The following is a list of national American
television and
radio networks and
announcers that have broadcast
World Series games over the years, as well as local
flagship radio stations that have aired them since 1982.
2010 – For the second consecutive year, World Series games had earlier start times in hopes of attracting younger viewers. First pitch was just before 8 p.m.
EDT for Games 1–2, and 5, while Game 3 started at 7 p.m.
EDT. Game 4, however, started at 8:22 p.m.
EDT to accommodate Fox's
football coverage of the game between the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers and
Arizona Cardinals.[2] Many viewers in the New York City and
Philadelphia markets were unable to watch Games 1 and 2 because
News Corporation, Fox's parent company, pulled
WNYW and
WTXF from cable provider
Cablevision on October 16 because of a carriage dispute.[3] The agreement was reached just before Game 3.[3]
On August 24,
Tribune removed affiliate
WTIC from
Cablevision systems in Connecticut, causing viewers to miss Games 1 and 2 of the series. An agreement between Cablevision and Tribune was reached on October 26, the day before Game 3.
According to
Nielsen Media Research, the four-game series on Fox averaged a record-low 7.6
rating and 12
share. The previous low was an 8.4 rating for both the
2008 and the
2010 World Series, which each went five games. The 6.1 rating in Game 3 matched the lowest rating for any World Series game with Game 3 in 2008; that year, a
rain delay moved the start of the game to after 10 p.m. on the East Coast with the game not ending until 1:47 a.m.[11]
The
2013 World Series was
Tim McCarver's final World Series as a broadcaster, as he announced that he would retire after the season.[12] A partnership with
Fox Sports featured
Pearl Jam as the November artist of month for all entities within the Fox Sports domain and license 48 songs
from their catalogue to play during the 2013 World Series. Their music was included in anything from "opening teases and commercial bumpers to montages, as well as additional promotional inventory across Fox prime-time and cable."[13]
The World Series started on a Tuesday for the first time since 1990, instead of a Wednesday as in previous years.[15] The change also meant that the series only had to compete with the
National Football League on one night (
Sunday) instead of three (
Thursday, Sunday, and
Monday).[16]
The 2014 World Series averaged an 8.3/14 rating, making it the second-worst rated World Series in Major League Baseball history.[citation needed] Through six games, the series was averaging 7.4, which would have made it the worst-rated World Series, but Game 7 produced a respectable 13.7 to bolster the series average enough to avoid the notorious distinction. The 2014 World Series set records for lowest-rated Games 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 in World Series history. The previous Game 7 in World Series history occurred in 2011, when the
St. Louis Cardinals and
Texas Rangers produced a 14.7 rating, a full 1.0 over 2014's Game 7. 2014 is the 5th consecutive year in which the World Series rating was under 10.0 and the 6th in the last 7th.
2015 – Fox suffered an outage during their broadcast of Game 1, resulting in a loss of coverage for 15 minutes, followed a 5-minute delay in-game while officials addressed the availability of video review due to the loss of Fox's feed. The teams agreed to allow the use of footage from
MLB International's world feed of the game for video review, while Fox also temporarily switched to the MLB International feed with
Matt Vasgersian and
John Smoltz, later replaced by
Joe Buck,
Harold Reynolds, and
Tom Verducci before the main Fox Sports production was restored.[17]
Initial reports often utilize "fast national" ratings, which are subject to revision.[22] Game 7 had over 40 million viewers, the largest audience for a baseball game since Game 7 of the
1991 World Series, while the series as a whole was the first to average double-digit ratings nationally since
2009.[23][24]
The
2000 World Series telecast on Fox was the first year of their exclusive coverage of the World Series (although the new contract technically began the next year). As in previous World Series televised by the network,
Joe Buck called the play-by-play, with
Tim McCarver (himself a
Yankees broadcaster and a former
Mets broadcaster) and
Bob Brenly (who was an on-field analyst) serving as color commentators. This World Series was Brenly's last broadcast for Fox, as he left to become manager of the
Arizona Diamondbacks and, incidentally, go on to defeat the
New York Yankees in the
World Series the following year. Brenly returned to broadcasting in 2005 as part of the
Chicago Cubs broadcasts on
NBC Sports Chicago and
WGN, and also has called postseason games for
TBS.
2001 – For the second consecutive year, Fox carried the World Series over its network with its top broadcast team,
Joe Buck and
Tim McCarver (himself a former
New York Yankees broadcaster). This was the first year of Fox's exclusive rights to the World Series (in the previous contract, Fox only broadcast the World Series in even numbered years while
NBC broadcast it in odd numbered years), which it has held ever since (this particular contract also had given Fox exclusive rights to the entire baseball postseason, which aired over its family of networks; the contract was modified following
Disney's purchase of
Fox Family Channel shortly after the World Series ended, as ESPN regained their postseason rights following a year of postseason games on ABC Family, Fox Family's successor).
An average of 23.1 million people watched Game 1. These were the highest television ratings for the opening game of a World Series in five years and had the highest average number of viewers since 1996. It was also the highest rated broadcast on any network in the past ten months. The ratings for the first two games were also the highest average since 1996,[25] and the average for the first three games was the highest since 1999.[26] Game 3 had the highest average number of viewers with 24.4 million, since 1996 when 28.7 million watched the
Atlanta Braves and
New York Yankees. It was also the
Fox network's highest rating for a Game 3 of a World Series ever.[27] Game 4 posted an 18.2 national rating giving the series an overall average of 15.8. This was the highest average in five years, and the average number of viewers of 25.4 million, was the highest since 1995.[28]
2006 – Games 1, 3 and 4 set all-time lows for television ratings, with Game 4 falling 20% from the previous year's Game 4.[29] The Series as a whole was also the lowest-rated ever, with the four games averaging a
Nielsen rating of only 10.0 and a share of 17. By contrast, the six games of the
1980 Series—in the pre-cable television era—garnered a record-high rating of 32.8 and a share of 56.
The starting time for each television broadcast was 8 pm EDT/6 pm MDT.
2007 – The starting time for each television broadcast was 8 pm EDT (6 pm MDT). The series broke with the recent tradition of starting the World Series on a Saturday, as Major League Baseball had become convinced that weekend games drew lower television ratings. Prior to this season, every World Series since
1985 had opened on a Saturday, with the exception of the
1990 World Series.
Rogers Sportsnet (RSN) in Canada used the
MLB International feed with
Dave O'Brien and
Rick Sutcliffe as booth announcers.
NASN showed the games live to most of Europe, while in the
United Kingdom, all games were shown
terrestrially on
Five.
NHK aired the Series in Japan.
During Fox's broadcast of Game 3 of the 2007 World Series between the
Colorado Rockies and
Boston Red Sox, a
blackout occurred during the top half of the seventh inning, resulting in the disruption of a key moment in the game.
For international viewers, MLB International televised the game with commentators
Rick Sutcliffe and
Dave O'Brien. This feed was also carried to U.S. service personnel stationed around the globe via the
American Forces Network.
Game 1 of the
2008 World Series was watched by 10.1 million viewers in the United States; Commissioner
Bud Selig stated he was satisfied with the ratings.[31] Overall viewership was 25% lower than the previous World Series.[32]
Game 5 on October 27 was postponed after the top of the sixth inning due to rain. When the game finally resumed on October 29, the start of the game was delayed by 15 minutes so that a 30-minute paid advertisement for U.S.
DemocraticPresidential candidate
Barack Obama could be aired on
Fox,
CBS, and
NBC.[33]
Game 1 of the
2009 World Series was watched by 19.5 million viewers, second only to the opening of the
2004 World Series in viewership for a series opener since 2000.[34] The viewership for the opening game resulted in a ratings percentage of 11.9% of households in the United States.[35] Game 4 produced the highest ratings of the series with 22.8 million viewers, the highest for any World Series game since 2004 and the highest for a "non-decisive Game 4" since 2003.
Fox Deportes also broadcast the Series for the US Spanish-speaking audience.[36]
The
1990 postseason started on a Thursday, while the
World Series started on a Tuesday due to the brief
lockout.
This was the first of four consecutive World Series to be televised on
CBS. From
1976 to
1989, World Series telecasts alternated between
ABC (in odd numbered years) and
NBC (in even numbered years). For CBS' coverage of the
1990,
1991, and
1992 World Series,
Jim Kaat provided periodic commentary on the field during the telecasts, but he was not in the booth with
Jack Buck (for 1990 and 1991),
Sean McDonough (for 1992), and
Tim McCarver.
In 1990, CBS field reporter
Lesley Visser became the first female sportscaster to cover a World Series.
All World Series games from 1981 to 1996 were televised in Canada on
CTV, using the feed from the US network broadcaster.[38]
In
1991,
CBS used three field reporters:
Jim Kaat (both teams and covering the
trophy presentation), Lesley Visser (
Twins' dugout) and Andrea Joyce (
Braves' dugout). This was also the last World Series to be broadcast by
Jack Buck (who was replaced by
Sean McDonough on the CBS telecasts in the role of lead play-by-play man).
The World Series telecast drew an overall national
Nielsen rating of 24.0 and a 39 share for
CBS. Game 7 drew a 32.2 rating and 49 share; as of 2012, no subsequent World Series game has approached either number in national TV ratings.
In
1992, at 30 years of age,
CBS'
Sean McDonough became the youngest man to call all nine innings and games of a World Series while serving as a full network television employee. Although
Vin Scully and
Al Michaels were several years younger when they called their first World Series, they were products of the then broadcasting policy of announcers representing the participating teams (a process that ended following the
1976 World Series). McDonough's record was subsequently broken by Fox's
Joe Buck, who at 27 years of age, called the
1996 World Series. Coincidentally, McDonough replaced Joe Buck's father,
Jack, as CBS' lead play-by-play man.
The
1995 World Series was broadcast on two networks[39] (
ABC and
NBC) so that they could recoup losses in the aftermath of the
1994–95 strike. The arrangement was a compromise from both networks, which chose to opt out of a six-year revenue sharing deal with Major League Baseball called "
The Baseball Network." Prior to the strike, ABC was scheduled to broadcast the
1994 World Series and NBC was scheduled to televise the 1995 World Series. For 1995, ABC and NBC alternated games; ABC cover Games 1, 4, and 5 (and would have aired Game 7 if it was needed), while NBC covered Games 2, 3 and 6. Game 5 was also, to date, the last World Series game broadcast on ABC.
Also during the
1995 World Series, NBC's
Hannah Storm was the first woman to serve as solo host of a World Series, and the first to preside over a World Series trophy presentation.
1997 – This marked the first time since
1988 that
NBC televised a World Series in its entirety. In
1995, NBC televised Games 2, 3, and 6, while rival
ABC televised Games 1, 4, and 5, having split that series since ABC was promised the
strike-cancelled1994 World Series. Both networks had announced prior to the 1995 season, that they were bailing out what was initially, a six-year-long
revenue sharingjoint venture with Major League Baseball called "
The Baseball Network". NBC's
West Coast president
Don Ohlmeyer disturbed Major League Baseball when he publicly wished the World Series to end in a four-game sweep so that it wouldn't derail NBC's fall entertainment schedule. (Game 5 fell on a Thursday, which had long been the highest rated
night on NBC's schedule, if not on all of television.)
The
1999 World Series was
NBC's 39th and, to date, final World Series telecast. Fox aired the next
World Series as part of the contract in place, and Fox acquired the exclusive broadcast rights of Major League Baseball beginning in
2001. With the
Knicks having played in the
NBA Finals in June, this was the second championship series in 1999 that
NBC broadcast involving teams from New York.
Bob Costas,
Jim Gray, and
Hannah Storm were involved both times. Costas with play-by-play, Gray as a reporter, and Storm as pre-game host. Prior to Cleveland in 2016, this was the most recent year of a same city hosting both NBA Finals and World Series in the same year.
1980 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Philadelphia by
WPHL-TV, the Phillies' flagship TV station, and
KYW-TV, the Philadelphia NBC station; and in Kansas City by
WDAF-TV, the Royals' flagship TV station as well as the Kansas City NBC station.
This series is tied with the
1978 World Series for the highest overall television ratings to date, with the six games averaging a
Nielsen rating of 32.8 and a share of 56.[62]
Although
Bryant Gumbel anchored NBC's pregame coverage for Game 5 of series, he was not present at
Kansas City's
Royals Stadium. Game 5 landed on a Sunday, which created conflict with Gumbel's NFL '80 hosting duties. As a result, Gumbel had to anchor the World Series coverage from NBC's studios in New York City. Gumbel however, would be present in
Philadelphia's
Veterans Stadium for Game 6, which turned out to be the clincher for the
Phillies.
1981 – Locally, the ABC feed was carried in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KABC-TV, the Los Angeles ABC station; and in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WABC-TV, the New York City ABC station.
1982 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in St. Louis by
KSDK, the Cardinals' flagship station as well as the St. Louis NBC station; and in Milwaukee by
WVTV, the Brewers' flagship TV station, and
WTMJ-TV, the Milwaukee NBC station.
Dick Enberg and
Joe Garagiola traded off play-by-play duties (just as Garagiola and
Tony Kubek had done for NBC's previous two World Series broadcasts). Garagiola called the first three and last three innings of each game. Enberg, meanwhile, hosted the pregame show and then called the middle innings.
1983 – Locally, the ABC feed was carried in Baltimore by
WMAR-TV, the Orioles' flagship TV station, and
WJZ-TV, the Baltimore ABC station; and in Philadelphia by
WTAF-TV, the Phillies' flagship TV station, and
WPVI-TV, the Philadelphia ABC station. (This was the last year in which the participating teams' regular-season flagship TV stations were permitted to simulcast the network feed of the World Series even if they were not affiliated with that network. Beginning in 1984 the network affiliates would have Series exclusivity in every city.)
This was the last World Series aired on ABC before the network was taken over by
Capital Cities Communications (coincidentally, that company's flagship station was Philadelphia's ABC affiliate,
WPVI-TV—also the network's first affiliate).
