Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Peter Gammons: Goodbye ESPN, Hello MLB Network

A few minutes ago I learned that Peter Gammons is going to be leaving ESPN. He has been with the network for over 20 years. Prior to that, Gammons wrote for both The Boston Globe and Sports Illustrated.

Dave Rosenthal of The Baltimore Sun believes this might mean Gammons will go back to writing more baseball books. But I couldn't help but think that Gammons must be heading to the MLB Network.

And sure enough he is. Gammons has indeed signed on with the MLB Network and MLB.com. He has also signed with NESN to become a studio analyst and reporter on the Boston Red Sox pre-game and post-game shows.

Gammons will be a welcome addition to the MLB Network. Most of their analysts are former players like Mitch Williams, Al Leiter, Harold Reynolds and Barry Larkin. There's nothing wrong with that at all but you need multiple points of view. Of course, they have Bob Costas. While Costas knows the history of the game if you want inside information then Gammons is the go to guy. If he says something then it's pretty much golden. If it wasn't he wouldn't have been inducted into the Hall of Fame four years ago.

Even though the World Series ended more than a month ago I am watching the MLB Network as much now as I did during the season. Peter Gammons just adds another layer to the cake.

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