The following is a list of the national
television and
radio networks and announcers that have broadcast
American League Championship Series games over the years. It does include any announcers who may have appeared on local broadcasts produced by the participating teams.
2011 –
Terry Francona filled for
Tim McCarver for the first two games of
Fox's coverage during the ALCS because McCarver was recovering from a minor heart procedure.[4]
Beginning in
2014, when
Fox Sports began a new television contract with
Major League Baseball,
FS1 airs 40 regular season MLB games (mostly on Saturdays), along with up to 15
post-season games (eight Divisional Series games and one best-of-7 League Championship Series). The deal resulted in a reduction of MLB coverage on the
Fox network, which will air 12 regular season games, the
All-Star Game, and the
World Series.[5]
2018 –
Brian Anderson took over for
Ernie Johnson as the lead play-by-play man for TBS, after Johnson dropped out of TBS’ postseason coverage entirely after announcing that he had been diagnosed with blood clots in both of his legs. Anderson would’ve taken Johnson's place anyway due to the latter's
Inside the NBA duties for
TNT.
In
2001, Game 5 of the
NLCS and Game 4 of the
ALCS were split between
Fox and
Fox Sports Net. This came off the heels of Fox airing an
NFLdoubleheader that particular day (October 21).
In
2002, Game 1 of the
NLCS and Game 2 of the
ALCS were split between
Fox and
Fox Sports Net. The regional split was done in order for Fox to avoid televising a weekday afternoon game.
In
2003, Game 1 of the
ALCS and Game 2 of the
NLCS were split between
Fox and
FX.
In
2004, Game 1 of the
NLCS and Game 2 of the
ALCS were split between
Fox and
Fox Sports Net. Also in
2004, Game 5 of the ALCS ran way into the time slot of Game 5 of the NLCS. As a result, the first seven innings of the NLCS game were shown on
FX.
In
2005, Game 1 of the
NLCS and Game 1 of the
ALCS were split between
Fox and
FX.
Game 2 of the
2006 ALCS was originally intended to air on
FX, but the
NLCS game that night (originally intended to air on
Fox) was rained out. FX showed the movie Any Given Sunday instead.
In
2006,
Fox fired
Steve Lyons from their baseball coverage altogether following what they saw insensitive comments made about
Hispanics during the Game 3 broadcast. During Game 3, Lyons' broadcast colleague
Lou Piniella, who is of Spanish descent, made an analogy involving the luck of finding a wallet, and then briefly used a couple of Spanish phrases. Lyons responded by saying that Piniella was "hablaing Espanol" --
Spanglish for "speaking Spanish"—and added, "I still can't find my wallet. I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit close to him now."
On October 18, 2008,
TBS missed most of the first inning of Game 6 of that year's
American League Championship Series, with viewers getting a rerun of The Steve Harvey Show instead.[16] TBS picked up the game just prior to the last out in the bottom of the first, with announcer
Chip Caray apologizing to viewers for "technical difficulties".
Although not an active field reporter during
Fox's coverage of the
2009 ALCS,
Kenny Albert still presided over the championship presentation and postgame interviews in the pennant winning
New York Yankees' clubhouse.
The
1990 postseason started on a Thursday, while
World Series started on a Tuesday due to the brief
lockout.
In
1991,
CBS didn't come on the air for baseball for weeknight LCS telecasts until 8:30 p.m.
ET. Instead, they opted to show programming such as Rescue 911 at 8 p.m. rather than a baseball pregame show.[25]
Throughout Game 2 of the
1992 ALCS, Jim Kaat was stricken with a bad case of laryngitis.[26] As a result,
Johnny Bench had to come over from the
CBS Radio booth and finish the game with Dick Stockton as a "relief analyst."[27] There was talk that if Kaat's laryngitis did not get better,
Don Drysdale was going to replace Kaat on television for the rest of ALCS, while Bench would continue to work on CBS Radio.
CBS' coverage of the 1992 LCS led to conflicts with the
presidential debates that year.[28] CBS didn't cover one of the debates because Game 4 of the ALCS, went into extra innings. By the time it ended, the debate was almost over.
The rather messy
1995 arrangement was courtesy of "The Baseball Network", which was Major League Baseball's in-house production facility.
