Worldcup


Behind the Mic: Reynolds, Verducci to Replace McCarver in MLB on Fox Booth; Beadle Back to ESPN's SportsNation

Fox Sports unveiled its new MLB on Fox broadcast team this week, announcing that analysts Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci will serve alongside returning play-by-play man Joe Buck as the new lead announcers in the booth. Reporters Ken Rosenthal and Erin Andrews join the team throughout the regular season, All-Star Game, and postseason, including the World Series. Fox Sports announcers Kenny Albert and Thom Brennaman also are scheduled for play-by-play assignments this season.

In addition, the MLB on Fox pregame show, which returns to the Fox Network Studios in Los Angeles for the first time since the 2012 season (the show was hosted from MLB Network’s facility in Secaucus, NJ, last season), will be hosted by Kevin Burkhardt during the regular season and entire postseason alongside a rotation of analysts including Frank Thomas, Eric Karros, Gabe Kapler, and C.J. Nitkowski.  Fox Sports Live’s Ryan Field also hosts during the regular season.

Fox also unveiled MLB WHIPAROUND on Fox Sports 1, a live weeknight baseball-specific show with quick-turnaround highlights of in-progress games, news, and analysis. Field and Fox Sports veteran Chris Myers host individual editions, with one or two analysts from the Thomas, Karros, Kapler and Nitkowski roster.

Reynolds will continue his role with the MLB Network, where he serves as a studio analyst. Verducci, meanwhile, worked 20 MLB on Fox national broadcasts before serving as a studio analyst for TBS’s coverage of the Division Series and American League Championship Series. Verducci began working as a field reporter for TBS in October 2008. The duo replaces Tim McCarver, who left the Fox booth for semi-retirement after 17 seasons next to Buck…

…Michelle Beadle has returned to SportsNation on ESPN2, hosting the show alongside commentators Max Kellerman and Marcellus Wiley, who will stay on as co-hosts. After a two-year departure for NBC in which she hosted the since-canceled The Crossover and served as co-host of Access Hollywood, Beadle returned to SportsNation on Monday, the program previously co-hosted with Colin Cowherd from 2009 to 2012. Check out her welcome back video HERE

…MLB Network has tapped Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo to host his first TV-based baseball talk show, High Heat With Christopher Russo. Premiering on Opening Day, March 31, at 12 p.m. ET (scheduled at 1 p.m. ET thereafter), the one-hour live weekday program will address all 30 MLB clubs and interviews with players and club personnel. High Heat will be produced by MLB Network and simulcast on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM. Russo joins MLB Network’s programming lineup in addition to his roles hosting Mad Dog Unleashed, his all-sports radio show, weekdays on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio, and serving as SiriusXM’s Baseball Ambassador on MLB Network Radio. Russo joined SiriusXM in 2008 after nearly 20 years in New York hosting the popular Mike and the Mad Dog show…

…Former NFL safety Darren Sharper has been officially terminated by the NFL Network. Sharper was an analyst on the network after his playing days ended but was suspended indefinitely without pay Jan. 18 following an arrest for drug possession. He has since been charged with serial drugging and raping of multiple women across multiple states…

…Britt McHenry will join ESPN as Washington, D.C.-based bureau reporter, who will serve as correspondent for various news gathering platforms, including SportsCenter, Outside the Lines, and sport-specific programs like NFL Live and Baseball Tonight. The move is effective March 17. McHenry is currently a sports reporter WJLA-TV Washington (since 2010) and at News Channel 8 (since 2008), where she began her career in Washington as a community reporter and weekend morning-show anchor…

…NBC Olympics’ Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games will feature 13 commentators, including seven veteran Olympic commentators and four Paralympians.

The Paralympians on Team NBC include Chris Waddell, the most-decorated male skier in Paralympic history; 17-time Paralympic swimming medalist Jessica Long, who was the subject of the 20-minute feature “Long Way Home: The Jessica Long Story,” which aired during NBC’s Olympic coverage; 12-time Paralympic skiing gold medalist Sarah Will; and two-time Paralympic sled-hockey medalist Kip St. Germaine.

The Paralympic commentator roster includes the following Olympic veterans: Russ Thaler, who hosted “Olympic Ice” during the Sochi Games and regularly hosts NHL studio and MLS coverage; Carolyn Manno, who reported on freestyle skiing and is the co-host of SportsDash with Yahoo! Sports; five-time Olympic snowboarding play-by-play voice Todd Harris; Olympic biathlon play-by-play voice Steve Schlanger; analyst and 1998 Nagano Olympic biathlete Stacey Wooley; eight-time Olympic bobsled, luge, and skeleton reporter Lewis Johnson; analyst and Olympic curling bronze medalist Pete Fenson; three-time Olympic play-by-play Jim Watson; and veteran Olympic hockey announcer Dave Strader…

…ESPN Deportes has added Hugo Sanchez, a former striker long considered Mexico’s best player, to the network’s roster of more than 30 legendary former players and expert soccer journalists for its 2014 FIFA World Cup team.

The network’s World Cup team also features Mario “El Matador” Kempes (who led Argentina’s National Team to its first World Cup, in 1978); Jared Borgetti (leading scorer for the Mexican National Team); Luis Roberto Alves dos Santos ‘Zague’ (who played in the 1994 World Cup and became Club America’s top scorer); former Mexican soccer stars Rafa Puente, Jose Antonio “Tato” Noriega, and “Paco” Gabriel de Anda; Jose Ramon Fernandez (covering his 10th World Cup); Jorge Ramos and David Faitelson (covering their eighth World Cup); Fernando Schwartz (who covered the World Cup on-site since Spain 1982); and John Sutcliffe (covering his sixth World Cup). Other ESPN Deportes soccer analysts and commentators on location include Adriana Monsalve, Alex de la Rosa, Andres Agulla, Alfonso “Poncho” Vera, Barak Fever, Carolina Padron, Ciro Procuna, Fernando Palomo, Hector Huerta, Heriberto Murrieta, Hernan Pereyra, Juan Pablo Fernandez, Kary Correa, Manu Martin, Martin Ainstein, Paulo Vinícius Coelho, Roberto Gomez Junco, and Tony Cherchi…

Deportes Telemundo has added Mexican soccer legend Carlos Hermosillo to its on-air team. Hermosillo will join a Deportes Telemundo lineup that already includes narrator Andrés Cantor, soccer expert Sammy Sadovnik, and former player and commentator Manuel Sol.  His first appearance on Telemundo will be on Wednesday, March 12 as a guest on “Titulares y Más” and he will debut as a commentator on Saturday, March 22, when León confronts his former Liga MX teammates, Cruz Azul.

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