TORONTO — On Friday night, MLB Network will cover its 100th World Series game since launching in 2009 — a long way from where it was 17 seasons ago.
During the 2009 Fall Classic, it was just producing MLB Tonight. Now, it is producing five network shows and MLB’s World Feed game production, helping MLB’s international rights holders (NHK, TVA, Rogers Sportsnet, etc.) and producing content for sponsorship initiatives, including the T-Mobile 5G batting practice show.
MLBN analyst Harold Reynolds recalled doing the first show that aired in January 2009; it was taped at 10am ET and aired at 7pm. “We sat there holding our breath hoping it was going to hold and not break the tape,” Reynolds told SBJ. Nine months later, Reynolds was doing the World Series postgame show following Game 3 in Philadelphia with host Greg Amsinger when things went awry.
A technical issue caused their monitor to go out right as they were about to go through the highlights, forcing the duo to ad-lib through everything when all they could hear was the transition sound between innings.
“It was unbelievable how we were able to pull it off,” Reynolds said. “Now we’ve got this huge conglomerate down on the field, we’ve got people everywhere, we’ve got a huge set. We were sitting in two chairs back then with a monitor hoping that we could paste it together with some Band-Aids. We’ve come a long way.”
Along with Reynolds and Amsinger, Dan Plesac, Al Leiter and Matt Vasgersian were all part of MLBN’s first World Series coverage, and are still doing so today.
“The access is beyond unbelievable. We have players now that grew up watching MLB Network,” Reynolds said. “Players walk over to the set, they feel like they know us, we have no problem getting guys to come sit down and talk. It’s just really truly amazing.”