ABC and
NBC (who essentially, distributed the telecasts rather than produce them by themselves like in the past) shared the same on-air graphics and even the microphone "flags" had the "Baseball Network" logo on it with the respective network logo. In addition, the first four games of both of the
1995 League Championship Series were regionally televised.[29][30]
1983 marked the last year that the local flagship television stations for the competing teams were allowed to produce their own League Championship Series broadcasts.
Bill Macatee hosted the pregame shows with analyst
Don Sutton[51] for
NBC.
Had the
1984 ALCS between the
Detroit Tigers and
Kansas City Royals gone the full five games (the last year that the League Championship Series was a best-of-five series), Game 5 on Sunday October 7, would have been a 1 p.m.
ET time start instead of being in
prime time. This would have happened because one of the
presidential debates[52] between
Ronald Reagan and
Walter Mondale was scheduled for that night. In return,
ABC was going to broadcast the debates instead of a baseball game in prime time.
Al Trautwig[53] interviewed the Detroit Tigers from their clubhouse following their pennant clinching victory in Game 3.
CTV[57] in Canada
simulcast NBC's coverage (albeit with
Canadian commercials) of the 1985 ALCS involving the
Toronto Blue Jays. In 1985, many relied on cable and antennas. Therefore, carts of Canada not near the USA border couldn't pick up the American feeds, hence why these feeds were needed.
On October 15, Game 6 of the
1986 NLCS ran so long (lasting for 16 innings, 5 hours, and 29 minutes), it bumped up against the start time of Game 7 of the
ALCS (also on
ABC). In his last
ABC assignment,
Don Drysdale[58] interviewed the winners in the
Boston clubhouse following Game 7 of the 1986 ALCS.[59]
In
1970, NBC televised the second games of both League Championship Series on a regional basis. Some markets got the
NLCS at 1 p.m.
ET along with a 4 p.m.
NFL game while other markets got the
ALCS at 4 p.m. along with a 1 p.m. NFL game.
In
1971, Game 1 of the
ALCS was rained out on Saturday, October 2. Due to its
NFL coverage, NBC[78] did not televise[79][80] the rescheduled Game 1 the following day (they had only planned an
NLCS telecast that day), but added a telecast of Game 2 on Monday, October 4 (which had been a scheduled travel day).
Except for Game 1 in both series, all games in
1975 were regionally televised. Game 3 of both League Championship Series was aired in
prime time, the first time such an occurrence happened.
In the early years of the League Championship Series,[84] NBC typically televised a doubleheader on the opening Saturday, followed by a single game on Sunday (because of
NFL coverage). They then covered the weekday games with a 1.5 hour overlap,[85] joining the second game in progress when the first one ended. NBC usually swapped announcer crews after Game 2.
From
1969 to
1983, the Major League Baseball television contract allowed a local TV station in the market of each competing team to also carry the LCS games. So in 1969, for example,
Orioles fans in
Baltimore could choose to watch either the NBC telecast or
Chuck Thompson,
Bill O'Donnell and
Jim Karvellas on
WJZ-TV.
Surviving telecasts
For all of the League Championship Series telecasts spanning from 1969 to 1975, only Game 2 of the
1972 American League Championship Series (
Oakland vs.
Detroit) is known to exist.[86] However, the copy on the trade circuit of Game 2 of the 1972 ALCS is missing the
Bert Campaneris–
Lerrin LaGrow brawl. There are some instances where the only brief glimpse of telecast footage of an early LCS game can be seen in a surviving newscast from that night. For instance, the last out of the
1973 National League Championship Series as described by
Jim Simpson was played on that night's NBC Nightly News, but other than that, the entire game is gone. On the day the
New York Mets and
Baltimore Orioles wrapped up their respective League Championship Series in 1969, a feature story on the CBS Evening News showed telecast clips of the
ALCS game (there's no original sound, just voiceover narration). This is all that likely remains of anything from that third game of the
Orioles–
Twins series. Simpson's call of the injury of
Reggie Jackson during Game 5 of the 1972 ALCS is heard on the
1972 World Series film, as well as
Curt Gowdy's call of the home run by
Johnny Bench in Game 5 of the 1972 NLCS as well as
Bob Moose throwing a wild pitch to pinch-hitter
Hal McRae scoring
George Foster with the winning run.[87]
From 1969 to 1975, there was no official national radio network coverage of the League Championship Series.
NBC only had the national radio rights to the
All-Star Game and
World Series during this period. Instead, national coverage was provided by local team radio broadcasts being
syndicated nationally over
ad hoc networks.
