ESPN To Broadcast 2019 Japan Opening Series Next Week

Courtesy: ESPN

ESPN is headed to the far east for an upcoming Major League Baseball broadcast.

The network will carry coverage of the 2019 Japan Opening Series on March 20 and 21. The series is a pair of pre-season MLB games, which will be played live at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan.  The Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics will face off in the matchups.

Dave Fleming and Eduardo Perez will provide commentary for the games, both of which will air at 5:30 a.m. on the ESPN app.

More information on the 2019 Japan Opening Series is available online now along with all of the latest MLB headlines at:

 

Website: http://www.espn.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ESPN

Twitter: http://twitter.com/espn

 

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Cardinals, Cubs Face Off In NL Central Showdown This Week On ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball

Courtesy: ESPN

ESPN has a big game on tap for this weekend’s edition of Sunday Night Baseball presented by Taco Bell.

This  ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball presented by Taco Bell, the league-leading St. Louis Cardinals host the Chicago Cubs in a pivotal NL Central showdown. The game, which could have potential playoff implications as the first half of the season winds down, will be the closer in a three-game series between the NL Central foes. The Cardinals currently sit at 48 – 24 on the season and 7 – 3 in their last ten games. The Red Birds are currently riding high on a six-game win streak. Chicago is third in the division, eight and a half games back from St. Louis, sitting currently at 39 – 32. The team is 5 – 5 in its last ten games and is currently looking to end its two-game skid. Sunday’s broadcast is expected to begin at 8pm ET. The game will be simulcast on ESPN Deportes for the network’s Spanish-speaking viewers. And those that won’t be near a TV during Sunday Night’s game can still catch it online via WatchESPN and on the radio on ESPN Radio. Dan Shulman will have the call for Sunday’s game. He will be joined by analysts Curt Schilling and John Kruk in the booth. Reporter Buster Olney will also be on hand with all of the latest in-game news. As with every broadcast of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball presented by Taco Bell, Sunday’s broadcast will be preceded by Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown presented by Chevrolet at 7pm ET. Karl Ravech will anchor the broadcast and will be joined at the desk by analyst Aaron Boone and ESPN MLB Insider Tim Kurkjian. The broadcast will be simulcast online via WatchESPN.

The second game in the Cubs-Cardinals weekend series will air live on ESPN Radio Saturday night at 6pm ET. Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton will have the call for Saturday night’s game.

Carlos Martinez is currently expected to take the mound for St. Louis in Sunday’s game. His last time on the mound was Tuesday’s game against the Marlins. St. Louis won that game 4 – 3. He pitched seven innings in the game, allowing eight hits, three earned runs, one walk, and struck out nine batters en route to the team’s win.

Jason Hammel is expected to start for Chicago in Sunday’s game. Hammel’s last time on the mound was Tuesday against the Dodgers. The Cubs won that game 1 – 0 over the Dodgers. Hammel Pitched 7.2 innings, allowing 2 hits along the way, no runs or earned runs, only two walks, and struck out six men.

Monday night on ESPN’s Monday Night Baseball presented by USAA Adam Jones and the Baltimore Orioles will host Prince Fielder and the Texas Rangers on ESPN. Fielder just hit his 300th home run tonight as the Rangers face the Blue Jays. It makes Fielder and his famed father only the second father/son duo since Bobby and Barry Bonds to hit 300 home runs each. Monday night’s game is the first in a four-game series that will run thought next Thursday, July 2nd. Dave O’Brien will have the call for the game. He will be joined in the booth by Eduardo Perez and Mark Mulder in the booth for additional commentary. The game will be simulcast on ESPN Deportes for ESPN’s Spanish-speaking audiences. It will also simulcast online via WatchESPN for those that won’t be close to a television during the course of the game.

Bud Norris is expected to start for the Orioles in Monday night’s game. Norris’ last time on the mound was Wednesday against the Red Sox. Baltimore dropped that game 5 – 1 with Norris pitching 5.2 innings in the game. He allowed seven hits, five runs, no earned runs, one walk, one home run, and struck out three batters in his time on the mound.

Wady Rodriguez is expected to start for Texas in Monday night’s game. His last time taking the mound was Wednesday against Oakland. He struggled in that game, allowing eleven hits, right runs, eight earned runs, three walks and two home runs over the course of four innings and striking out only four batters. By comparison, Rodriguez’s team-mate Anthony Bass only allowed two hits and one walk over the course of four innings, striking out five batters along the way. He allowed no runs, no earned runs, and no home runs in that time, too.

More information on ESPN’s Major League Baseball coverage is available online along with all of the latest baseball news at:

Website: http://espn.go.com/mlb

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ESPNBaseballTonight

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Yankees Fans And Baseball Fans Alike Will Enjoy MLB Productions’ Latest Release

Courtesy: Lionsgate/MLB Productions/A&E/A&E Home Video

The New York Yankees are in the waning days of the team’s 2014 season.  And along with the end of that season is the end of an era as Yankees great Derek Jeter is set to close out his Major League Baseball career, too.  While this season has not exactly proven to be everything that Yankees loyalists had hoped for MLB Productions has given Yankees nation reason to look back after this season’s end and still have plenty to smile about thanks to the recent release of Baseball’s Greatest Games: New York Yankees® Postseason Heroics.  This latest release continues a long-held tradition of excellence from Major League Baseball Productions as is evidenced throughout all four games contained in this set.  The inclusion of four full games is central to the enjoyment of the presentation.  That each game celebrates Jeter’s various accomplishments makes things even sweeter for fans.  As with previous MLB Productions releases, audiences are given the option to start at the top or bottom of any of the games’ innings.  They are not forced to sit through the whole game or even fast forward through to their key moments.  It adds even more enjoyment to the overall presentation.  And last but not least of all worth noting in this set is the collective video and audio mix in each episode.  MLB productions includes a disclaimer before the game, noting that there may be some discrepancies at given points.  But those discrepancies are few and far between.  If anything, seeing the games as they were originally broadcast adds to a certain sense of nostalgia among viewers, whether or not they be Yankees loyalists.  Each factor noted by itself is important to the whole in its own right.  All three together make Baseball’s Greatest Games: New York Yankees® Postseason Heroics another welcome addition to the library of any Yankees loyalist and any true-blooded MLB fan Yankees loyalist or not.