Earl Weaver was ABC's lead baseball analyst in
1983, but was also employed by the
Baltimore Orioles as a consultant. At the time, ABC had a policy preventing an announcer who was employed by a team from working games involving that team. So whenever the Orioles were on the primary ABC game (ABC during this period, broadcast
Monday night games), Weaver worked the backup game. This policy forced Weaver to resign from the Orioles' consulting position in October in order to be able to work the Series telecasts for ABC.[63][64]
The
1984 World Series was scheduled to start in the
National League park. But Major League Baseball actually had a contingency plan to instead start the World Series in the
American League park in the event that the
Chicago Cubs won the
National League Championship Series against the
San Diego Padres. This would have allowed the
Wrigley Field-hosted (i.e. daytime) games[65][66][67][68][69] to be held over the weekend. In return, only one
prime time game (Game 3 on Friday) would have been lost. Wrigley Field wouldn't have lights installed until
four years later. In other words, had the Cubs advanced to the Series instead of the Padres, the
Detroit Tigers would have hosted Games 1–2, and 6–7 (on Tuesday and Wednesday nights), while the Cubs would have hosted Games 3–5 (on Friday, Saturday and Sunday), with all three games in Chicago starting no later than 1:30 p.m.
Central Time.
1985 marked the first time that all World Series games were aired in
prime time. Since 1985 marked the first year of the League Championship Series having a best-of-seven format, Game 1 started on a Saturday.
Tim McCarver (who was originally slated to be a roving World Series reporter[70]) was practically a last minute replacement for
Howard Cosell[71] on
ABC's coverage. Cosell was removed from the telecasts on the eve of the World Series (October 18), by order of Jim Spence and
Roone Arledge (the then Vice President and President of ABC Sports respectively) after the excerpts from Cosell's book (I Never Played the Game), which criticized colleagues at ABC, first appeared in TV Guide.
1986 –
NBC preceded its broadcast of Game 5 by airing an episode of The Cosby Show (at the time the network's top-rated prime time series) in lieu of a pregame show.[72]
Vin Scully's call of the final play in Game 6 would quickly become an iconic one to baseball fans, with the normally calm Scully growing increasingly excited:
So the winning run is at second base, with two outs, three and two to
Mookie Wilson. [A] little roller up along first... behind the bag! It gets through
Buckner! Here comes
Knight, and the
Mets win it![73]
Scully then remained silent for more than three minutes, letting the pictures and the crowd noise tell the story. Scully resumed with:
If one picture is worth a thousand words, you have seen about a million words, but more than that, you have seen an absolutely bizarre finish to Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. The Mets are not only alive, they are well, and they will play the
Red Sox in Game 7 tomorrow![74]
Game 6 caused the first-ever preemption of Saturday Night Live, due to extra innings.
Ron Darling explained that when the Mets entered the locker room, they were informed to their dismay that they'd inadvertently caused the first delay in SNL's (then) 11-year history; the delayed episode was aired two weeks later on November 8.
NBC's broadcast of Game 7 (which went up against a Monday Night Football game between the
Washington Redskins and
New York Giants on
ABC) garnered a
Nielsen rating of 38.9 and a 55 share, making it the highest-
rated single World Series game to date. Game 7 was scheduled for Sunday, but a rain-out forced the game to Monday.
Game 6 of the
1987 World Series (played on Saturday, October 24) was the last World Series game to not be played in
prime time (ironically, the game was played in the
Metrodome even though it took place under artificial illumination all the same).[75] The game started at 4 p.m.
Eastern Time. Another weekend afternoon sixth game was planned for
1988, but since the World Series ended in five games, it was unnecessary.
The
1988 World Series marked the last time that
NBC[76] would televise a World Series for seven years. Beginning in
1990, NBC was shut out of
Major League Baseball coverage completely, after
CBS signed a four-year, exclusive television contract. After splitting coverage of the
1995 World Series with
ABC, NBC would next cover a World Series exclusively in
1997.
Longtime Los Angeles Dodgers' broadcaster
Vin Scully called the 1988 World Series for a national television audience on
NBC with
Joe Garagiola. Unknown to the fans and the media at the time,
Kirk Gibson was watching the game on television while undergoing physical therapy in the
Dodgers' clubhouse.[77] At some point during the game, television cameras scanned the Dodgers
dugout and Scully, observed that Gibson was nowhere to be found.[77] This spurred Gibson to tell Dodgers
managerTommy Lasorda that he was available to
pinch hit.[77] Gibson immediately returned to the
batting cage in the clubhouse to take practice swings.[77]Bob Costas, who along with
Marv Albert, hosted NBC's World Series pregame coverage and handled postgame interviews made on-air statements that enraged many in the Dodgers' clubhouse (especially manager
Tommy Lasorda). After the Dodgers won Game 4, Lasorda (during a postgame interview with Marv Albert) sarcastically said that the MVP of the World Series should be Bob Costas. While Kirk Gibson was taking practice swings in the Dodgers' clubhouse during Game 1,
Orel Hershiser set up the hitting tee for his teammate. Along the way, Costas could hear Gibson's agonized-sounding grunts after every hit.[78] Costas said that the
1988 Dodgers possibly had the weakest hitting line-up in World Series history.
All
year long, they looked to him to light the fire, and all year long, he answered the demands, until he was physically unable to start tonight—with two bad legs: The bad left hamstring, and the swollen right knee. And, with two out, you talk about a roll of the dice... this is it.
Scully made repeated references to Gibson's legs, noting at one point that the batter was "shaking his left leg, making it quiver, like a horse trying to get rid of a troublesome fly." Gibson worked the count to 3–2 as
Mike Davis stole second base; the camera turned at that point to
Steve Sax getting ready for his turn at the plate, and Scully reminded the viewers that Sax waiting on deck but the game right now is at the plate. He then said:
High fly ball into right field, she i-i-i-is... GONE!!!
Scully said nothing for over a minute, allowing the pictures to tell the story. Finally, he said:
In a year that has been so improbable... the impossible has happened!
Returning to the subject of Gibson's banged-up legs during a replay, Scully joked,
And, now, the only question was, could he make it around the base paths unassisted?! You know, I said it once before, a few days ago, that Kirk Gibson was not the Most Valuable Player; that the Most Valuable Player for the Dodgers was
Tinkerbell. But, tonight, I think Tinkerbell backed off for Kirk Gibson. And, look at
Eckersley – shocked to his toes! They are going wild at Dodger Stadium – no one wants to leave!
As NBC showed a replay of Gibson rounding second base in his home run trot, Scully then made a point to note Eckersley's pitching performance throughout the
1988 season, to put things in perspective.
Dennis Eckersley allowed five home runs all year. And we'll be back.
Game 1 of the 1988 World Series was also notable for an unexpected hijack at
Macon, Georgia's NBC station
WMGT-TV when the video portion of the second inning was hijacked with a black-and-white adult movie for ten seconds while the audio portion of the game was still in play.[79] The station's manager reported the sudden hijack to the
Federal Communications Commission who later reported a few days after the hijack that a former technician, who was fired from the station a short time after, accidentally flipped the wrong switch in the station's master control panel which send the video portion directly from NBC's
KU-Band signal to one of the station's
C-Bandsatellite dish.[80]
This was the last World Series that
ABC televised from start to finish (and also the last they would produce themselves) and the last MLB game on ABC, period, until July 1994. The
television rights would move exclusively (ABC had shared coverage with
NBC since
1976 up until the end of the
1989 season) to
CBS the following year. ABC would next televise a World Series in
1995, but only broadcast Games 1, 4, and 5 (the other games were covered by NBC, who had a joint venture with ABC and MLB called
The Baseball Network). Due in part to the earthquake and subsequent interruption of play, combined with the four-game sweep by the
A's, ABC only drew an overall
Nielsen rating of 16.4 for the Series. This was the first World Series since the introduction of prime-time games in
1971 to draw a rating of less than 20.[83]
1970 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Baltimore by
WJZ-TV, the Orioles' flagship TV station, and
WBAL-TV, the Baltimore NBC station; and in Cincinnati by
WLWT, the Reds' flagship TV station as well as the Cincinnati NBC station.
1971 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Pittsburgh by
KDKA-TV, the Pirates' flagship TV station, and
WIIC, the Pittsburgh NBC station; and in Baltimore by
WJZ-TV, the Orioles' flagship TV station, and
WBAL-TV, the Baltimore NBC station.
1972 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Oakland by
KBHK-TV, the Athletics' flagship TV station, and
KRON-TV, the Bay Area NBC station; and in Cincinnati by
WLWT, the Reds' flagship TV station as well as the Cincinnati NBC station.
After having been used as an in-the-stands reporter for
NBC's Series coverage since
1968,
Tony Kubek was promoted to the booth as a
color analyst for the telecasts, becoming the first former player to serve in this capacity since
Joe Garagiola in
1961.
NBC aired the soap opera Return to Peyton Place prior to game 5, the first time that NBC had skipped the pregame show before a Series game (a move the network would not repeat until 1986 with The Cosby Show). This move was necessitated by the fact that Game 3 was rained out, forcing Game 5 to be played on a Friday, originally scheduled as a travel day.
1973 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WOR-TV, the Mets' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC station; and in Oakland by
KTVU, the Athletics' flagship TV station, and
KRON-TV, the Bay Area NBC station.
1974 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Oakland by
KTVU, the Athletics' flagship TV station, and
KRON-TV, the Bay Area NBC station; and in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KNBC-TV, the Los Angeles NBC station.
1975 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Cincinnati by
WLWT, the Reds' flagship TV station as well as the Cincinnati NBC station; and in Boston by
WSBK-TV, the Red Sox' flagship TV station, and
WBZ-TV, the Boston NBC station.
1976 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC station; and in Cincinnati by
WLWT, the Reds' flagship TV station as well as the Cincinnati NBC station.
1977 – Locally, the ABC feed was carried in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KABC-TV, the Los Angeles ABC station; and in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WABC-TV, the New York City ABC station.
Beginning in
1977 the participating teams' local announcers were no longer featured as booth announcers[92] on the network telecast of a World Series.
Also in 1977, Yankees announcer
Bill White and Dodgers announcer
Ross Porter split pre-game and post-game duties on
ABC, with White working the telecasts for the games in New York (including the clubhouse
trophy presentation ceremony after Game 6) and Porter doing likewise for the games in Los Angeles. (The pair also worked on
CBS Radio's coverage of the Series, with Porter doing play-by-play of the games in New York and White the games in Los Angeles.)
1978 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC station; and in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KNBC-TV, the Los Angeles NBC station.
1979 – Locally, the ABC feed was carried in Pittsburgh by
KDKA-TV, the Pirates' flagship TV station, and
WTAE-TV, the Pittsburgh ABC station; and in Baltimore by
WMAR-TV, the Orioles' flagship TV station, and
WJZ-TV, the Baltimore ABC station.
During ABC's coverage in
1979 and
1981,
Keith Jackson[93] and
Al Michaels alternated the play-by-play, Jackson calling the games at the
American League park and Michaels working those at the
National League park. This arrangement was made in large part to work around Jackson's already-busy schedule (which included being ABC's lead
college football announcer). By
1983, Michaels was promoted to the full-time play-by-play role.[88]
1960 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC affiliate; and in Pittsburgh by
WIIC, the Pittsburgh NBC affiliate.
As mentioned several times here, prior to the mid-1970s, television networks and stations generally didn't preserve their telecasts of sporting events, choosing instead to tape over them. As a result, the broadcasts of six of the seven 1960 games are no longer known to exist. The lone exception is a
black-and-whitekinescope of the entire telecast of Game 7, which was discovered in a
wine cellar in
Bing Crosby's home in
Hillsborough, California in December 2009.[99] A part-owner of the
Pittsburgh Pirates, who was too superstitious to watch the Series live, Crosby listened to the decisive contest with his wife
Kathryn and two friends on a
shortwave radio in Paris, France. Wanting to watch the game at a later date only if the Pirates won, he arranged for a company to record it. After viewing the kinescope, he placed it in his wine cellar, where it went untouched for 49 years. It was finally found by Robert Bader,
vice president of
marketing and production for Bing Crosby Enterprises, while looking through
videotapes of Crosby's television specials which were to be transferred to
DVD. The five-reel set is the only known complete copy of the historic match, which was originally broadcast in
color.[99] The
NBC television announcers for the Series were
Bob Prince and
Mel Allen, the primary play-by-play voices for the Pirates and
New York Yankees respectively. Prince called the first half of Game 7, while Allen did the rest of the game.[99]
1961 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Cincinnati by
WLWT, the Reds' flagship TV station as well as the Cincinnati NBC affiliate; and in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC affiliate.
In contrast to preceding years, in which NBC's World Series telecasts featured two announcers (usually one from each participating team) who split the play-by-play, each working his portion of the game by himself, in 1961 NBC had Yankees announcer
Mel Allen handle all of the play-by-play on television (with Reds announcer
Waite Hoyt confined to radio) while
Joe Garagiola provided color commentary. This format eventually became the standard form of presentation on World Series telecasts.[100]
1962 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC affiliate; and in San Francisco by
KTVU-TV, the Giants' flagship TV station, and
KRON-TV, the San Francisco NBC affiliate.
1963 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KNBC, the Los Angeles NBC affiliate; and in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC affiliate.
During the fourth and final game of the series, Yankees announcer
Mel Allen was calling the top of the ninth inning for NBC when his voice gave out due to a bout of severe
laryngitis, forcing Dodgers announcer
Vin Scully (who had called the first four-and-a-half innings of the game per the network's usual setup) to resume play-by-play duties for the remainder of the game. After the Series New York Daily News sportswriter
Dick Young opined that Allen, the voice of the Yankees, had been stricken by "psychosomatic laryngitis" caused by his team being swept.[101]
1964 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC affiliate; and in St. Louis by
KSD-TV, the Cardinals' flagship TV station as well as the St. Louis NBC affiliate.
In 1964, the Yankees made the World Series for the 15th time in 19 years—but
Mel Allen wasn't there. Back in September, before the end of the season, the Yankees informed Allen that his contract with the team would not be renewed. In those days, the main announcers for the Series participants always called the World Series on NBC. Although Allen was thus technically eligible to call the Series, Baseball Commissioner
Ford Frick honored the Yankees' request to have
Phil Rizzuto join the Series crew instead.[102] It was the first time Allen had missed a World Series for which the Yankees were eligible since 1943, and only the second World Series (not counting those missed during World War II) that he'd missed since he began calling baseball games in 1938. On December 17, after much media speculation and many letters to the Yankees from fans disgruntled at Allen's absence from the Series, the Yankees issued a terse press release announcing Allen's firing; he was replaced by
Joe Garagiola, who'd teamed with Rizzuto on the Series. NBC and Movietone dropped him soon afterward. To this day, the Yankees have never given an explanation for Allen's sudden firing, and rumors abounded. Depending on the rumor, Allen was either
homosexual, an
alcoholic, a
drug addict, or had suffered a
nervous breakdown.[103] Allen's sexuality was sometimes a target in those more conservative days because he hadn't married (and never did). Years later, Allen told author
Curt Smith that the Yankees had fired him under pressure from the team's longtime sponsor,
Ballantine Beer. According to Allen, he was fired as a cost-cutting move by Ballantine, which had been experiencing poor sales for years[103] (it would eventually be sold in 1969). Smith, in his book Voices of Summer, also indicated that the medications Allen took in order to maintain his busy schedule may have affected his on-air performance. (Stephen Borelli, another biographer, has also pointed out that Allen's heavy workload didn't allow him time to take care of his health.)
