Media Notes

McDonough will call "Monday Night Baseball" games for ESPN

In Boston, Chad Finn notes ESPN and former Red Sox announcer Sean McDonough will return to calling baseball "on a regular basis for the first time since his breakup with the Sox" after the '04 season, as he "will be the voice of 'Monday Night Baseball.'" McDonough said, "I've been really overwhelmed by the nice phone calls, e-mails, text messages I received once it came out that I'd be doing the Monday night games." Finn notes McDonough "has had opportunities to call baseball full-time since he parted with the Sox." The D'Backs "pursued him to be their play-by-play voice a couple of years after his run in Boston, but he decided it wasn't the right fit." For McDonough the "one-night-a-week commitment to ESPN is the ideal way to get back in the game" (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/11).

LOCAL SPORTS TALK: In Albany, Pete Dougherty reports Time Warner Cable is planning the "Time Warner Cable Sports Press Box," an Albany-based version of shows like ESPN's "The Sports Reporters." The show "likely will premiere within the next week or two on a trial basis before going full bore in the fall." Albany's WTMM-FM host and former WTEN-ABC Sports Dir Brian Sinkoff is "scheduled to be the host." TWC Dir of Programming & Production for Albany Greg Bobbitt "plans to rotate area TV sports anchors, newspaper writers and radio hosts in a roundtable discussion" (Albany TIMES UNION, 2/11).

THE OLD COLLEGE TRY: In Cincinnati, John Kiesewetter notes FS Ohio televises Univ. of Cincinnati and Xavier Univ. basketball games "in standard definition," but televises Cavaliers games in HD. FS Ohio Senior VP & GM Henry Ford said the net's next goal is to "deliver all college and high school sports in HD." But Ford is "preaching patience," as some Cincinnati and Xavier games "aren't available in HD because their leagues or originating producer don't offer it" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 2/11).

FULL-ROUND COVERAGE: Golf Channel and the LPGA Kraft Nabisco Championship have reached an agreement for the net to broadcast all four rounds of this year's tournament, which will take place from March 31-April 3. The change was triggered by the opportunity to increase television coverage for the first LPGA major of the year (Kraft Nabisco Championship).