Talkin' Baseball: ESPN Prepping More "Baseball Tonight" Episodes

By John Ourand, Staff Writer

With new competition coming from MLB Network, ESPN is stepping up its Spring Training programming. ESPN is planning to telecast 39 original episodes of "Baseball Tonight" in March. About half of the "Baseball Tonight" shows will be televised most weekdays on ESPN and ESPN2 at 3:30pm ET. Part of the reason for the increased number of shows is attributed to the World Baseball Classic -- the net is planning to run "Baseball Tonight" preview shows before WBC games and as late-night highlight shows. ESPN will kick off its enhanced coverage with a 90-minute telecast Sunday at 4:00pm from Orlando as part of ESPN the Weekend. Karl Ravech will continue as host, with analysts John Kruk, Steve Phillips and Peter Gammons, who is returning full-time to the show this season. Gammons last season worked as a reporter for "Sunday Night Baseball."