WBC to be on ESPN [Archive] - NYYFans.com Forum

-tz

01-31-06, 09:25 AM

I didn't see this posted anywhere else, sorry if I missed it ...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/worldclassic2006/news/story?id=2312085

ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes will be the TV homes of the inaugural World Baseball Classic, tournament officials and ESPN announced Monday.ESPN and ESPN2 will televise 16 games live, including the semifinals (March 18) and finals (March 20) from Petco Park in San Diego. ESPN Deportes will show all 39 games of the tournament.Baseball ... :drool:

DontHateOnNumber2

01-31-06, 09:58 AM

That's cool. I want to watch it....I miss beisbol. :)

Kulish29

01-31-06, 11:14 AM

What, it's not on the Ocho?

SoCal Pinstriper

01-31-06, 11:18 AM

I didn't see this posted anywhere else, sorry if I missed it ...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/worldclassic2006/news/story?id=2312085

Baseball ... :drool:I'll be looking forward to your screencaps in the game threads. :)

Mr. Mxylsplk

01-31-06, 11:24 AM

What, it's not on the Ocho?
I thought that movie was pretty so-so, but that line made it all worth it.

Yanks27th

01-31-06, 11:24 AM

:roflmao:
What, it's not on the Ocho? It probably is in Cuba.

Kulish29

01-31-06, 01:26 PM

I thought that movie was pretty so-so, but that line made it all worth it.

Agreed. Well that and the 'Go Balls Deep!' line.

StillPettitteFan

01-31-06, 01:47 PM

Does DirectTv carry ESPN Deportes?

AlongCameAPrincess

01-31-06, 09:32 PM

I can't wait... Seriously.

nyyanksfan20

01-31-06, 11:15 PM

Oh this is good I was wondering this. I guess it's safe to assume all the USA's games willl be televised.

utopiapkwy

02-01-06, 09:13 AM

No way I watch this. First week of the classic is Conference Tournaments for NCAA hoops, the you go into the NCAA tourney. With the four day basketball binge from Th-Sun, I recover the other days. I just dont have room in my yearly sports calender.

LuckyLopez

02-01-06, 10:08 AM

I must admit, you have me curious now.

Correct me if I'm wrong but the bulk of the conference tournament play runs from the 8th till the 13th, right? That leaves the bulk of the big games between the 11th and 13th, right? Isn't the Big East tournament typically the first major conference to start and they won't get down to 8 teams until the 9th. Its mostly just lesser conferances running before that, no?

The 1st round of the WBC will run from the 7th to 10th (4th to 7th for the Japan bracket, but if you're watching 4 AM EST starts you're dedicated or an insomniac). So they should manage to miss the bulk of the big conference games. They'll miss the ACC, Big Ten and such tournies (as well as the Big East finals) all together. And USA's games are all afternoon start times, as are 2 out of 3 of DR's. It actually looks like they might have scheduled this tournament with the NCAA in mind with the prime time starts saved for the bad teams/games.

The WBC 2nd round will run from the 12th to the 16th but with only 4 games that Sunday (the last day of the conference finals). And again, it looks like its scheduled with the NCAA in mind. The 2 afternoon games are runner-up matchups and then its an 8 and 11 EST start for the top 4 teams. Then all but 1 of the remaining 2nd run games fill in the days where there's no NCAA (well, I guess except for the play-in game).

Then NCAA 1st/2nd round is the 16th-19th, right? By then the WBC will be all but over. The last 2nd round game is the 16th and the semifinals run on the 18th. So they're going to run into trouble there but they're scheduled for 3 PM and 10 PM EST so they could theoretically catch fans between/after rounds of games (at least for the ends of games). And by then we'll be talking the top 4 teams, so. But the final is on the 20th so not much harm there.

It looks like they should be able to run more or less clear of the NCAA (as long as you aren't hung up on catching the MEAC or Patriot tournies or the 64th and 65th teams facing off). And honestly there's enough difference in sports fans that I'd imagine there will be plenty of baseball fans who don't much care to watch wall to wall college basketball for 2 weeks. The 2nd round (which should be the good games) will mostly be played on days the NCAA has off and the final will be on the Monday after that first weekend. The only real problem would seem to be fans hungover on sports, but honestly baseball really is the ideal sport to mellow out to after all of that channel flipping and bracket watching. Just some lazy games to decompress with.

I've fingered all along that I find it hard to believe that the WBC won't draw decent ratings as long as it has a strong showing of stars. I find it hard to believe that baseball fans wouldn't be even a little bit interested to watch this collection of players facing off with presumably a little passion behind it.

Sorry for that rant. Like I said, I got curious.

BillBuckner

02-02-06, 07:51 AM

Thats cool from ESPN. I actually am getting more and more excited about this.

tiyuri

02-17-06, 09:04 PM

JDPNYY

02-17-06, 09:16 PM

I'm not really a big fan of the WBC.

tiyuri

02-17-06, 09:19 PM

Me neither but I am a big fan of seeing baseball on TV again. This is a great binge sports couple of months. I binge on the Olympic hockey tournament. Then I get a couple days off and I binge on the WBC and the Conference/NCAA Tournament.

LuckyLopez

02-18-06, 03:11 AM

Here is the actual schedule. It is teh suck.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/worldclassic2006/news/story?id=2294525

A US Pool Game on Tape Delay at 3AM? A Playoff Pool Game at 1AM, 2AM or not even on? I realize they don't want to mess with college basketball but come on. Of the Games ESPN is showing in English 15 are live with 13 on tape mostly at middle of the night hours. Even the games they are showing live many of them are very late East Coast starts.

Eh, that seems a bit unfair. All games past the 1st round are airing live. Only a few are only on tape and those are mostly bad matchups. The english/spanish thing may be an inconvience for us english speaking fans but considering the timing and nature of the tournament it seems understandable. ESPN is committed to college basketball during that period. Without stopping and comparing the schedule to the NCAA schedule it seems understandable that few ESPN/ESPN2 slots are open. We're getting the games somewhere and the USA games will either get live runs in english or live spanish airings with taped english. Not the best of circumstances but realistically what more can you ask for?