1965 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KNBC, the Los Angeles NBC affiliate; and in Minnesota by
WTCN-TV, the Twins' flagship TV station, and
KSTP-TV, the Twin Cities NBC affiliate.
1966 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Baltimore by
WJZ-TV, the Orioles' flagship TV station, and
WBAL-TV, the Baltimore NBC affiliate; and in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KNBC, the Los Angeles NBC affiliate.
Prior to 1966, NBC typically paired the top announcers for the respective World Series teams to alternate play-by-play during each game's telecast. For example, if the
Yankees played the
Dodgers in the World Series,
Mel Allen (representing the Yankees) would call half the game and
Vin Scully (representing the Dodgers) would call the rest of the game. However, in 1966, NBC wanted their regular network announcer,
Curt Gowdy, to call most of the play-by-play at the expense of the top local announcers. So instead of calling half of every World Series game on television (as Vin Scully had done in
1953,
1955,
1956,
1959,
1963, and
1965), they only got to call half of all home games on TV, providing color commentary while Gowdy called play-by-play for the rest of each game. The visiting teams' announcers participated in the
NBC Radio broadcasts. In broadcasts of Series-clinching (or potentially Series-clinching) games on both media, NBC sent the announcer for whichever team was ahead in the game to that team's clubhouse in the ninth inning in order to help cover the trophy presentation and conduct post-game interviews.
1967 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in St. Louis by
KSD-TV, the Cardinals' flagship TV station as well as the St. Louis NBC affiliate; and in Boston by
WHDH-TV, the Red Sox' flagship TV station, and
WBZ-TV, the Boston NBC affiliate.
1968 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Detroit by
WJBK, the Tigers' flagship TV station, and
WWJ-TV, the Detroit NBC affiliate; and in St. Louis by
KSD-TV, the Cardinals' flagship TV station as well as the St. Louis NBC affiliate.
1969 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WOR-TV, the Mets' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC affiliate; and in Baltimore by
WJZ-TV, the Orioles' flagship TV station, and
WBAL-TV, the Baltimore NBC affiliate.
Games 3–5 of the 1969 World Series are believed to be the oldest surviving
color television broadcasts of World Series games (even though World Series telecasts have aired in color since
1955). However, they were "truck feeds" in that they do not contain original commercials, but show a static image of the
Shea Stadium field between innings. Games 1 and 2 were only saved as
black and whitekinescopes provided by the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which also preserved all seven games of the
1965 and
1968 World Series (plus the
1965 All-Star Game and
1968 All-Star Game) in black and white kinescope.
By
1950, World Series games could be seen in most of the country,[112][113][114] but not all. Also in
1950, the
Mutual Broadcasting System acquired the exclusive television broadcast rights to the World Series and All-Star Game for the next six years. Mutual, which had no television network at the time (and indeed never developed one), may have been reindulging in TV network dreams or simply taking advantage of a long-standing business relationship; in any case, the network sold its TV rights to
NBC in time for the following season's games at an enormous profit.
1951 marked the first time that the World Series was televised exclusively by one network (
NBC), as well as the first time that it was televised from
coast to
coast.[115][116][117][118]
1953 –
Brooklyn Dodgers announcer
Red Barber wanted a higher fee from
Gillette, which sponsored the World Series telecasts on
NBC, than was offered. When Dodgers owner
Walter O'Malley refused to back him, Barber declined Gillette's fee, and his then-assistant
Vin Scully (who at 25 years of age became the youngest announcer to call the play-by-play of a World Series, a distinction which still stands) was partnered with the
New York Yankees'
Mel Allen during the series instead. In his 1968 autobiography Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat, Barber claims O'Malley's lack of support as his reason for subsequently resigning from the Dodgers' booth and joining the Yankees' prior to the 1954 season.[119]
For the
1957 and
1958 Series, both of which featured the
New York Yankees and
Milwaukee Braves, the games played in New York were televised in color while the games in Milwaukee were shown in black and white, due to the distance between the cities being too great for
NBC's color equipment to be moved in time between games.[123][124]
1959 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KRCA, the Los Angeles NBC station; and in Chicago by
WGN-TV, the White Sox' flagship TV station, and
WNBQ, the Chicago NBC station.
Chicago White Sox announcer
Bob Elson missed a chance to call the series – the team's first since 1919 and Elson's first since 1943 – to a national audience because then-head of
NBC SportsTom Gallery (who'd incidentally grown up on the same block as Elson) didn't like him.[125] Elson was permitted to call a re-creation of the series over White Sox radio flagship
WCFL.[126]
The October 1947 Billboard reported over 3.9 million viewing the games, primarily on TV sets located in bars (5,400 tavern TV sets in NYC alone). The October 13, 1947 edition of
Time magazine reported that President
Truman, who had just made the first
Oval Office TV appearance on October 5, 1947, and received the first TV for the
White House, watched parts of the Series but "skipped the last innings".
By
1949, World Series games could now be seen east of the
Mississippi River.[139] The games were open to all channels with a network affiliation.[140]
Surviving telecasts
All telecasts of World Series games starting with
1975 (
Reds–
Red Sox) are accounted for and exist. This is a full record of World Series telecasts prior to 1975 that are known to exist in whole or part:
1955 (
Yankees–
Dodgers) – Sections of Game 5 exist and have been released on DVD.
1956 (
Yankees–
Dodgers) – The last three innings of Game 2 are known to exist. Game 3 is complete with original commercials, pre and post game show except for innings 2 and 3 and is available on DVD. Game 5,
Don Larsen's
perfect game, is complete except for the first inning. Game 5 was aired on the first night of the
MLB Network on January 1, 2009, and is now available on DVD. Game 7 is complete except for the 2nd and 3rd innings and has also been released on DVD.
1957 (
Yankees–
Braves) – Games 1, 2 and 5 exist in their entirety and have been released on DVD. All of Game 3 (except for a snip of
Tony Kubek's second home run in the top 7th inning) exists, as does the first six innings of Game 6 (both also released on DVD). Game 7 is believed to exist but has not been released.
1960 (
Yankees–
Pirates) – A complete kinescope of Game 7 was discovered in the former home of
Bing Crosby in December 2009.[99] The game was rebroadcast by
MLB Network in December 2010, and is now available on DVD.
1961 (
Yankees–
Reds) – Only half-hour segments of Game 3 (the final two innings), Game 4 (the 4th and 5th inning) and Game 5 (the opening and top of the 1st inning) are known to exist.
1963 (
Yankees–
Dodgers) – Only a brief section of Game 3 is known to exist. An excerpt appears in the Yankeeography series (out on DVD).
1965 (
Twins–
Dodgers) – All seven games exist, preserved on kinescope by the
CBC. Also, it is the earliest World Series whose telecasts are known to survive in their entirety.
1968 (
Tigers–
Cardinals). All seven games exist, preserved on kinescope by the CBC.
1969 (
Orioles–
Mets). Games 1 and 2 have been preserved on kinescope by the CBC. Meanwhile, Games 3–5 exist in their original color videotape quality from "truck feeds", including pregames with
Jim Simpson,
Sandy Koufax and
Mickey Mantle.
1970 (
Orioles–
Reds). Games 1–4 have been preserved on kinescope by the CBC. Meanwhile, Game 5 exists in its original color videotape quality from the "truck feed."
1971 (
Orioles–
Pirates). Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 exist in their complete forms. Games 3, 4 and 5 survive in partial form. These include pregame shows for six of the seven games, featuring
Joe Garagiola and
Sandy Koufax.
1972 (
A's–
Reds) – Game 4 is the only complete game extant, along with most of Game 5, and some of Game 2. Only fragments remain from Games 1, 3 and 6; The complete pregame show and condensed action of the first three innings of Game 7 exist from a home recording.
1973 (
A's–
Mets) – Game 1 is the only complete game extant. Game 2 (which lasted four-plus hours) is missing various bits, including the last inning and a half (including both crucial
Mike Andrews misplays at second base). Game 3 is complete except for the last inning. Game 4 lasts from just the pregame show to the top of the 4th inning. All that remains of Game 5 are the final two innings. Game 6 is entirely missing, and Game 7 cuts off with one out in the top of the 9th inning, missing the postgame celebrations. A 20-minute presentation tape of Series highlights, narrated by
Curt Gowdy, was submitted to the
Peabody Awards. The Peabody tape includes the two key Mike Andrews plays from Game 2, otherwise missing from the network archives.
1974 (
A's–
Dodgers) – Games 1–4 are complete, Game 5 exists in partial form.
ESPN Radio broadcast the
2010 World Series nationally, with
Jon Miller (who worked the
San Francisco Giants' local radio broadcasts during the regular season) calling his 13th consecutive World Series as the network's play-by-play announcer, and
Joe Morgan providing commentary on his 11th World Series for ESPN Radio and his 14th overall (counting three Series telecasts for
NBC). The games were the last that Miller and Morgan (who had also been calling Sunday Night Baseball for ESPN television since 1990) would work together, as the network subsequently announced that their contracts would not be renewed for 2011.[143]ESPN Deportes Radio also aired the Series to
Spanish language listeners, with Eduardo Ortega and former Giants pitcher
Juan Marichal announcing.
Locally, the two teams'
flagship stations broadcast the series with their respective announcing crews, with an additional requirement of acknowledging
AutoZone, ESPN Radio's baseball broadcasting sponsor. The Giants' English-language broadcasts aired on
KNBR (with
Dave Flemming,
Duane Kuiper, and
Mike Krukow announcing) with their Spanish-language broadcasts on
KIQI-AM (with Erwin Higueros and
Tito Fuentes), while
KRLD-FM and
AM carried the Rangers' English-language broadcasts (with
Eric Nadel and
Dave Barnett) and
KFLC-AM had their Spanish-language broadcasts (with Eleno Ornelas and Jerry Romo). Due to contractual obligations, the non-flagship stations on the teams' radio networks carried the ESPN Radio broadcasts of the games, although the local broadcasts were also available on
XM Satellite Radio and to Gameday Audio subscribers at
MLB.com.
Locally, the two teams'
flagship stations broadcast the series with their respective announcing crews. The Giants' English-language broadcasts aired on
KNBR (with
Dave Flemming,
Jon Miller,
Mike Krukow, and
Duane Kuiper announcing) with their Spanish-language broadcasts on
KIQI-AM (with Erwin Higueros and
Tito Fuentes), while
WXYT-FM and
AM carried the Tigers' English-language broadcasts (with
Dan Dickerson and
Jim Price). Due to contractual obligations, the non-flagship stations on the teams' radio networks carried the ESPN Radio broadcasts of the games, although the local broadcasts were also available on
XM Satellite Radio and to Gameday Audio subscribers at
MLB.com.
Locally, the series was broadcast on the teams'
flagship radio stations with their respective announcing crews. In San Francisco,
KNBR aired the games in English (with
Jon Miller,
Duane Kuiper,
Mike Krukow and
Dave Flemming announcing),[150] while
KTRB broadcast in Spanish (with Erwin Higueros and
Tito Fuentes announcing). In Kansas City,
KCSP broadcast the games (with
Denny Matthews and
Ryan Lefebvre announcing). Due to contractual obligations, the affiliate stations on the teams' radio networks had to carry the ESPN Radio feed of the games,[151] although the local broadcasts were also available on
Sirius and
XM satellite radio and to Gameday Audio subscribers at
MLB.com. In Kansas City,
WHB carried the ESPN Radio feed in direct competition with KCSP's broadcast. This was the first World Series for which Jon Miller, who had been the Giants' primary radio announcer since
1997, called the final (see Note below), championship-clinching out to a local San Francisco audience.[citation needed]
Locally, the series was broadcast on the teams'
flagship radio stations with their respective announcing crews. In New York,
WOR aired the games in English, with
Howie Rose and
Josh Lewin announcing, while
WEPN-AM aired the games in Spanish, with Juan Alicea and Max Pérez Jiménez announcing. In Kansas City,
KCSP broadcast the games, with
Denny Matthews,
Ryan Lefebvre,
Steve Stewart, and
Steve Physioc announcing.[153]WEPN-FM and
WHB, the ESPN Radio affiliates in New York and Kansas City respectively, aired the network's coverage of the series in those cities.[154][155]
Locally, the teams'
flagship stations broadcast the series with their regular announcers. In Cleveland,
WTAM (1100) and
WMMS (100.7) carried the Indians' play-by-play with
Tom Hamilton and
Jim Rosenhaus, while in Chicago,
WSCR (670) carried the Cubs' play-by-play with
Pat Hughes,
Ron Coomer, and
Len Kasper.[158] The affiliate stations of the teams' regional radio networks, however, were contractually obligated to carry the national ESPN Radio feed.[159]
Locally, both teams' flagship radio stations broadcast the series with their regular announcers. In Houston,
KBME aired the series with
Robert Ford and
Steve Sparks announcing. In Washington,
WJFK-FM aired the series with
Charlie Slowes and
Dave Jageler calling the games. Per MLB rules, the teams' other radio affiliates were permitted to carry the series but were required to air the ESPN Radio broadcast.[161]
During Game 3 of the
2000 World Series,
ESPN Radio announcer
Jon Miller was forced to leave the booth after the top of the first inning due to an upper respiratory infection.
Charley Steiner, who was serving as a pre-game host and field reporter for the network, filled in on play-by-play for the rest of the game; Miller resumed his duties in Game 4 of the Series.[171]
Locally, the Series was broadcast by
KTAR-AM in
Phoenix with
Thom Brennaman,
Greg Schulte,
Rod Allen and
Jim Traber, and by
WABC-AM in New York City with
John Sterling and
Michael Kay. This would be Sterling and Kay's last World Series working together, and Game 7 would be the last Yankee broadcast on WABC. Kay moved to television and the new
YES Network the following season and
WCBS picked up radio rights to the Yankees. It was Kay who announced
Derek Jeter's game-winning home run in Game 4 of the series and subsequently anointed him as "Mr. November".
