As a rightsholder to Major League Baseball, ESPN gets access to the field before and after the World Series and can have Baseball Tonight live at the stadiums before Fox goes on the air.
For this year’s Fall Classic, Baseball Tonight will be positioned outside the stadiums with hosts Karl Ravech and Steve Berthiaume with analysts John Kruk, Barry Larkin, Curt “38 Studios Fail” Schilling, Aaron Boone, Rick Sutcliffe as well as Terry Francona in his last assignment for ESPN before taking on his duties with the Cleveland MLB team full-time. Buster Olney and Tim Kurkjian will serve as MLB insiders.
In addition, ESPN Radio will serve as the flagship radio network for the World Series with Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser calling the action.
Here’s the ESPN press release.
ESPN’s Baseball Tonight Hits the Road for World Series
ESPN Radio to Exclusively Broadcast Every Game; SportsCenter on Location
ESPN is taking Baseball Tonight on the road for the 108thMLB World Series with pre-game and post-game telecasts every game day (generally 7 p.m. ET and 1 a.m.), beginning with Game 1 on Wednesday, Oct. 24. The Baseball Tonight set will be positioned outside of the venue to capture the atmosphere and fan reactions in both World Series locations. Karl Ravech and Steve Berthiaume will host coverage with a myriad of ESPN MLB commentators, including John Kruk, Hall of Famer Barry Larkin, Curt Schilling, Aaron Boone, Rick Sutcliffe, Buster Olney and Tim Kurkjian. Additionally, recently named Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona will serve as a guest analyst in his final assignment with ESPN.
ESPN Radio – covering its 15th consecutive MLB postseason – will serve as the exclusive radio broadcast home of the Fall Classic. NSSA Sportscaster of the Year Dan Shulman and analyst Orel Hershiser will describe the action with Jon Sciambi, analyst Chris Singleton and reporter Peter Pascarelli providing pre-game and post-game coverage. ESPN Radio’s coverage will also be available on ESPNRadio.com via the ESPN Radio app.
ESPN Radio schedule (coverage generally begins one hour before the first pitch)
Date Time (ET) Game Matchup Wed, Oct. 24 TBD Game 1 AL Champion at NL Champion Thu, Oct. 25 TBD Game 2 AL Champion at NL Champion Sat, Oct. 27 TBD Game 3 NL Champion at AL Champion Sun, Oct. 28 TBD Game 4 NL Champion at AL Champion Mon, Oct. 29* TBD Game 5 NL Champion at AL Champion Wed, Oct. 31* TBD Game 6 AL Champion at NL Champion Thu, Nov. 1* TBD Game 7 AL Champion at NL Champion *if necessary
SportsCenter – Chris Berman, Ravech and Berthiaume will anchor daily, on-site SportsCenter coverage from the Baseball Tonight set. Regular updates will begin during the 9 a.m. SportsCenter and continue throughout the day.
Baseball Tonight World Series Special will air Monday, Oct. 22, at 10 p.m. on ESPN2.
*the special will not air in the event of an NLCS Game 7.
ESPN.com’s World Series coverage will include breaking news and analysis, World Series predictions, World Series Timeline (covering every Fall Classic ever played), daily Baseball Tonight video segments featuring ESPN’s MLB studio analysts, live in-game chats, and player rankings for every 2012 World Series participant. ESPN.com reporters on site will include Jayson Stark, Jim Bowden, Jerry Crasnick, Howard Bryant, Jim Caple and David Schoenfield.
ESPN Deportes will cover the World Series across its studio programming, including SportsCenter, Los Capitanes, Jorge Ramos y Su Banda, Cronometro, Nacion and Raza Deportiva.
ESPN Deportes Radio – in its eighth consecutive season broadcasting the World Series – will air every game with Eduardo Ortega, the Spanish voice of the San Diego Padres, anchoring the coverage. Ortega will be joined by Renato Bermudez, Jose Francisco Rivera, Marly Rivera and reporter Enrique Rojas.
ESPN International has television and digital coverage of the World Series throughout Latin America, Caribbean, Africa, New Zealand and the Middle East and on ESPN America in Europe.
There you have it.
