Sunday Afternoon Baseball
Sunday Afternoon Baseball is the de facto branding used for nationally televised live game telecasts of Major League Baseball games on Sunday afternoons during the regular season.
History
Early versions (1958–1964)
The first Sunday afternoon broadcasts of Major League Baseball occurred in 1958 [Major League Baseball season|1958] when CBS added a Sunday Game of the Week. Two years later, NBC launched their own Sunday telecasts to go with their Saturday afternoon Game of the Week broadcasts.In 1962, CBS dropped the Sunday baseball Game of the Week once the NFL season started, dropping the option clause for affiliates to carry baseball or football in place since 1957. NBC's Sunday afternoon telecasts would last through the end of the 1964 season.
ABC's Sunday afternoon coverage (1977-1987)
In, the start of ABC's Monday Night Baseball coverage was moved back to June, due to poor ratings during the May sweeps period. In place of April and May prime time games, ABC began airing Sunday Afternoon Baseball games in September. ABC also had a clause where they could air a game the last day of the regular season if it had playoff implications, such as in 1987 in regards to the Detroit Tigers season|Detroit Tigers]' American League East pennant chase against the Toronto Blue Jays season|Toronto Blue Jays]. The team of Michaels, Palmer, and McCarver called that game in Detroit that day, in which the Tigers clinched the American League East crown. However, in 1986, ABC did do a number of early season Sunday afternoon games before they went into Monday Night Baseball. ABC's contract was further modified prior to the season, with the network airing just five Monday Night Baseball telecasts in June of that year, followed by Sunday Afternoon Baseball in August and September. ABC did Sunday afternoon games late in the season in order to fulfill the number of games in the contract and to not interfere with Monday Night Football.In, ABC planned to increase coverage to 10 Monday night games and eight Sunday afternoon games, but the players' strike that year ended up reducing the network's schedule to three Monday night and seven Sunday afternoon telecasts.
On April 7, 1983, Major League Baseball, ABC, and NBC agreed to terms of a six-year television package worth $1.2 billion. The two networks continued to alternate coverage of the League Championship Series, World Series, and All-Star Game through the 1989 season, with each of the 26 clubs receiving $7 million per year in return. The last package gave each club $1.9 million per year. ABC contributed $575 million for regular season prime time and Sunday afternoons and NBC paid $550 million for thirty Saturday afternoon games. ABC was contracted to televise 20 prime time regular season games a year in addition to other games.
During the 1986 season, Don Drysdale did play-by-play ABC's Sunday afternoon games, which aired until July, when Monday Night Baseball began. Al Michaels did the main Sunday game usually with Jim Palmer, while Drysdale and Johnny Bench did the backup contests. No Sunday afternoon baseball games were telecast nationally in and.
Sunday afternoon games on CBS (1990-1991)
CBS initially did not want to start their 1990 coverage until after the network had aired that year's NBA Finals. Therefore, only 12 regular season telecasts were scheduled. The broadcasts would have been each Saturday from June 16 through August 25 and a special Sunday telecast on the weekend of August 11–12. Ultimately, four more telecasts were added – two in April and two on the last two Saturdays of the season.On Sunday, May 5, 1991, CBS broadcast games involving Cleveland Indians season|Cleveland] at Oakland Athletics season|Oakland] and Boston Red Sox season|Boston] at the Chicago White Sox season|Chicago White Sox]. And then on Sunday, July 14 of that year, Dick Stockton and Jim Kaat called a game in Anaheim between the New York Yankees season|New York Yankees] and California Angels season|California Angels].
TBS's national package (2008–2021)
Beginning with the 2008 season, TBS broadcast a weekly game nationally on Sunday afternoons, under the title Sunday MLB on TBS. These games were not exclusive to TBS and were blacked out in local markets, to protect the stations that hold the local broadcast rights to the games. In the affected areas, simulcasts of programming from sister network HLN aired in place of the games, but recently, a message stating that the game was unavailable due to contractual requirements was aired until the game ended. Pre and postgame coverage remained available. Under the deal, TBS could show an alternate game in those markets, but the network elected not to do so.Despite initial reports that TBS would carry games on Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day, these holiday games were not part of the contract. For many years, games on these holidays were shown on ESPN, but that network discontinued them, with the occasional exception of when those holidays fell on ESPN's regular broadcast slots.
TBS released a partial schedule of its inaugural slate of Sunday games on February 27, 2008. More games would be added as the season progressed, generally two weeks before each telecast date. TBS had the second pick of game after ESPN.
Consequently, due to its non-exclusivity, highlights of a scheduled game that aired on MLB on TBS were not shown on the ESPN baseball highlight show Baseball Tonight, nor are live simulcasts and highlights of the said game on the MLB.TV subscription service; instead local broadcasts of the scheduled game were shown. However, highlights of an MLB on TBS game did air on the MLB on Fox weekly program This Week in Baseball, as well as MLB Tonight on the MLB Network.
On September 24, 2020, it was announced that WarnerMedia had renewed its rights through 2028. A major change in the contract is the replacement of TBS's late-season Sunday games with a new, primetime game on Tuesday nights throughout the regular season.