Jon Miller, who called the
2002 World Series for
ESPN Radio, has been play-by-play man for the San Francisco Giants since
1997. Coincidentally,
KNBR, the Giants' longtime flagship station, was also San Francisco's ESPN Radio affiliate at the time.
Locally,
KTRH-AM and
WMVP were the primary carriers for the
2005 World Series in the Houston and Chicago markets. For KTRH long time Astros voice
Milo Hamilton provided play-by-play while
John Rooney called the games for the White Sox. Game 4 was Rooney's last call after seventeen years as the radio voice of the White Sox, as he left to take the same position with the
St. Louis Cardinals.
2006 – Locally,
Dan Dickerson and
Jim Price called the Series for the Tigers on
WXYT-AM in Detroit (with retired, longtime Tiger announcer
Ernie Harwell returning to call the second inning of Game 1), while
Mike Shannon and
John Rooney called it for the Cardinals on
KTRS-AM in St. Louis. Per contractual obligation, the non-flagship stations on the teams' radio networks carried the ESPN Radio broadcasts. John Rooney had broadcast the
2005 Series for the
Chicago White Sox, and thus became the first announcer to call back-to-back World Series championships as an employee of different teams.
2007 – Locally,
Joe Castiglione and
Glenn Geffner called the Series for the Red Sox on
WRKO in Boston, while
Jack Corrigan and Jeff Kingery called it for the Rockies on
KOA in Denver. Per contractual obligation, the non-flagship stations on the teams' radio networks carried the ESPN Radio broadcasts.
Locally,
Dave Wills,
Andy Freed,
Dewayne Staats and
Joe Magrane called the Series in English for the Rays on
WHNZ-AM in Tampa, with Ricardo Tavaras and Enrique Oliu working the Spanish broadcast on St. Petersburg's
WGES-AM.
Harry Kalas,
Scott Franzke,
Larry Andersen, and
Chris Wheeler called the Phillies' English broadcasts on
WPHT-AM in Philadelphia, with Spanish announcers Danny Martinez, Bill Kulik and Juan Ramos on
WUBA. Following their contractual obligations, the non-
flagship stations on the teams' radio networks carried the ESPN Radio broadcasts. MLB.com also carried the local radio broadcasts for online streaming, while
XM Satellite Radio aired the local and national feeds to its subscribers. For Harry Kalas, this series brought together a father and son calling the series for different teams, with his son,
Todd, calling the Series in English for the Rays.[173] This World Series win had significance for
Fox's
Tim McCarver and Harry Kalas. Both were Phillies broadcasters in
1980, but neither one could call the final out.[174] McCarver was a backup commentator for Game of the Week on
NBC, but he was not part of the broadcast team that called the final out.[174] For Kalas, MLB radio-broadcasting regulations forbade local stations from producing live coverage of World Series games, instead forcing them to air the national
CBS Radio feed of the games.[173] Philadelphia fans were so outraged about this afterward that they started a letter-writing campaign to the
Commissioner's Office, demanding a change to the rule. The
following year, MLB amended its broadcasting contracts to allow World Series teams' flagship radio stations to air the games with local announcers, due at least in part to this outcry from Philadelphia fans.[174] In 2008, both called the Phillies' World Series win.
The national radio broadcast of the
1993 World Series was also provided by
CBS, with
Vin Scully and
Johnny Bench on the call. Game 6 marked Johnny Bench's final broadcast for CBS Radio after nine years.
Locally, the Series was called on
WOGL-AM in Philadelphia by
Harry Kalas,
Richie Ashburn,
Chris Wheeler and
Andy Musser, and on
CJCL-AM in Toronto by
Jerry Howarth and
Tom Cheek. Cheek's call of the Carter home run ("Touch 'em all Joe, you'll never hit a bigger home run in your life!") lives on in Blue Jays folklore. This was Richie Ashburn's last World Series as a Phillies broadcaster, as he died in
1997. Andy Musser also called his last World Series as a member of the Phillies' broadcast team; he retired in
2001 and died eleven years later. Tom Cheek never called another postseason game in his role as voice of the Blue Jays, from which he retired in
2005 prior to his death from
brain cancer. Meanwhile, Harry Kalas would not call another World Series until
2008. Kalas later died in
2009 prior to a game at
Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.. Chris Wheeler continues to call games for the Phillies although in a limited capacity and Jerry Howarth has continued to call Blue Jays games, moving into the primary play-by-play position following the death of Cheek.
The
1997 World Series is the last World Series to date to be broadcast by the
CBS Radio Network, who had covered the World Series consecutively since
1976.
Vin Scully and
Jeff Torborg called the 1997 World Series for CBS Radio (the latter had once managed the
Cleveland Indians and would later manage the
Florida Marlins).
ESPN Radio would take over the national radio contract for Major League Baseball. This was Scully's eleventh and final call for CBS Radio in the World Series, and seventh consecutive since he rejoined the network following NBC's 1989 loss of baseball. As of 2011, this is also the last World Series broadcast to date for Scully who, in addition to his eleven CBS Radio World Series calls has called fourteen others for NBC and the
Los Angeles Dodgers.[181]). Torborg would continue to call games for
Fox television until the end of the
2000 season, working alongside
John Rooney and
Chip Caray, when he elected to return to managing and was hired by the
Montreal Expos.
Game 7 was the final Major League Baseball game called by longtime Indians radio announcer
Herb Score, as he retired at season's end. Score's broadcast partner,
Tom Hamilton, would take over as lead announcer the following year. It also marked the final game carried by Indians flagship station
WKNR; the broadcast rights would be moved to
WTAM for the
1998 season.
Rick Sutcliffe substituted for Joe Morgan on the ESPN Radio broadcast of the 1999 World Series due to Morgan's duties for NBC Sports, who had the rights to the series that year, taking priority.
In
1985 and
1987,
KMOX, the
St. Louis Cardinals' flagship station at the time,
simulcast with
CBS Radio's World Series coverage involving the Cardinals. That was mainly because
Jack Buck had a lengthy career calling Cardinals games for KMOX (a station owned by CBS until 2018) to go along with his national work for CBS Radio.
In 1985 and
1986, CBS Radio designated the fifth inning of each Series game as a "Home Team Inning."[187] A local announcer for the visiting team would appear on the network's broadcast in the top of the fifth, with the home team announcer doing so in the bottom of the fifth.
Jack Buck and
Bill White provided commentary for the
1988 World Series for CBS Radio. It was White's last World Series as a broadcaster, as he left broadcasting to become President of the National League following the final game. This was Buck's call of
Kirk Gibson's
game-winning home run off of
Dennis Eckersley in Game 1. It begins here with Buck speculating on what might happen if Gibson manages to reach base:
... then you would run for Gibson and have
Sax batting. But, we have a big 3–2 pitch coming here from Eckersley. Gibson swings, and a fly ball to deep right field! This is gonna be a home run! Unbelievable! A home run for Gibson! And the
Dodgers have won the game, five to four; I don't believe what I just saw! I don't believe what I just saw! Is this really happening, Bill? One of the most remarkable finishes to any World Series Game...a one-handed home run by Kirk Gibson! And the Dodgers have won it...five to four; and I'm stunned, Bill. I have seen a lot of dramatic finishes in a lot of sports, but this one might top almost every other one.
This was Buck's seventh and last World Series call for CBS Radio, as he moved to
CBS' television coverage of baseball the following year. Bench continued to call the World Series on radio through
1993 as
Vin Scully's color man.
When
CBS Radio got the contract from
NBC Radio in
1976, they continued the practice of having the local announcers for the visiting teams do the play-by-play for each World Series game through
1978. Thus,
Bill White got to do all three World Series involving the
New York Yankees on CBS Radio from 1976 through 1978 and
Ross Porter worked the
Los Angeles Dodgers' appearances in
1977 and 1978. In addition, the network used
Marty Brennaman in 1976, when his
Cincinnati Reds played against White's Yankees.
Win Elliot served as a
color commentator on CBS Radio's coverage from 1976 to 1978, teaming with the respective local play-by-play announcers for each game's broadcast.
In
1977,
Bill White did play-by-play for the games in
Los Angeles on CBS Radio while
Ross Porter handled the play-by-play for CBS in
New York. Thus, when White was appearing on
ABC-TV during the 1977 World Series, it was during the home games in a pre/postgame role (White would eventually cover the
trophy presentation ceremony for ABC). Likewise, Porter handled the ABC pre/postgame while in Los Angeles.
1979 was the first year in which one announcer (in this case, CBS Radio's
Vin Scully[199]) provided all of the play-by-play for a World Series radio broadcast. In prior years, the play-by-play announcers and color commentators had alternated roles during each game or between games.
CBS Radio, following the lead begun by ABC's television coverage in 1977, dropped the usage of local team broadcasters on play-by-play when Vin Scully began doing the World Series as a CBS employee through
1982. (Beginning in
1982, however, the participating teams'
flagship radio stations were permitted to produce their own local World Series broadcasts and air them live. The affiliate stations in the teams' radio networks continued to be obligated to carry the CBS Radio broadcasts.)
Beginning in
1966 and continuing through
1975, a local announcer for the visiting team in each Series game would split play-by-play and color commentary with a neutral
NBC Radio announcer. Prior to 1966 and going back to the dawn of the television era, Series radio broadcasts typically featured announcers from around the major leagues (generally pairing one announcer from an AL team and another from an NL team), with the regular announcers for both the home and visiting Series participants splitting play-by-play on
NBC television. In broadcasts of Series-clinching (or potentially Series-clinching) games on both media, NBC sent the announcer for whichever team was ahead in the game to that team's clubhouse in the ninth inning in order to help cover the trophy presentation and conduct post-game interviews.
Fred Hoey was hired by
CBS to call Games 1 and 5 of the
1933 World Series after commissioner
Kenesaw Mountain Landis declared that CBS'
Ted Husing and
NBC's
Graham McNamee could not call World Series play-by-play because they hadn't called any regular season games.[235] Hoey was removed from the CBS broadcast during the fourth inning of Game 1 after his voice gave out on the air. Although he was subsequently reported as having suffered from a cold, Hoey's garbled and incoherent speech led many listeners to think he was drunk.[235][236] After this incident, Hoey never went into a broadcast booth without a tin of
throat lozenges.[235]
The
1934 World Series broadcasts were the first to be sponsored, with
Ford giving US$50,000 each to
CBS and
NBC.
Commissioner Landis barred
Detroit Tigers announcer
Ty Tyson from appearing on network radio, citing the risk of partiality in his commentary; however, after Tigers fans sent in more than 600,000 letters of protest, Landis agreed to allow Tyson to call the Series locally on Detroit station
WWJ.[237][238]
In
1939,
Mutual and
Gillette signed an agreement purchasing exclusive broadcast and sponsorship rights to the World Series for US$100,000.[239] A special promotion of Gillette razors and blueblades sold four times better than preliminary estimates, leading the company to secure additional sports sponsorships. The Gillette stable of sports broadcasts, which aired under the umbrella title of Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, spanned several different networks (including
NBC,
CBS, and Mutual radio) and grew to include not only ongoing sponsorship of baseball's World Series and
All-Star Game but also the annual
Kentucky Derby in horseracing, the
Rose Bowl Game and other college football games, and professional
boxing. Mutual continued as the exclusive World Series radio network until 1957, while Gillette's exclusive sponsorship of the event extended into the early television era and continued until the late 1950s.
Note on
1922 through
1926: World Series coverage carried by
Westinghouse Broadcasting was available to any commercially operated radio station.
The
1923 World Series featured the first true, stadium originated radio broadcast of World Series games.
Bill McGeehan did the play-by-play honors at first. However, when McGeehan reportedly tired of the chore, he quit in the middle of Game 3.[249] Shortly thereafter,
Graham McNamee took over play-by-play duties.
AT&T fed the 1923 World Series coverage by New York's
WEAF[250] via their long-distance lines to stations as far north as
Massachusetts and as far south as Washington, D.C.
The
1927 World Series was the first to be broadcast from coast to coast over a full radio network.
Since 1982, the participating teams'
flagship radio stations are permitted to air their own World Series broadcasts with their regular announcing crews, and their audio is made available as usual through MLB's digital presences and
Sirius XM. However, the teams' other radio network affiliates are contractually obligated to carry the national radio feeds. The flagship stations also much mention the coverage as being presented by the same sponsor as the ESPN Radio broadcasts.
Ryan Lefebvre (innings 3–4, 6–7, and even extra innings [Game 1 went 14 innings and Game 5 went 12 innings]) Josh Lewin (innings 3–4, 7, and even extra innings [Game 1 went 14 innings and Game 5 went 12 innings])
Jon Sciambi (innings 3–4, 7–8, and even extra innings [Game 4 went 12 innings]) Charley Steiner (innings 5–7, and even extra innings [Game 4 went 12 innings])
1982 marked the first time that teams'
flagship radio stations were permitted to produce their own local World Series broadcasts and air them live. In prior years, these stations were contractually required to carry the national radio networks' broadcasts (although they could produce re-created games with local announcers and air them after the Series had ended). The affiliate stations in the teams' radio networks continued to be obligated to carry the national broadcasts.
After thousands of Phillies fans—outraged over being unable to hear local team announcers
Harry Kalas and
Richie Ashburn call the games during the
1980 World Series—deluged the team, the networks, and the Commissioner's office with angry letters and petitions, Major League Baseball changed its broadcast contract to allow the
flagship radio stations for participating World Series teams to produce and air their own local Series broadcasts beginning in 1982.[252][253] When the Phillies next won a World Series, in
2008, Kalas was able to make the call of the final out.
In
1985 and
1987,
KMOX, the
St. Louis Cardinals' flagship station at the time,
simulcast with
CBS Radio's World Series coverage involving the Cardinals. That was mainly because
Jack Buck had a lengthy career calling Cardinals games for KMOX to go along with his national work for CBS Radio.
^Stewart, B.W. (October 5, 1947). "BASEBALL ON VIDEO; Television, Despite Some Handicaps, Scores in World Series Coverage". The New York Times. p. X11.
The following is a list of national American
television and
radio networks and
announcers that have broadcast
World Series games over the years, as well as local
flagship radio stations that have aired them since 1982.
