REASON #3 - THE MLB NETWORK

Reasons to Look Forward to MLB 2009

I know it already exists, but there's a huge difference between the MLB Network in-season and in the off-season.

First of all, my prediction about what the MLB Network should feature wasn't terribly far off. And that makes me happy. (Unfortunately, some of the great games they have been showing have been ones that I didn't particularly want to randomly come across on a cold January night - like Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. Endy Chavez's catch is a lot less dramatic when you know how that game ends.)

Nextly (like that?), some of the off-season programming has been promising, leading me to believe that the regular season stuff will also be good. I can only watch so much speculative talk, so I haven't spent much time watching the Hot Stove Report...but I like some of the analysts (always liked Al Leiter, Harold Reynolds is good, and some of the other rotating cast members have been good...although there are other elements I do not like at all, like Josh Lewyn and Hazel Mae...haven't seen them yet...but this is a topic for another post), and it will be a flat-out better show when there are actual games to report on.

Another important piece of the MLB Network's Hot Stove Report show has been the response by other networks. ESPN has added a Hot Stove element to its SportsCenter and ESPNews segments that I don't remember in the past. It's probably to try to keep their baseball fans on their channel. So that's been a positive result.

I've mentioned this before. The NFL Network is good. But all things considered, I'd rather have an MLB Network. And now I do. And 2009 will be the first season with full coverage on the network. And that's something to look forward to.

This idea was going to originally be "Reasons to Look Forward to the Mets in 2009", but I realized there are probably going to be some general baseball reasons (like this one) as well as Mets reasons. So I've expanded it. Most will have to do with the Mets. Also, I'm counting up, rather than down, as we head towards the baseball season, because I'm just not sure how many items there will be in this feature. We'll go until we hit Opening Day.

THE BASEBALL NETWORK

If you saw any of the Major League Baseball playoffs this year, you are aware that the MLB Network will begin on January 1, 2009. The advertisements were all over FOX's coverage of the playoffs, and all over the ballparks involved in the post-season.

Needless to say, I'm psyched. But I have high expectations. Here is an example of what I'd want to see on a typical day on MLBTV:

5-8am - 1-hour highlight show of the action from the night before, looped. (See midnight)

8:00am - Random Baseball Game - Every day a random baseball game from any year is shown from 8-11am. The entire library of baseball games would be available to be shown. Might be an important game, might just be the Pirates-Reds game from June 2, 1993. I don't know. Just like putting your iPod on shuffle. Just watch what comes up. And there would never be a repeat...so you'd better set your TiVo, just in case.

11am - Profile - A one-hour special profiling some baseball player - any era, any time. Again, no repeats.

12pm - Baseball Today - A one-hour preview show, previewing the night's (or afternoon's) games. In the off-season, this becomes hot-stove talk.

1pm - Baseball Classics - Different from the Random Baseball Game, this would be a dramatic playoff game or no-hitter from the regular season - a special game like the kind you occasionally catch on ESPN Classic nowadays. There's a one-in-a-million chance that you'd be airing the same game twice in a day between the Classic and Random game - but if it's a Classic, I think that's a chance you want to take.

4pm - College/World Baseball - A show that takes you into the other leagues, to get an idea of who might be the Major Leaguers of tomorrow.

5pm - Who Wants To Be A Season Ticket Holder? - Everyone's favorite baseball trivia game show. Grand Prize is season tickets to the team of your choice.

5:30pm - Fantasy Baseball Today - Must-starts, must-haves, for your baseball league.

6pm - Pre-Game. Similar to the noon show, but leading right up to the evening games.

7pm - Baseball!!! Every night one game should be picked up by the Baseball Network. They don't have to send a crew to every game...though they should do a live broadcast of their own once a week...they just have to pick up a team's feed. They should be able to do it at the last minute, too, to give viewers around the country the best game available on any given night.

10pm - Post-Game - A highlight/recap show, like the old Baseball Tonight. With full box scores on every game.

11pm - The Locker Room - The best post-game reactions/sound from around the league (maybe another one at 2am that includes the West coast games).

12am - Classic 'This Week in Baseball' - episodes from the vault, while we wait for the West Coast games to go final.

Once the West Coast games do go final, the final highlight show of the night is taped, to be replayed through 8am.

And of course, the MLB Draft, the winter meetings, and all MLB-related events would get full coverage.

That's my dream. I'd watch it all day.