Baseball’s Greatest Games: Yankees® Postseason Heroics is a welcome addition to the library of any Yankees loyalist and any true-blooded MLB fan Yankees loyalist or not.  It is especially welcome being that New York’s season hasn’t exactly lived up to the hopes and expectations of the team or its fans.  Luckily for fans, this four-disc set features four past Yankees games on which fans can look back and smile after the season’s end.  The first of the games is Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS in which the Yankees faced off against the Baltimore Orioles.  The second game takes fans forward four years to Game 4 of the 2000 World Series.  The Yankees faced off against the Mets that year.  The key moment of this game was Jeter’s leadoff home run against the Mets.  The third game takes audiences another year forward to Game 3 of the 2001 ALDS.  That year, the Yankees faced off against Oakland.  After taking down Oakland, the Yankees moved on in 2001 to the World Series, in which the team took on Arizona for the championship. MLB Productions features Game 4 of that year’s World Series as the set’s closing game.  As with the set’s other games, Jeter’s accomplishments are highlighted here, too.  Of course it doesn’t focus solely on his achievements.  Rather, the entire game is presented from the first pitch to the last.  The commercials have been cleanly cut, again displaying that commitment to quality from MLB Productions.  Simply put, with each game, audiences get the full game experience sans the commercial limitations.  They can pause the game at any point that they choose so as to use the bathroom, get a couple cold ones, or anything else.  All things considered here, it all proves just why the inclusion of the games and their inclusion in full at that is the central point of the set’s success.

The inclusion of four important recent Yankees games is central to the success of Baseball’s Greatest Games: Yankees® Postseason Heroics is central to the success of the set.  Their inclusion in full and the fact that they are meant to highlight the accomplishments of the soon-to-be-retired Yankee great Derek Jeter makes it even more of a solid center to the set.  Adding to the set’s success is the fact that once again, audiences are able to choose the inning at which they start each game.  To be even more precise, audiences can choose whether they start at the top of an inning within a given game or at the top of said inning.  So rather than be forced to sit through the whole game or fast forward through so much baseball, audiences can pick precisely where the game starts.  So if viewers have to stop for any reason, they can just pop in the DVD, pick the inning (and its top or bottom) and go from there.  If fast forwarding is still necessary, it won’t have to be but so much as a result of this inclusion.  This is a standard that those at MLB Productions have maintained for years.  So it is wonderful to see this standard maintained even here.  It serves to make the set’s overall presentation even more enjoyable and a success.

MLB fans and Yankees fans alike will appreciate that those with MLB Productions took painstaking efforts to maintain the tradition of excellence established by the company with every one of its releases up to this point including this set.  The games included in this set are presented in full. Audiences can once again choose the point at which they start giving games, whether the top or bottom of said inning(s).  All of this taken into consideration, Baseball’s Greatest Games: Yankees® Postseason Heroics proves to offer plenty of enjoyment for MLB fans regardless of their team loyalty.  There is still one more aspect of this set that makes it a joy for audiences.  That last aspect is the fact that the games in this set are presented exactly as they were seen in their original broadcast(s).  Game 1 of the team’s 1996 ALCS matchup against the Orioles was originally broadcast on NBC while the other three games were each broadcast on FOX.  MLB Productions’ people covered their bases, including a disclaimer noting the potential issues with the games’ video.  But the reality is the video looks just fine.  As a matter of fact, seeing the games as they looked in their original airings brings back a wonderful sense of nostalgia for fans. Considering that this season hasn’t lived to the hopes and expectations of the team and its fans, that sense of nostalgia is especially welcome for the members of the Yankees nation.  Together with the aforementioned aspects of the set, the presentation of each game from its original broadcast rounds out Baseball’s Greatest Games: Yankees® Postseason Heroics and makes it complete.  It is one more reason that audiences, regardless of allegiance, will welcome this latest collection of games from MLB Productions and A&E Home Video.

MLB Productions and A&E Home Video have a long history together, releasing wonderful pieces of baseball’s history every year.  Baseball’s Greatest Games: Yankees® Postseason Heroics is one more wonderful piece of that history.  The inclusion of four games in their entirety proves that right off the top.  That audiences can once more choose where they start viewing each game makes it even more of an enjoyable experience.  And the still quality video and audio mix of all four games rounds out the entire set.  All things considered, Baseball’s Greatest Games: Yankees® Postseason Heroics proves to be its own home run for any Yankees loyalist and any true-blooded baseball fan in general.  It is available now in stores and online and can be ordered direct from The Lionsgate online store at http://www.lionsgateshop.com/product.asp?Id=31220&TitleParentId=9945.  More information on this and other releases from Lionsgate and A&E Home Video is available online at:

 

Lionsgate

Website: http://www.lionsgate.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lionsgate
Twitter: http://twitter.com/linosgatemovies

A&E Home Video

Website: http://www.aetv.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AETV
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AEHomeEnt

MLB Productions

Website: http://mlbproductions.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mlbprod

To keep up with the latest sports and entertainment reviews and news, go online to http://www.facebook.com/philspicks and “Like” it.  Fans can always keep up with the latest sports and entertainment reviews and news in the Phil’s Picks blog at https://philspicks.wordpress.com.