2010 – For the second consecutive year, World Series games had earlier start times in hopes of attracting younger viewers. First pitch was just before 8 p.m.
EDT for Games 1–2, and 5, while Game 3 started at 7 p.m.
EDT. Game 4, however, started at 8:22 p.m.
EDT to accommodate Fox's
football coverage of the game between the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers and
Arizona Cardinals.[2] Many viewers in the New York City and
Philadelphia markets were unable to watch Games 1 and 2 because
News Corporation, Fox's parent company, pulled
WNYW and
WTXF from cable provider
Cablevision on October 16 because of a carriage dispute.[3] The agreement was reached just before Game 3.[3]
On August 24,
Tribune removed affiliate
WTIC from
Cablevision systems in Connecticut, causing viewers to miss Games 1 and 2 of the series. An agreement between Cablevision and Tribune was reached on October 26, the day before Game 3.
According to
Nielsen Media Research, the four-game series on Fox averaged a record-low 7.6
rating and 12
share. The previous low was an 8.4 rating for both the
2008 and the
2010 World Series, which each went five games. The 6.1 rating in Game 3 matched the lowest rating for any World Series game with Game 3 in 2008; that year, a
rain delay moved the start of the game to after 10 p.m. on the East Coast with the game not ending until 1:47 a.m.[11]
The
2013 World Series was
Tim McCarver's final World Series as a broadcaster, as he announced that he would retire after the season.[12] A partnership with
Fox Sports featured
Pearl Jam as the November artist of month for all entities within the Fox Sports domain and license 48 songs
from their catalogue to play during the 2013 World Series. Their music was included in anything from "opening teases and commercial bumpers to montages, as well as additional promotional inventory across Fox prime-time and cable."[13]
The World Series started on a Tuesday for the first time since 1990, instead of a Wednesday as in previous years.[15] The change also meant that the series only had to compete with the
National Football League on one night (
Sunday) instead of three (
Thursday, Sunday, and
Monday).[16]
The 2014 World Series averaged an 8.3/14 rating, making it the second-worst rated World Series in Major League Baseball history.[citation needed] Through six games, the series was averaging 7.4, which would have made it the worst-rated World Series, but Game 7 produced a respectable 13.7 to bolster the series average enough to avoid the notorious distinction. The 2014 World Series set records for lowest-rated Games 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 in World Series history. The previous Game 7 in World Series history occurred in 2011, when the
St. Louis Cardinals and
Texas Rangers produced a 14.7 rating, a full 1.0 over 2014's Game 7. 2014 is the 5th consecutive year in which the World Series rating was under 10.0 and the 6th in the last 7th.
2015 – Fox suffered an outage during their broadcast of Game 1, resulting in a loss of coverage for 15 minutes, followed a 5-minute delay in-game while officials addressed the availability of video review due to the loss of Fox's feed. The teams agreed to allow the use of footage from
MLB International's world feed of the game for video review, while Fox also temporarily switched to the MLB International feed with
Matt Vasgersian and
John Smoltz, later replaced by
Joe Buck,
Harold Reynolds, and
Tom Verducci before the main Fox Sports production was restored.[17]
Initial reports often utilize "fast national" ratings, which are subject to revision.[22] Game 7 had over 40 million viewers, the largest audience for a baseball game since Game 7 of the
1991 World Series, while the series as a whole was the first to average double-digit ratings nationally since
2009.[23][24]
The
2000 World Series telecast on Fox was the first year of their exclusive coverage of the World Series (although the new contract technically began the next year). As in previous World Series televised by the network,
Joe Buck called the play-by-play, with
Tim McCarver (himself a
Yankees broadcaster and a former
Mets broadcaster) and
Bob Brenly (who was an on-field analyst) serving as color commentators. This World Series was Brenly's last broadcast for Fox, as he left to become manager of the
Arizona Diamondbacks and, incidentally, go on to defeat the
New York Yankees in the
World Series the following year. Brenly returned to broadcasting in 2005 as part of the
Chicago Cubs broadcasts on
NBC Sports Chicago and
WGN, and also has called postseason games for
TBS.
2001 – For the second consecutive year, Fox carried the World Series over its network with its top broadcast team,
Joe Buck and
Tim McCarver (himself a former
New York Yankees broadcaster). This was the first year of Fox's exclusive rights to the World Series (in the previous contract, Fox only broadcast the World Series in even numbered years while
NBC broadcast it in odd numbered years), which it has held ever since (this particular contract also had given Fox exclusive rights to the entire baseball postseason, which aired over its family of networks; the contract was modified following
Disney's purchase of
Fox Family Channel shortly after the World Series ended, as ESPN regained their postseason rights following a year of postseason games on ABC Family, Fox Family's successor).
An average of 23.1 million people watched Game 1. These were the highest television ratings for the opening game of a World Series in five years and had the highest average number of viewers since 1996. It was also the highest rated broadcast on any network in the past ten months. The ratings for the first two games were also the highest average since 1996,[25] and the average for the first three games was the highest since 1999.[26] Game 3 had the highest average number of viewers with 24.4 million, since 1996 when 28.7 million watched the
Atlanta Braves and
New York Yankees. It was also the
Fox network's highest rating for a Game 3 of a World Series ever.[27] Game 4 posted an 18.2 national rating giving the series an overall average of 15.8. This was the highest average in five years, and the average number of viewers of 25.4 million, was the highest since 1995.[28]
2006 – Games 1, 3 and 4 set all-time lows for television ratings, with Game 4 falling 20% from the previous year's Game 4.[29] The Series as a whole was also the lowest-rated ever, with the four games averaging a
Nielsen rating of only 10.0 and a share of 17. By contrast, the six games of the
1980 Series—in the pre-cable television era—garnered a record-high rating of 32.8 and a share of 56.
The starting time for each television broadcast was 8 pm EDT/6 pm MDT.
2007 – The starting time for each television broadcast was 8 pm EDT (6 pm MDT). The series broke with the recent tradition of starting the World Series on a Saturday, as Major League Baseball had become convinced that weekend games drew lower television ratings. Prior to this season, every World Series since
1985 had opened on a Saturday, with the exception of the
1990 World Series.
Rogers Sportsnet (RSN) in Canada used the
MLB International feed with
Dave O'Brien and
Rick Sutcliffe as booth announcers.
NASN showed the games live to most of Europe, while in the
United Kingdom, all games were shown
terrestrially on
Five.
NHK aired the Series in Japan.
During Fox's broadcast of Game 3 of the 2007 World Series between the
Colorado Rockies and
Boston Red Sox, a
blackout occurred during the top half of the seventh inning, resulting in the disruption of a key moment in the game.
For international viewers, MLB International televised the game with commentators
Rick Sutcliffe and
Dave O'Brien. This feed was also carried to U.S. service personnel stationed around the globe via the
American Forces Network.
Game 1 of the
2008 World Series was watched by 10.1 million viewers in the United States; Commissioner
Bud Selig stated he was satisfied with the ratings.[31] Overall viewership was 25% lower than the previous World Series.[32]
Game 5 on October 27 was postponed after the top of the sixth inning due to rain. When the game finally resumed on October 29, the start of the game was delayed by 15 minutes so that a 30-minute paid advertisement for U.S.
DemocraticPresidential candidate
Barack Obama could be aired on
Fox,
CBS, and
NBC.[33]
Game 1 of the
2009 World Series was watched by 19.5 million viewers, second only to the opening of the
2004 World Series in viewership for a series opener since 2000.[34] The viewership for the opening game resulted in a ratings percentage of 11.9% of households in the United States.[35] Game 4 produced the highest ratings of the series with 22.8 million viewers, the highest for any World Series game since 2004 and the highest for a "non-decisive Game 4" since 2003.
Fox Deportes also broadcast the Series for the US Spanish-speaking audience.[36]
The
1990 postseason started on a Thursday, while the
World Series started on a Tuesday due to the brief
lockout.
This was the first of four consecutive World Series to be televised on
CBS. From
1976 to
1989, World Series telecasts alternated between
ABC (in odd numbered years) and
NBC (in even numbered years). For CBS' coverage of the
1990,
1991, and
1992 World Series,
Jim Kaat provided periodic commentary on the field during the telecasts, but he was not in the booth with
Jack Buck (for 1990 and 1991),
Sean McDonough (for 1992), and
Tim McCarver.
In 1990, CBS field reporter
Lesley Visser became the first female sportscaster to cover a World Series.
All World Series games from 1981 to 1996 were televised in Canada on
CTV, using the feed from the US network broadcaster.[38]
In
1991,
CBS used three field reporters:
Jim Kaat (both teams and covering the
trophy presentation), Lesley Visser (
Twins' dugout) and Andrea Joyce (
Braves' dugout). This was also the last World Series to be broadcast by
Jack Buck (who was replaced by
Sean McDonough on the CBS telecasts in the role of lead play-by-play man).
The World Series telecast drew an overall national
Nielsen rating of 24.0 and a 39 share for
CBS. Game 7 drew a 32.2 rating and 49 share; as of 2012, no subsequent World Series game has approached either number in national TV ratings.
In
1992, at 30 years of age,
CBS'
Sean McDonough became the youngest man to call all nine innings and games of a World Series while serving as a full network television employee. Although
Vin Scully and
Al Michaels were several years younger when they called their first World Series, they were products of the then broadcasting policy of announcers representing the participating teams (a process that ended following the
1976 World Series). McDonough's record was subsequently broken by Fox's
Joe Buck, who at 27 years of age, called the
1996 World Series. Coincidentally, McDonough replaced Joe Buck's father,
Jack, as CBS' lead play-by-play man.
The
1995 World Series was broadcast on two networks[39] (
ABC and
NBC) so that they could recoup losses in the aftermath of the
1994–95 strike. The arrangement was a compromise from both networks, which chose to opt out of a six-year revenue sharing deal with Major League Baseball called "
The Baseball Network." Prior to the strike, ABC was scheduled to broadcast the
1994 World Series and NBC was scheduled to televise the 1995 World Series. For 1995, ABC and NBC alternated games; ABC cover Games 1, 4, and 5 (and would have aired Game 7 if it was needed), while NBC covered Games 2, 3 and 6. Game 5 was also, to date, the last World Series game broadcast on ABC.
Also during the
1995 World Series, NBC's
Hannah Storm was the first woman to serve as solo host of a World Series, and the first to preside over a World Series trophy presentation.
1997 – This marked the first time since
1988 that
NBC televised a World Series in its entirety. In
1995, NBC televised Games 2, 3, and 6, while rival
ABC televised Games 1, 4, and 5, having split that series since ABC was promised the
strike-cancelled1994 World Series. Both networks had announced prior to the 1995 season, that they were bailing out what was initially, a six-year-long
revenue sharingjoint venture with Major League Baseball called "
The Baseball Network". NBC's
West Coast president
Don Ohlmeyer disturbed Major League Baseball when he publicly wished the World Series to end in a four-game sweep so that it wouldn't derail NBC's fall entertainment schedule. (Game 5 fell on a Thursday, which had long been the highest rated
night on NBC's schedule, if not on all of television.)
The
1999 World Series was
NBC's 39th and, to date, final World Series telecast. Fox aired the next
World Series as part of the contract in place, and Fox acquired the exclusive broadcast rights of Major League Baseball beginning in
2001. With the
Knicks having played in the
NBA Finals in June, this was the second championship series in 1999 that
NBC broadcast involving teams from New York.
Bob Costas,
Jim Gray, and
Hannah Storm were involved both times. Costas with play-by-play, Gray as a reporter, and Storm as pre-game host. Prior to Cleveland in 2016, this was the most recent year of a same city hosting both NBA Finals and World Series in the same year.
1980 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Philadelphia by
WPHL-TV, the Phillies' flagship TV station, and
KYW-TV, the Philadelphia NBC station; and in Kansas City by
WDAF-TV, the Royals' flagship TV station as well as the Kansas City NBC station.
This series is tied with the
1978 World Series for the highest overall television ratings to date, with the six games averaging a
Nielsen rating of 32.8 and a share of 56.[62]
Although
Bryant Gumbel anchored NBC's pregame coverage for Game 5 of series, he was not present at
Kansas City's
Royals Stadium. Game 5 landed on a Sunday, which created conflict with Gumbel's NFL '80 hosting duties. As a result, Gumbel had to anchor the World Series coverage from NBC's studios in New York City. Gumbel however, would be present in
Philadelphia's
Veterans Stadium for Game 6, which turned out to be the clincher for the
Phillies.
1981 – Locally, the ABC feed was carried in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KABC-TV, the Los Angeles ABC station; and in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WABC-TV, the New York City ABC station.
1982 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in St. Louis by
KSDK, the Cardinals' flagship station as well as the St. Louis NBC station; and in Milwaukee by
WVTV, the Brewers' flagship TV station, and
WTMJ-TV, the Milwaukee NBC station.
Dick Enberg and
Joe Garagiola traded off play-by-play duties (just as Garagiola and
Tony Kubek had done for NBC's previous two World Series broadcasts). Garagiola called the first three and last three innings of each game. Enberg, meanwhile, hosted the pregame show and then called the middle innings.
1983 – Locally, the ABC feed was carried in Baltimore by
WMAR-TV, the Orioles' flagship TV station, and
WJZ-TV, the Baltimore ABC station; and in Philadelphia by
WTAF-TV, the Phillies' flagship TV station, and
WPVI-TV, the Philadelphia ABC station. (This was the last year in which the participating teams' regular-season flagship TV stations were permitted to simulcast the network feed of the World Series even if they were not affiliated with that network. Beginning in 1984 the network affiliates would have Series exclusivity in every city.)
This was the last World Series aired on ABC before the network was taken over by
Capital Cities Communications (coincidentally, that company's flagship station was Philadelphia's ABC affiliate,
WPVI-TV—also the network's first affiliate).