The following is a list of the national
television and
radio networks and announcers that have broadcast
American League Championship Series games over the years. It does include any announcers who may have appeared on local broadcasts produced by the participating teams.
2011 –
Terry Francona filled for
Tim McCarver for the first two games of
Fox's coverage during the ALCS because McCarver was recovering from a minor heart procedure.[4]
Beginning in
2014, when
Fox Sports began a new television contract with
Major League Baseball,
FS1 airs 40 regular season MLB games (mostly on Saturdays), along with up to 15
post-season games (eight Divisional Series games and one best-of-7 League Championship Series). The deal resulted in a reduction of MLB coverage on the
Fox network, which will air 12 regular season games, the
All-Star Game, and the
World Series.[5]
2018 –
Brian Anderson took over for
Ernie Johnson as the lead play-by-play man for TBS, after Johnson dropped out of TBS’ postseason coverage entirely after announcing that he had been diagnosed with blood clots in both of his legs. Anderson would’ve taken Johnson's place anyway due to the latter's
Inside the NBA duties for
TNT.
In
2001, Game 5 of the
NLCS and Game 4 of the
ALCS were split between
Fox and
Fox Sports Net. This came off the heels of Fox airing an
NFLdoubleheader that particular day (October 21).
In
2002, Game 1 of the
NLCS and Game 2 of the
ALCS were split between
Fox and
Fox Sports Net. The regional split was done in order for Fox to avoid televising a weekday afternoon game.
In
2003, Game 1 of the
ALCS and Game 2 of the
NLCS were split between
Fox and
FX.
In
2004, Game 1 of the
NLCS and Game 2 of the
ALCS were split between
Fox and
Fox Sports Net. Also in
2004, Game 5 of the ALCS ran way into the time slot of Game 5 of the NLCS. As a result, the first seven innings of the NLCS game were shown on
FX.
In
2005, Game 1 of the
NLCS and Game 1 of the
ALCS were split between
Fox and
FX.
Game 2 of the
2006 ALCS was originally intended to air on
FX, but the
NLCS game that night (originally intended to air on
Fox) was rained out. FX showed the movie Any Given Sunday instead.
In
2006,
Fox fired
Steve Lyons from their baseball coverage altogether following what they saw insensitive comments made about
Hispanics during the Game 3 broadcast. During Game 3, Lyons' broadcast colleague
Lou Piniella, who is of Spanish descent, made an analogy involving the luck of finding a wallet, and then briefly used a couple of Spanish phrases. Lyons responded by saying that Piniella was "hablaing Espanol" --
Spanglish for "speaking Spanish"—and added, "I still can't find my wallet. I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit close to him now."
On October 18, 2008,
TBS missed most of the first inning of Game 6 of that year's
American League Championship Series, with viewers getting a rerun of The Steve Harvey Show instead.[16] TBS picked up the game just prior to the last out in the bottom of the first, with announcer
Chip Caray apologizing to viewers for "technical difficulties".
Although not an active field reporter during
Fox's coverage of the
2009 ALCS,
Kenny Albert still presided over the championship presentation and postgame interviews in the pennant winning
New York Yankees' clubhouse.
The
1990 postseason started on a Thursday, while
World Series started on a Tuesday due to the brief
lockout.
In
1991,
CBS didn't come on the air for baseball for weeknight LCS telecasts until 8:30 p.m.
ET. Instead, they opted to show programming such as Rescue 911 at 8 p.m. rather than a baseball pregame show.[25]
Throughout Game 2 of the
1992 ALCS, Jim Kaat was stricken with a bad case of laryngitis.[26] As a result,
Johnny Bench had to come over from the
CBS Radio booth and finish the game with Dick Stockton as a "relief analyst."[27] There was talk that if Kaat's laryngitis did not get better,
Don Drysdale was going to replace Kaat on television for the rest of ALCS, while Bench would continue to work on CBS Radio.
CBS' coverage of the 1992 LCS led to conflicts with the
presidential debates that year.[28] CBS didn't cover one of the debates because Game 4 of the ALCS, went into extra innings. By the time it ended, the debate was almost over.
The rather messy
1995 arrangement was courtesy of "The Baseball Network", which was Major League Baseball's in-house production facility.
