eight-year regular-season agreement, highlighted by the continuation of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball series with additional, exclusive team appearances. Holly was the brainiac who developed their tried and true formula, whereas Henry helped out with the baseball side of things, assuring good matchups at the end of the year, making sure Cal Ripken was in Baltimore when he broke Lou Gehrig’s record. Like the game of baseball, they have their charm, their passion, and they always seem to be there for each other, complimenting each others skills. The relationship between the two makes sense given their task. Every year there were impossible variables to deal with, and without the help of a computer the Stephenson’s overcame and developed their own system to solve one of the most complex riddles is sports, How to schedule 162 games for each of the 30 teams.īut while the feat itself, which they did every year from 1982-2004, is impressive, its truly the charm and love of the couple that comes through in Garner’s film. Having to adhere to multiple scheduling rules, they found the right way to break them, and generate schedules to appease all 30 teams. In the latest installment of the Shorts version of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, director Joseph Garner gives us a wonderful look into the lovely couple who made the schedules for baseball, despite it being the impossible combination. Before 2005, the Stephenson’s were the the team of two who formulated the schedule of over 2,000 games for Major League Baseball, and they did it all without a computer. For the longest time it resisted the use of computer programs to generate its schedules, until it finally caved. For the longest time the game resisted the addition of instant replay, until it finally caved. It is my favorite game for how unique, and how human it is. ![]() The charm of the game of baseball is in its quirk.
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