Earl Weaver was ABC's lead baseball analyst in
1983, but was also employed by the
Baltimore Orioles as a consultant. At the time, ABC had a policy preventing an announcer who was employed by a team from working games involving that team. So whenever the Orioles were on the primary ABC game (ABC during this period, broadcast
Monday night games), Weaver worked the backup game. This policy forced Weaver to resign from the Orioles' consulting position in October in order to be able to work the Series telecasts for ABC.[63][64]
The
1984 World Series was scheduled to start in the
National League park. But Major League Baseball actually had a contingency plan to instead start the World Series in the
American League park in the event that the
Chicago Cubs won the
National League Championship Series against the
San Diego Padres. This would have allowed the
Wrigley Field-hosted (i.e. daytime) games[65][66][67][68][69] to be held over the weekend. In return, only one
prime time game (Game 3 on Friday) would have been lost. Wrigley Field wouldn't have lights installed until
four years later. In other words, had the Cubs advanced to the Series instead of the Padres, the
Detroit Tigers would have hosted Games 1–2, and 6–7 (on Tuesday and Wednesday nights), while the Cubs would have hosted Games 3–5 (on Friday, Saturday and Sunday), with all three games in Chicago starting no later than 1:30 p.m.
Central Time.
1985 marked the first time that all World Series games were aired in
prime time. Since 1985 marked the first year of the League Championship Series having a best-of-seven format, Game 1 started on a Saturday.
Tim McCarver (who was originally slated to be a roving World Series reporter[70]) was practically a last minute replacement for
Howard Cosell[71] on
ABC's coverage. Cosell was removed from the telecasts on the eve of the World Series (October 18), by order of Jim Spence and
Roone Arledge (the then Vice President and President of ABC Sports respectively) after the excerpts from Cosell's book (I Never Played the Game), which criticized colleagues at ABC, first appeared in TV Guide.
1986 –
NBC preceded its broadcast of Game 5 by airing an episode of The Cosby Show (at the time the network's top-rated prime time series) in lieu of a pregame show.[72]
Vin Scully's call of the final play in Game 6 would quickly become an iconic one to baseball fans, with the normally calm Scully growing increasingly excited:
So the winning run is at second base, with two outs, three and two to
Mookie Wilson. [A] little roller up along first... behind the bag! It gets through
Buckner! Here comes
Knight, and the
Mets win it![73]
Scully then remained silent for more than three minutes, letting the pictures and the crowd noise tell the story. Scully resumed with:
If one picture is worth a thousand words, you have seen about a million words, but more than that, you have seen an absolutely bizarre finish to Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. The Mets are not only alive, they are well, and they will play the
Red Sox in Game 7 tomorrow![74]
Game 6 caused the first-ever preemption of Saturday Night Live, due to extra innings.
Ron Darling explained that when the Mets entered the locker room, they were informed to their dismay that they'd inadvertently caused the first delay in SNL's (then) 11-year history; the delayed episode was aired two weeks later on November 8.
NBC's broadcast of Game 7 (which went up against a Monday Night Football game between the
Washington Redskins and
New York Giants on
ABC) garnered a
Nielsen rating of 38.9 and a 55 share, making it the highest-
rated single World Series game to date. Game 7 was scheduled for Sunday, but a rain-out forced the game to Monday.
Game 6 of the
1987 World Series (played on Saturday, October 24) was the last World Series game to not be played in
prime time (ironically, the game was played in the
Metrodome even though it took place under artificial illumination all the same).[75] The game started at 4 p.m.
Eastern Time. Another weekend afternoon sixth game was planned for
1988, but since the World Series ended in five games, it was unnecessary.
The
1988 World Series marked the last time that
NBC[76] would televise a World Series for seven years. Beginning in
1990, NBC was shut out of
Major League Baseball coverage completely, after
CBS signed a four-year, exclusive television contract. After splitting coverage of the
1995 World Series with
ABC, NBC would next cover a World Series exclusively in
1997.
Longtime Los Angeles Dodgers' broadcaster
Vin Scully called the 1988 World Series for a national television audience on
NBC with
Joe Garagiola. Unknown to the fans and the media at the time,
Kirk Gibson was watching the game on television while undergoing physical therapy in the
Dodgers' clubhouse.[77] At some point during the game, television cameras scanned the Dodgers
dugout and Scully, observed that Gibson was nowhere to be found.[77] This spurred Gibson to tell Dodgers
managerTommy Lasorda that he was available to
pinch hit.[77] Gibson immediately returned to the
batting cage in the clubhouse to take practice swings.[77]Bob Costas, who along with
Marv Albert, hosted NBC's World Series pregame coverage and handled postgame interviews made on-air statements that enraged many in the Dodgers' clubhouse (especially manager
Tommy Lasorda). After the Dodgers won Game 4, Lasorda (during a postgame interview with Marv Albert) sarcastically said that the MVP of the World Series should be Bob Costas. While Kirk Gibson was taking practice swings in the Dodgers' clubhouse during Game 1,
Orel Hershiser set up the hitting tee for his teammate. Along the way, Costas could hear Gibson's agonized-sounding grunts after every hit.[78] Costas said that the
1988 Dodgers possibly had the weakest hitting line-up in World Series history.
All
year long, they looked to him to light the fire, and all year long, he answered the demands, until he was physically unable to start tonight—with two bad legs: The bad left hamstring, and the swollen right knee. And, with two out, you talk about a roll of the dice... this is it.
Scully made repeated references to Gibson's legs, noting at one point that the batter was "shaking his left leg, making it quiver, like a horse trying to get rid of a troublesome fly." Gibson worked the count to 3–2 as
Mike Davis stole second base; the camera turned at that point to
Steve Sax getting ready for his turn at the plate, and Scully reminded the viewers that Sax waiting on deck but the game right now is at the plate. He then said:
High fly ball into right field, she i-i-i-is... GONE!!!
Scully said nothing for over a minute, allowing the pictures to tell the story. Finally, he said:
In a year that has been so improbable... the impossible has happened!
Returning to the subject of Gibson's banged-up legs during a replay, Scully joked,
And, now, the only question was, could he make it around the base paths unassisted?! You know, I said it once before, a few days ago, that Kirk Gibson was not the Most Valuable Player; that the Most Valuable Player for the Dodgers was
Tinkerbell. But, tonight, I think Tinkerbell backed off for Kirk Gibson. And, look at
Eckersley – shocked to his toes! They are going wild at Dodger Stadium – no one wants to leave!
As NBC showed a replay of Gibson rounding second base in his home run trot, Scully then made a point to note Eckersley's pitching performance throughout the
1988 season, to put things in perspective.
Dennis Eckersley allowed five home runs all year. And we'll be back.
Game 1 of the 1988 World Series was also notable for an unexpected hijack at
Macon, Georgia's NBC station
WMGT-TV when the video portion of the second inning was hijacked with a black-and-white adult movie for ten seconds while the audio portion of the game was still in play.[79] The station's manager reported the sudden hijack to the
Federal Communications Commission who later reported a few days after the hijack that a former technician, who was fired from the station a short time after, accidentally flipped the wrong switch in the station's master control panel which send the video portion directly from NBC's
KU-Band signal to one of the station's
C-Bandsatellite dish.[80]
This was the last World Series that
ABC televised from start to finish (and also the last they would produce themselves) and the last MLB game on ABC, period, until July 1994. The
television rights would move exclusively (ABC had shared coverage with
NBC since
1976 up until the end of the
1989 season) to
CBS the following year. ABC would next televise a World Series in
1995, but only broadcast Games 1, 4, and 5 (the other games were covered by NBC, who had a joint venture with ABC and MLB called
The Baseball Network). Due in part to the earthquake and subsequent interruption of play, combined with the four-game sweep by the
A's, ABC only drew an overall
Nielsen rating of 16.4 for the Series. This was the first World Series since the introduction of prime-time games in
1971 to draw a rating of less than 20.[83]
1970 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Baltimore by
WJZ-TV, the Orioles' flagship TV station, and
WBAL-TV, the Baltimore NBC station; and in Cincinnati by
WLWT, the Reds' flagship TV station as well as the Cincinnati NBC station.
1971 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Pittsburgh by
KDKA-TV, the Pirates' flagship TV station, and
WIIC, the Pittsburgh NBC station; and in Baltimore by
WJZ-TV, the Orioles' flagship TV station, and
WBAL-TV, the Baltimore NBC station.
1972 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Oakland by
KBHK-TV, the Athletics' flagship TV station, and
KRON-TV, the Bay Area NBC station; and in Cincinnati by
WLWT, the Reds' flagship TV station as well as the Cincinnati NBC station.
After having been used as an in-the-stands reporter for
NBC's Series coverage since
1968,
Tony Kubek was promoted to the booth as a
color analyst for the telecasts, becoming the first former player to serve in this capacity since
Joe Garagiola in
1961.
NBC aired the soap opera Return to Peyton Place prior to game 5, the first time that NBC had skipped the pregame show before a Series game (a move the network would not repeat until 1986 with The Cosby Show). This move was necessitated by the fact that Game 3 was rained out, forcing Game 5 to be played on a Friday, originally scheduled as a travel day.
1973 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WOR-TV, the Mets' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC station; and in Oakland by
KTVU, the Athletics' flagship TV station, and
KRON-TV, the Bay Area NBC station.
1974 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Oakland by
KTVU, the Athletics' flagship TV station, and
KRON-TV, the Bay Area NBC station; and in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KNBC-TV, the Los Angeles NBC station.
1975 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Cincinnati by
WLWT, the Reds' flagship TV station as well as the Cincinnati NBC station; and in Boston by
WSBK-TV, the Red Sox' flagship TV station, and
WBZ-TV, the Boston NBC station.
1976 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC station; and in Cincinnati by
WLWT, the Reds' flagship TV station as well as the Cincinnati NBC station.
1977 – Locally, the ABC feed was carried in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KABC-TV, the Los Angeles ABC station; and in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WABC-TV, the New York City ABC station.
Beginning in
1977 the participating teams' local announcers were no longer featured as booth announcers[92] on the network telecast of a World Series.
Also in 1977, Yankees announcer
Bill White and Dodgers announcer
Ross Porter split pre-game and post-game duties on
ABC, with White working the telecasts for the games in New York (including the clubhouse
trophy presentation ceremony after Game 6) and Porter doing likewise for the games in Los Angeles. (The pair also worked on
CBS Radio's coverage of the Series, with Porter doing play-by-play of the games in New York and White the games in Los Angeles.)
1978 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC station; and in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KNBC-TV, the Los Angeles NBC station.
1979 – Locally, the ABC feed was carried in Pittsburgh by
KDKA-TV, the Pirates' flagship TV station, and
WTAE-TV, the Pittsburgh ABC station; and in Baltimore by
WMAR-TV, the Orioles' flagship TV station, and
WJZ-TV, the Baltimore ABC station.
During ABC's coverage in
1979 and
1981,
Keith Jackson[93] and
Al Michaels alternated the play-by-play, Jackson calling the games at the
American League park and Michaels working those at the
National League park. This arrangement was made in large part to work around Jackson's already-busy schedule (which included being ABC's lead
college football announcer). By
1983, Michaels was promoted to the full-time play-by-play role.[88]
1960 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC affiliate; and in Pittsburgh by
WIIC, the Pittsburgh NBC affiliate.
As mentioned several times here, prior to the mid-1970s, television networks and stations generally didn't preserve their telecasts of sporting events, choosing instead to tape over them. As a result, the broadcasts of six of the seven 1960 games are no longer known to exist. The lone exception is a
black-and-whitekinescope of the entire telecast of Game 7, which was discovered in a
wine cellar in
Bing Crosby's home in
Hillsborough, California in December 2009.[99] A part-owner of the
Pittsburgh Pirates, who was too superstitious to watch the Series live, Crosby listened to the decisive contest with his wife
Kathryn and two friends on a
shortwave radio in Paris, France. Wanting to watch the game at a later date only if the Pirates won, he arranged for a company to record it. After viewing the kinescope, he placed it in his wine cellar, where it went untouched for 49 years. It was finally found by Robert Bader,
vice president of
marketing and production for Bing Crosby Enterprises, while looking through
videotapes of Crosby's television specials which were to be transferred to
DVD. The five-reel set is the only known complete copy of the historic match, which was originally broadcast in
color.[99] The
NBC television announcers for the Series were
Bob Prince and
Mel Allen, the primary play-by-play voices for the Pirates and
New York Yankees respectively. Prince called the first half of Game 7, while Allen did the rest of the game.[99]
1961 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Cincinnati by
WLWT, the Reds' flagship TV station as well as the Cincinnati NBC affiliate; and in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC affiliate.
In contrast to preceding years, in which NBC's World Series telecasts featured two announcers (usually one from each participating team) who split the play-by-play, each working his portion of the game by himself, in 1961 NBC had Yankees announcer
Mel Allen handle all of the play-by-play on television (with Reds announcer
Waite Hoyt confined to radio) while
Joe Garagiola provided color commentary. This format eventually became the standard form of presentation on World Series telecasts.[100]
1962 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC affiliate; and in San Francisco by
KTVU-TV, the Giants' flagship TV station, and
KRON-TV, the San Francisco NBC affiliate.
1963 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KNBC, the Los Angeles NBC affiliate; and in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC affiliate.
During the fourth and final game of the series, Yankees announcer
Mel Allen was calling the top of the ninth inning for NBC when his voice gave out due to a bout of severe
laryngitis, forcing Dodgers announcer
Vin Scully (who had called the first four-and-a-half innings of the game per the network's usual setup) to resume play-by-play duties for the remainder of the game. After the Series New York Daily News sportswriter
Dick Young opined that Allen, the voice of the Yankees, had been stricken by "psychosomatic laryngitis" caused by his team being swept.[101]
1964 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WPIX, the Yankees' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC affiliate; and in St. Louis by
KSD-TV, the Cardinals' flagship TV station as well as the St. Louis NBC affiliate.
In 1964, the Yankees made the World Series for the 15th time in 19 years—but
Mel Allen wasn't there. Back in September, before the end of the season, the Yankees informed Allen that his contract with the team would not be renewed. In those days, the main announcers for the Series participants always called the World Series on NBC. Although Allen was thus technically eligible to call the Series, Baseball Commissioner
Ford Frick honored the Yankees' request to have
Phil Rizzuto join the Series crew instead.[102] It was the first time Allen had missed a World Series for which the Yankees were eligible since 1943, and only the second World Series (not counting those missed during World War II) that he'd missed since he began calling baseball games in 1938. On December 17, after much media speculation and many letters to the Yankees from fans disgruntled at Allen's absence from the Series, the Yankees issued a terse press release announcing Allen's firing; he was replaced by
Joe Garagiola, who'd teamed with Rizzuto on the Series. NBC and Movietone dropped him soon afterward. To this day, the Yankees have never given an explanation for Allen's sudden firing, and rumors abounded. Depending on the rumor, Allen was either
homosexual, an
alcoholic, a
drug addict, or had suffered a
nervous breakdown.[103] Allen's sexuality was sometimes a target in those more conservative days because he hadn't married (and never did). Years later, Allen told author
Curt Smith that the Yankees had fired him under pressure from the team's longtime sponsor,
Ballantine Beer. According to Allen, he was fired as a cost-cutting move by Ballantine, which had been experiencing poor sales for years[103] (it would eventually be sold in 1969). Smith, in his book Voices of Summer, also indicated that the medications Allen took in order to maintain his busy schedule may have affected his on-air performance. (Stephen Borelli, another biographer, has also pointed out that Allen's heavy workload didn't allow him time to take care of his health.)