ABC and
NBC (who essentially, distributed the telecasts rather than produce them by themselves like in the past) shared the same on-air graphics and even the microphone "flags" had the "Baseball Network" logo on it with the respective network logo. In addition, the first four games of both of the
1995 League Championship Series were regionally televised.[29][30]
1983 marked the last year that the local flagship television stations for the competing teams were allowed to produce their own League Championship Series broadcasts.
Bill Macatee hosted the pregame shows with analyst
Don Sutton[51] for
NBC.
Had the
1984 ALCS between the
Detroit Tigers and
Kansas City Royals gone the full five games (the last year that the League Championship Series was a best-of-five series), Game 5 on Sunday October 7, would have been a 1 p.m.
ET time start instead of being in
prime time. This would have happened because one of the
presidential debates[52] between
Ronald Reagan and
Walter Mondale was scheduled for that night. In return,
ABC was going to broadcast the debates instead of a baseball game in prime time.
Al Trautwig[53] interviewed the Detroit Tigers from their clubhouse following their pennant clinching victory in Game 3.
CTV[57] in Canada
simulcast NBC's coverage (albeit with
Canadian commercials) of the 1985 ALCS involving the
Toronto Blue Jays. In 1985, many relied on cable and antennas. Therefore, carts of Canada not near the USA border couldn't pick up the American feeds, hence why these feeds were needed.
On October 15, Game 6 of the
1986 NLCS ran so long (lasting for 16 innings, 5 hours, and 29 minutes), it bumped up against the start time of Game 7 of the
ALCS (also on
ABC). In his last
ABC assignment,
Don Drysdale[58] interviewed the winners in the
Boston clubhouse following Game 7 of the 1986 ALCS.[59]
In
1970, NBC televised the second games of both League Championship Series on a regional basis. Some markets got the
NLCS at 1 p.m.
ET along with a 4 p.m.
NFL game while other markets got the
ALCS at 4 p.m. along with a 1 p.m. NFL game.
In
1971, Game 1 of the
ALCS was rained out on Saturday, October 2. Due to its
NFL coverage, NBC[78] did not televise[79][80] the rescheduled Game 1 the following day (they had only planned an
NLCS telecast that day), but added a telecast of Game 2 on Monday, October 4 (which had been a scheduled travel day).
Except for Game 1 in both series, all games in
1975 were regionally televised. Game 3 of both League Championship Series was aired in
prime time, the first time such an occurrence happened.
In the early years of the League Championship Series,[84] NBC typically televised a doubleheader on the opening Saturday, followed by a single game on Sunday (because of
NFL coverage). They then covered the weekday games with a 1.5 hour overlap,[85] joining the second game in progress when the first one ended. NBC usually swapped announcer crews after Game 2.
From
1969 to
1983, the Major League Baseball television contract allowed a local TV station in the market of each competing team to also carry the LCS games. So in 1969, for example,
Orioles fans in
Baltimore could choose to watch either the NBC telecast or
Chuck Thompson,
Bill O'Donnell and
Jim Karvellas on
WJZ-TV.
Surviving telecasts
For all of the League Championship Series telecasts spanning from 1969 to 1975, only Game 2 of the
1972 American League Championship Series (
Oakland vs.
Detroit) is known to exist.[86] However, the copy on the trade circuit of Game 2 of the 1972 ALCS is missing the
Bert Campaneris–
Lerrin LaGrow brawl. There are some instances where the only brief glimpse of telecast footage of an early LCS game can be seen in a surviving newscast from that night. For instance, the last out of the
1973 National League Championship Series as described by
Jim Simpson was played on that night's NBC Nightly News, but other than that, the entire game is gone. On the day the
New York Mets and
Baltimore Orioles wrapped up their respective League Championship Series in 1969, a feature story on the CBS Evening News showed telecast clips of the
ALCS game (there's no original sound, just voiceover narration). This is all that likely remains of anything from that third game of the
Orioles–
Twins series. Simpson's call of the injury of
Reggie Jackson during Game 5 of the 1972 ALCS is heard on the
1972 World Series film, as well as
Curt Gowdy's call of the home run by
Johnny Bench in Game 5 of the 1972 NLCS as well as
Bob Moose throwing a wild pitch to pinch-hitter
Hal McRae scoring
George Foster with the winning run.[87]
From 1969 to 1975, there was no official national radio network coverage of the League Championship Series.
NBC only had the national radio rights to the
All-Star Game and
World Series during this period. Instead, national coverage was provided by local team radio broadcasts being
syndicated nationally over
ad hoc networks.