"Baseball Tonight" will travel more this season, including to London for the Yankees-Red Sox seriesESPN IMAGES
ESPN is gearing up for a big year of MLB coverage and plans to diversify its flagship highlight program, “Baseball Tonight.” This year marks the 30th season of MLB on ESPN, and the net will start this season by airing Orioles-Yankees, D-backs-Dodgers and Red Sox-Mariners on Opening Day. ESPN Senior VP/Production & Remote Events Mark Gross said this season will see ESPN take “Baseball Tonight” to new places, both literally and figuratively, after ratings for the show last season jumped 15%.
DIVERSIFYING THE BRAND: ESPN in ’17 moved “Baseball Tonight” from a daily show to a weekly lead-in to its “Sunday Night Baseball” telecast. While that weekly format will not change, Gross said the net this year will look to “aggressively” expand the “Baseball Tonight” brand. Gross said that “Baseball Tonight,” while sticking to its weekly broadcast schedule, will become a brand that ESPN will use across all of its platforms. Gross: “It’s not just the weekly show on Sunday nights. It’s more ‘Baseball Tonight’ reports on radio, on ‘SportsCenter,’ on ESPN.com, on the app. We really want to take advantage of the ‘Baseball Tonight’ brand. There’s a lot of equity that we have, and fans have, in the ‘Baseball Tonight’ brand.” Gross said besides expanding the program’s presence across ESPN’s many platforms, “Baseball Tonight” will also literally take the studio to a number of different places this season. This season will see “Baseball Tonight” hosted from most of the “SNB” ballparks, as well as in Williamsburg for the LLWS, Omaha for the College World Series, Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series and London for the Yankees-Red Sox international series.
TALENTED BULLPEN: Gross also talked about some of the changes on the talent side of ESPN’s MLB coverage, including the additions of former MLBer Ryan Howard and Yankees P CC Sabathia. Both Howard and Sabathia will have mostly studio roles as opposed to calling games. Gross said ESPN is “excited to have an active player … who can give us some insight on the game,” especially with MLB introducing new rules this offseason. Gross also discussed the net's plans for Jessica Mendoza, who earlier this month took on a role with the Mets as a Baseball Operations Advisor. He said of Mendoza balancing her roles, "We’re going to be upfront, that's the only thing we can be and it's the right thing to do for viewers. She's obviously a great person, super professional. I really am confident that she'll be able to separate her Sunday night booth role and her Mets role, and she will be just fine wearing two hats."