1965 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KNBC, the Los Angeles NBC affiliate; and in Minnesota by
WTCN-TV, the Twins' flagship TV station, and
KSTP-TV, the Twin Cities NBC affiliate.
1966 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Baltimore by
WJZ-TV, the Orioles' flagship TV station, and
WBAL-TV, the Baltimore NBC affiliate; and in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KNBC, the Los Angeles NBC affiliate.
Prior to 1966, NBC typically paired the top announcers for the respective World Series teams to alternate play-by-play during each game's telecast. For example, if the
Yankees played the
Dodgers in the World Series,
Mel Allen (representing the Yankees) would call half the game and
Vin Scully (representing the Dodgers) would call the rest of the game. However, in 1966, NBC wanted their regular network announcer,
Curt Gowdy, to call most of the play-by-play at the expense of the top local announcers. So instead of calling half of every World Series game on television (as Vin Scully had done in
1953,
1955,
1956,
1959,
1963, and
1965), they only got to call half of all home games on TV, providing color commentary while Gowdy called play-by-play for the rest of each game. The visiting teams' announcers participated in the
NBC Radio broadcasts. In broadcasts of Series-clinching (or potentially Series-clinching) games on both media, NBC sent the announcer for whichever team was ahead in the game to that team's clubhouse in the ninth inning in order to help cover the trophy presentation and conduct post-game interviews.
1967 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in St. Louis by
KSD-TV, the Cardinals' flagship TV station as well as the St. Louis NBC affiliate; and in Boston by
WHDH-TV, the Red Sox' flagship TV station, and
WBZ-TV, the Boston NBC affiliate.
1968 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Detroit by
WJBK, the Tigers' flagship TV station, and
WWJ-TV, the Detroit NBC affiliate; and in St. Louis by
KSD-TV, the Cardinals' flagship TV station as well as the St. Louis NBC affiliate.
1969 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in New York by
WOR-TV, the Mets' flagship TV station, and
WNBC-TV, the New York City NBC affiliate; and in Baltimore by
WJZ-TV, the Orioles' flagship TV station, and
WBAL-TV, the Baltimore NBC affiliate.
Games 3–5 of the 1969 World Series are believed to be the oldest surviving
color television broadcasts of World Series games (even though World Series telecasts have aired in color since
1955). However, they were "truck feeds" in that they do not contain original commercials, but show a static image of the
Shea Stadium field between innings. Games 1 and 2 were only saved as
black and whitekinescopes provided by the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which also preserved all seven games of the
1965 and
1968 World Series (plus the
1965 All-Star Game and
1968 All-Star Game) in black and white kinescope.
By
1950, World Series games could be seen in most of the country,[112][113][114] but not all. Also in
1950, the
Mutual Broadcasting System acquired the exclusive television broadcast rights to the World Series and All-Star Game for the next six years. Mutual, which had no television network at the time (and indeed never developed one), may have been reindulging in TV network dreams or simply taking advantage of a long-standing business relationship; in any case, the network sold its TV rights to
NBC in time for the following season's games at an enormous profit.
1951 marked the first time that the World Series was televised exclusively by one network (
NBC), as well as the first time that it was televised from
coast to
coast.[115][116][117][118]
1953 –
Brooklyn Dodgers announcer
Red Barber wanted a higher fee from
Gillette, which sponsored the World Series telecasts on
NBC, than was offered. When Dodgers owner
Walter O'Malley refused to back him, Barber declined Gillette's fee, and his then-assistant
Vin Scully (who at 25 years of age became the youngest announcer to call the play-by-play of a World Series, a distinction which still stands) was partnered with the
New York Yankees'
Mel Allen during the series instead. In his 1968 autobiography Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat, Barber claims O'Malley's lack of support as his reason for subsequently resigning from the Dodgers' booth and joining the Yankees' prior to the 1954 season.[119]
For the
1957 and
1958 Series, both of which featured the
New York Yankees and
Milwaukee Braves, the games played in New York were televised in color while the games in Milwaukee were shown in black and white, due to the distance between the cities being too great for
NBC's color equipment to be moved in time between games.[123][124]
1959 – Locally, the NBC feed was carried in Los Angeles by
KTTV, the Dodgers' flagship TV station, and
KRCA, the Los Angeles NBC station; and in Chicago by
WGN-TV, the White Sox' flagship TV station, and
WNBQ, the Chicago NBC station.
Chicago White Sox announcer
Bob Elson missed a chance to call the series – the team's first since 1919 and Elson's first since 1943 – to a national audience because then-head of
NBC SportsTom Gallery (who'd incidentally grown up on the same block as Elson) didn't like him.[125] Elson was permitted to call a re-creation of the series over White Sox radio flagship
WCFL.[126]
The October 1947 Billboard reported over 3.9 million viewing the games, primarily on TV sets located in bars (5,400 tavern TV sets in NYC alone). The October 13, 1947 edition of
Time magazine reported that President
Truman, who had just made the first
Oval Office TV appearance on October 5, 1947, and received the first TV for the
White House, watched parts of the Series but "skipped the last innings".
By
1949, World Series games could now be seen east of the
Mississippi River.[139] The games were open to all channels with a network affiliation.[140]
Surviving telecasts
All telecasts of World Series games starting with
1975 (
Reds–
Red Sox) are accounted for and exist. This is a full record of World Series telecasts prior to 1975 that are known to exist in whole or part:
1955 (
Yankees–
Dodgers) – Sections of Game 5 exist and have been released on DVD.
1956 (
Yankees–
Dodgers) – The last three innings of Game 2 are known to exist. Game 3 is complete with original commercials, pre and post game show except for innings 2 and 3 and is available on DVD. Game 5,
Don Larsen's
perfect game, is complete except for the first inning. Game 5 was aired on the first night of the
MLB Network on January 1, 2009, and is now available on DVD. Game 7 is complete except for the 2nd and 3rd innings and has also been released on DVD.
1957 (
Yankees–
Braves) – Games 1, 2 and 5 exist in their entirety and have been released on DVD. All of Game 3 (except for a snip of
Tony Kubek's second home run in the top 7th inning) exists, as does the first six innings of Game 6 (both also released on DVD). Game 7 is believed to exist but has not been released.
1960 (
Yankees–
Pirates) – A complete kinescope of Game 7 was discovered in the former home of
Bing Crosby in December 2009.[99] The game was rebroadcast by
MLB Network in December 2010, and is now available on DVD.
1961 (
Yankees–
Reds) – Only half-hour segments of Game 3 (the final two innings), Game 4 (the 4th and 5th inning) and Game 5 (the opening and top of the 1st inning) are known to exist.
1963 (
Yankees–
Dodgers) – Only a brief section of Game 3 is known to exist. An excerpt appears in the Yankeeography series (out on DVD).
1965 (
Twins–
Dodgers) – All seven games exist, preserved on kinescope by the
CBC. Also, it is the earliest World Series whose telecasts are known to survive in their entirety.
1968 (
Tigers–
Cardinals). All seven games exist, preserved on kinescope by the CBC.
1969 (
Orioles–
Mets). Games 1 and 2 have been preserved on kinescope by the CBC. Meanwhile, Games 3–5 exist in their original color videotape quality from "truck feeds", including pregames with
Jim Simpson,
Sandy Koufax and
Mickey Mantle.
1970 (
Orioles–
Reds). Games 1–4 have been preserved on kinescope by the CBC. Meanwhile, Game 5 exists in its original color videotape quality from the "truck feed."
1971 (
Orioles–
Pirates). Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 exist in their complete forms. Games 3, 4 and 5 survive in partial form. These include pregame shows for six of the seven games, featuring
Joe Garagiola and
Sandy Koufax.
1972 (
A's–
Reds) – Game 4 is the only complete game extant, along with most of Game 5, and some of Game 2. Only fragments remain from Games 1, 3 and 6; The complete pregame show and condensed action of the first three innings of Game 7 exist from a home recording.
1973 (
A's–
Mets) – Game 1 is the only complete game extant. Game 2 (which lasted four-plus hours) is missing various bits, including the last inning and a half (including both crucial
Mike Andrews misplays at second base). Game 3 is complete except for the last inning. Game 4 lasts from just the pregame show to the top of the 4th inning. All that remains of Game 5 are the final two innings. Game 6 is entirely missing, and Game 7 cuts off with one out in the top of the 9th inning, missing the postgame celebrations. A 20-minute presentation tape of Series highlights, narrated by
Curt Gowdy, was submitted to the
Peabody Awards. The Peabody tape includes the two key Mike Andrews plays from Game 2, otherwise missing from the network archives.
1974 (
A's–
Dodgers) – Games 1–4 are complete, Game 5 exists in partial form.
ESPN Radio broadcast the
2010 World Series nationally, with
Jon Miller (who worked the
San Francisco Giants' local radio broadcasts during the regular season) calling his 13th consecutive World Series as the network's play-by-play announcer, and
Joe Morgan providing commentary on his 11th World Series for ESPN Radio and his 14th overall (counting three Series telecasts for
NBC). The games were the last that Miller and Morgan (who had also been calling Sunday Night Baseball for ESPN television since 1990) would work together, as the network subsequently announced that their contracts would not be renewed for 2011.[143]ESPN Deportes Radio also aired the Series to
Spanish language listeners, with Eduardo Ortega and former Giants pitcher
Juan Marichal announcing.
Locally, the two teams'
flagship stations broadcast the series with their respective announcing crews, with an additional requirement of acknowledging
AutoZone, ESPN Radio's baseball broadcasting sponsor. The Giants' English-language broadcasts aired on
KNBR (with
Dave Flemming,
Duane Kuiper, and
Mike Krukow announcing) with their Spanish-language broadcasts on
KIQI-AM (with Erwin Higueros and
Tito Fuentes), while
KRLD-FM and
AM carried the Rangers' English-language broadcasts (with
Eric Nadel and
Dave Barnett) and
KFLC-AM had their Spanish-language broadcasts (with Eleno Ornelas and Jerry Romo). Due to contractual obligations, the non-flagship stations on the teams' radio networks carried the ESPN Radio broadcasts of the games, although the local broadcasts were also available on
XM Satellite Radio and to Gameday Audio subscribers at
MLB.com.
Locally, the two teams'
flagship stations broadcast the series with their respective announcing crews. The Giants' English-language broadcasts aired on
KNBR (with
Dave Flemming,
Jon Miller,
Mike Krukow, and
Duane Kuiper announcing) with their Spanish-language broadcasts on
KIQI-AM (with Erwin Higueros and
Tito Fuentes), while
WXYT-FM and
AM carried the Tigers' English-language broadcasts (with
Dan Dickerson and
Jim Price). Due to contractual obligations, the non-flagship stations on the teams' radio networks carried the ESPN Radio broadcasts of the games, although the local broadcasts were also available on
XM Satellite Radio and to Gameday Audio subscribers at
MLB.com.
Locally, the series was broadcast on the teams'
flagship radio stations with their respective announcing crews. In San Francisco,
KNBR aired the games in English (with
Jon Miller,
Duane Kuiper,
Mike Krukow and
Dave Flemming announcing),[150] while
KTRB broadcast in Spanish (with Erwin Higueros and
Tito Fuentes announcing). In Kansas City,
KCSP broadcast the games (with
Denny Matthews and
Ryan Lefebvre announcing). Due to contractual obligations, the affiliate stations on the teams' radio networks had to carry the ESPN Radio feed of the games,[151] although the local broadcasts were also available on
Sirius and
XM satellite radio and to Gameday Audio subscribers at
MLB.com. In Kansas City,
WHB carried the ESPN Radio feed in direct competition with KCSP's broadcast. This was the first World Series for which Jon Miller, who had been the Giants' primary radio announcer since
1997, called the final (see Note below), championship-clinching out to a local San Francisco audience.[citation needed]
Locally, the series was broadcast on the teams'
flagship radio stations with their respective announcing crews. In New York,
WOR aired the games in English, with
Howie Rose and
Josh Lewin announcing, while
WEPN-AM aired the games in Spanish, with Juan Alicea and Max Pérez Jiménez announcing. In Kansas City,
KCSP broadcast the games, with
Denny Matthews,
Ryan Lefebvre,
Steve Stewart, and
Steve Physioc announcing.[153]WEPN-FM and
WHB, the ESPN Radio affiliates in New York and Kansas City respectively, aired the network's coverage of the series in those cities.[154][155]
Locally, the teams'
flagship stations broadcast the series with their regular announcers. In Cleveland,
WTAM (1100) and
WMMS (100.7) carried the Indians' play-by-play with
Tom Hamilton and
Jim Rosenhaus, while in Chicago,
WSCR (670) carried the Cubs' play-by-play with
Pat Hughes,
Ron Coomer, and
Len Kasper.[158] The affiliate stations of the teams' regional radio networks, however, were contractually obligated to carry the national ESPN Radio feed.[159]
Locally, both teams' flagship radio stations broadcast the series with their regular announcers. In Houston,
KBME aired the series with
Robert Ford and
Steve Sparks announcing. In Washington,
WJFK-FM aired the series with
Charlie Slowes and
Dave Jageler calling the games. Per MLB rules, the teams' other radio affiliates were permitted to carry the series but were required to air the ESPN Radio broadcast.[161]
During Game 3 of the
2000 World Series,
ESPN Radio announcer
Jon Miller was forced to leave the booth after the top of the first inning due to an upper respiratory infection.
Charley Steiner, who was serving as a pre-game host and field reporter for the network, filled in on play-by-play for the rest of the game; Miller resumed his duties in Game 4 of the Series.[171]
Locally, the Series was broadcast by
KTAR-AM in
Phoenix with
Thom Brennaman,
Greg Schulte,
Rod Allen and
Jim Traber, and by
WABC-AM in New York City with
John Sterling and
Michael Kay. This would be Sterling and Kay's last World Series working together, and Game 7 would be the last Yankee broadcast on WABC. Kay moved to television and the new
YES Network the following season and
WCBS picked up radio rights to the Yankees. It was Kay who announced
Derek Jeter's game-winning home run in Game 4 of the series and subsequently anointed him as "Mr. November".
Jon Miller, who called the
2002 World Series for
ESPN Radio, has been play-by-play man for the San Francisco Giants since
1997. Coincidentally,
KNBR, the Giants' longtime flagship station, was also San Francisco's ESPN Radio affiliate at the time.
Locally,
KTRH-AM and
WMVP were the primary carriers for the
2005 World Series in the Houston and Chicago markets. For KTRH long time Astros voice
Milo Hamilton provided play-by-play while
John Rooney called the games for the White Sox. Game 4 was Rooney's last call after seventeen years as the radio voice of the White Sox, as he left to take the same position with the
St. Louis Cardinals.
2006 – Locally,
Dan Dickerson and
Jim Price called the Series for the Tigers on
WXYT-AM in Detroit (with retired, longtime Tiger announcer
Ernie Harwell returning to call the second inning of Game 1), while
Mike Shannon and
John Rooney called it for the Cardinals on
KTRS-AM in St. Louis. Per contractual obligation, the non-flagship stations on the teams' radio networks carried the ESPN Radio broadcasts. John Rooney had broadcast the
2005 Series for the
Chicago White Sox, and thus became the first announcer to call back-to-back World Series championships as an employee of different teams.
2007 – Locally,
Joe Castiglione and
Glenn Geffner called the Series for the Red Sox on
WRKO in Boston, while
Jack Corrigan and Jeff Kingery called it for the Rockies on
KOA in Denver. Per contractual obligation, the non-flagship stations on the teams' radio networks carried the ESPN Radio broadcasts.
Locally,
Dave Wills,
Andy Freed,
Dewayne Staats and
Joe Magrane called the Series in English for the Rays on
WHNZ-AM in Tampa, with Ricardo Tavaras and Enrique Oliu working the Spanish broadcast on St. Petersburg's
WGES-AM.
Harry Kalas,
Scott Franzke,
Larry Andersen, and
Chris Wheeler called the Phillies' English broadcasts on
WPHT-AM in Philadelphia, with Spanish announcers Danny Martinez, Bill Kulik and Juan Ramos on
WUBA. Following their contractual obligations, the non-
flagship stations on the teams' radio networks carried the ESPN Radio broadcasts. MLB.com also carried the local radio broadcasts for online streaming, while
XM Satellite Radio aired the local and national feeds to its subscribers. For Harry Kalas, this series brought together a father and son calling the series for different teams, with his son,
Todd, calling the Series in English for the Rays.[173] This World Series win had significance for
Fox's
Tim McCarver and Harry Kalas. Both were Phillies broadcasters in
1980, but neither one could call the final out.[174] McCarver was a backup commentator for Game of the Week on
NBC, but he was not part of the broadcast team that called the final out.[174] For Kalas, MLB radio-broadcasting regulations forbade local stations from producing live coverage of World Series games, instead forcing them to air the national
CBS Radio feed of the games.[173] Philadelphia fans were so outraged about this afterward that they started a letter-writing campaign to the
Commissioner's Office, demanding a change to the rule. The
following year, MLB amended its broadcasting contracts to allow World Series teams' flagship radio stations to air the games with local announcers, due at least in part to this outcry from Philadelphia fans.[174] In 2008, both called the Phillies' World Series win.
The national radio broadcast of the
1993 World Series was also provided by
CBS, with
Vin Scully and
Johnny Bench on the call. Game 6 marked Johnny Bench's final broadcast for CBS Radio after nine years.
Locally, the Series was called on
WOGL-AM in Philadelphia by
Harry Kalas,
Richie Ashburn,
Chris Wheeler and
Andy Musser, and on
CJCL-AM in Toronto by
Jerry Howarth and
Tom Cheek. Cheek's call of the Carter home run ("Touch 'em all Joe, you'll never hit a bigger home run in your life!") lives on in Blue Jays folklore. This was Richie Ashburn's last World Series as a Phillies broadcaster, as he died in
1997. Andy Musser also called his last World Series as a member of the Phillies' broadcast team; he retired in
2001 and died eleven years later. Tom Cheek never called another postseason game in his role as voice of the Blue Jays, from which he retired in
2005 prior to his death from
brain cancer. Meanwhile, Harry Kalas would not call another World Series until
2008. Kalas later died in
2009 prior to a game at
Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.. Chris Wheeler continues to call games for the Phillies although in a limited capacity and Jerry Howarth has continued to call Blue Jays games, moving into the primary play-by-play position following the death of Cheek.
The
1997 World Series is the last World Series to date to be broadcast by the
CBS Radio Network, who had covered the World Series consecutively since
1976.
Vin Scully and
Jeff Torborg called the 1997 World Series for CBS Radio (the latter had once managed the
Cleveland Indians and would later manage the
Florida Marlins).
ESPN Radio would take over the national radio contract for Major League Baseball. This was Scully's eleventh and final call for CBS Radio in the World Series, and seventh consecutive since he rejoined the network following NBC's 1989 loss of baseball. As of 2011, this is also the last World Series broadcast to date for Scully who, in addition to his eleven CBS Radio World Series calls has called fourteen others for NBC and the
Los Angeles Dodgers.[181]). Torborg would continue to call games for
Fox television until the end of the
2000 season, working alongside
John Rooney and
Chip Caray, when he elected to return to managing and was hired by the
Montreal Expos.
Game 7 was the final Major League Baseball game called by longtime Indians radio announcer
Herb Score, as he retired at season's end. Score's broadcast partner,
Tom Hamilton, would take over as lead announcer the following year. It also marked the final game carried by Indians flagship station
WKNR; the broadcast rights would be moved to
WTAM for the
1998 season.
Rick Sutcliffe substituted for Joe Morgan on the ESPN Radio broadcast of the 1999 World Series due to Morgan's duties for NBC Sports, who had the rights to the series that year, taking priority.
In
1985 and
1987,
KMOX, the
St. Louis Cardinals' flagship station at the time,
simulcast with
CBS Radio's World Series coverage involving the Cardinals. That was mainly because
Jack Buck had a lengthy career calling Cardinals games for KMOX (a station owned by CBS until 2018) to go along with his national work for CBS Radio.
In 1985 and
1986, CBS Radio designated the fifth inning of each Series game as a "Home Team Inning."[187] A local announcer for the visiting team would appear on the network's broadcast in the top of the fifth, with the home team announcer doing so in the bottom of the fifth.
Jack Buck and
Bill White provided commentary for the
1988 World Series for CBS Radio. It was White's last World Series as a broadcaster, as he left broadcasting to become President of the National League following the final game. This was Buck's call of
Kirk Gibson's
game-winning home run off of
Dennis Eckersley in Game 1. It begins here with Buck speculating on what might happen if Gibson manages to reach base:
... then you would run for Gibson and have
Sax batting. But, we have a big 3–2 pitch coming here from Eckersley. Gibson swings, and a fly ball to deep right field! This is gonna be a home run! Unbelievable! A home run for Gibson! And the
Dodgers have won the game, five to four; I don't believe what I just saw! I don't believe what I just saw! Is this really happening, Bill? One of the most remarkable finishes to any World Series Game...a one-handed home run by Kirk Gibson! And the Dodgers have won it...five to four; and I'm stunned, Bill. I have seen a lot of dramatic finishes in a lot of sports, but this one might top almost every other one.
This was Buck's seventh and last World Series call for CBS Radio, as he moved to
CBS' television coverage of baseball the following year. Bench continued to call the World Series on radio through
1993 as
Vin Scully's color man.
When
CBS Radio got the contract from
NBC Radio in
1976, they continued the practice of having the local announcers for the visiting teams do the play-by-play for each World Series game through
1978. Thus,
Bill White got to do all three World Series involving the
New York Yankees on CBS Radio from 1976 through 1978 and
Ross Porter worked the
Los Angeles Dodgers' appearances in
1977 and 1978. In addition, the network used
Marty Brennaman in 1976, when his
Cincinnati Reds played against White's Yankees.
Win Elliot served as a
color commentator on CBS Radio's coverage from 1976 to 1978, teaming with the respective local play-by-play announcers for each game's broadcast.
In
1977,
Bill White did play-by-play for the games in
Los Angeles on CBS Radio while
Ross Porter handled the play-by-play for CBS in
New York. Thus, when White was appearing on
ABC-TV during the 1977 World Series, it was during the home games in a pre/postgame role (White would eventually cover the
trophy presentation ceremony for ABC). Likewise, Porter handled the ABC pre/postgame while in Los Angeles.
1979 was the first year in which one announcer (in this case, CBS Radio's
Vin Scully[199]) provided all of the play-by-play for a World Series radio broadcast. In prior years, the play-by-play announcers and color commentators had alternated roles during each game or between games.
CBS Radio, following the lead begun by ABC's television coverage in 1977, dropped the usage of local team broadcasters on play-by-play when Vin Scully began doing the World Series as a CBS employee through
1982. (Beginning in
1982, however, the participating teams'
flagship radio stations were permitted to produce their own local World Series broadcasts and air them live. The affiliate stations in the teams' radio networks continued to be obligated to carry the CBS Radio broadcasts.)
Beginning in
1966 and continuing through
1975, a local announcer for the visiting team in each Series game would split play-by-play and color commentary with a neutral
NBC Radio announcer. Prior to 1966 and going back to the dawn of the television era, Series radio broadcasts typically featured announcers from around the major leagues (generally pairing one announcer from an AL team and another from an NL team), with the regular announcers for both the home and visiting Series participants splitting play-by-play on
NBC television. In broadcasts of Series-clinching (or potentially Series-clinching) games on both media, NBC sent the announcer for whichever team was ahead in the game to that team's clubhouse in the ninth inning in order to help cover the trophy presentation and conduct post-game interviews.
Fred Hoey was hired by
CBS to call Games 1 and 5 of the
1933 World Series after commissioner
Kenesaw Mountain Landis declared that CBS'
Ted Husing and
NBC's
Graham McNamee could not call World Series play-by-play because they hadn't called any regular season games.[235] Hoey was removed from the CBS broadcast during the fourth inning of Game 1 after his voice gave out on the air. Although he was subsequently reported as having suffered from a cold, Hoey's garbled and incoherent speech led many listeners to think he was drunk.[235][236] After this incident, Hoey never went into a broadcast booth without a tin of
throat lozenges.[235]
The
1934 World Series broadcasts were the first to be sponsored, with
Ford giving US$50,000 each to
CBS and
NBC.
Commissioner Landis barred
Detroit Tigers announcer
Ty Tyson from appearing on network radio, citing the risk of partiality in his commentary; however, after Tigers fans sent in more than 600,000 letters of protest, Landis agreed to allow Tyson to call the Series locally on Detroit station
WWJ.[237][238]
In
1939,
Mutual and
Gillette signed an agreement purchasing exclusive broadcast and sponsorship rights to the World Series for US$100,000.[239] A special promotion of Gillette razors and blueblades sold four times better than preliminary estimates, leading the company to secure additional sports sponsorships. The Gillette stable of sports broadcasts, which aired under the umbrella title of Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, spanned several different networks (including
NBC,
CBS, and Mutual radio) and grew to include not only ongoing sponsorship of baseball's World Series and
All-Star Game but also the annual
Kentucky Derby in horseracing, the
Rose Bowl Game and other college football games, and professional
boxing. Mutual continued as the exclusive World Series radio network until 1957, while Gillette's exclusive sponsorship of the event extended into the early television era and continued until the late 1950s.
Note on
1922 through
1926: World Series coverage carried by
Westinghouse Broadcasting was available to any commercially operated radio station.
The
1923 World Series featured the first true, stadium originated radio broadcast of World Series games.
Bill McGeehan did the play-by-play honors at first. However, when McGeehan reportedly tired of the chore, he quit in the middle of Game 3.[249] Shortly thereafter,
Graham McNamee took over play-by-play duties.
AT&T fed the 1923 World Series coverage by New York's
WEAF[250] via their long-distance lines to stations as far north as
Massachusetts and as far south as Washington, D.C.
The
1927 World Series was the first to be broadcast from coast to coast over a full radio network.
Since 1982, the participating teams'
flagship radio stations are permitted to air their own World Series broadcasts with their regular announcing crews, and their audio is made available as usual through MLB's digital presences and
Sirius XM. However, the teams' other radio network affiliates are contractually obligated to carry the national radio feeds. The flagship stations also much mention the coverage as being presented by the same sponsor as the ESPN Radio broadcasts.
Ryan Lefebvre (innings 3–4, 6–7, and even extra innings [Game 1 went 14 innings and Game 5 went 12 innings]) Josh Lewin (innings 3–4, 7, and even extra innings [Game 1 went 14 innings and Game 5 went 12 innings])
Jon Sciambi (innings 3–4, 7–8, and even extra innings [Game 4 went 12 innings]) Charley Steiner (innings 5–7, and even extra innings [Game 4 went 12 innings])
1982 marked the first time that teams'
flagship radio stations were permitted to produce their own local World Series broadcasts and air them live. In prior years, these stations were contractually required to carry the national radio networks' broadcasts (although they could produce re-created games with local announcers and air them after the Series had ended). The affiliate stations in the teams' radio networks continued to be obligated to carry the national broadcasts.
After thousands of Phillies fans—outraged over being unable to hear local team announcers
Harry Kalas and
Richie Ashburn call the games during the
1980 World Series—deluged the team, the networks, and the Commissioner's office with angry letters and petitions, Major League Baseball changed its broadcast contract to allow the
flagship radio stations for participating World Series teams to produce and air their own local Series broadcasts beginning in 1982.[252][253] When the Phillies next won a World Series, in
2008, Kalas was able to make the call of the final out.
In
1985 and
1987,
KMOX, the
St. Louis Cardinals' flagship station at the time,
simulcast with
CBS Radio's World Series coverage involving the Cardinals. That was mainly because
Jack Buck had a lengthy career calling Cardinals games for KMOX to go along with his national work for CBS Radio.
^Stewart, B.W. (October 5, 1947). "BASEBALL ON VIDEO; Television, Despite Some Handicaps, Scores in World Series Coverage". The New York Times. p. X11.