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Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
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| Baseball Tonight | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | American baseball game telecasts |
| Presented by | Various commentators |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 37 (through 2026 season) |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Various MLB stadiums (game telecasts) ESPN Headquarters, Bristol, Connecticut (2020)[1] |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company | ESPN |
| Original release | |
| Network | ESPN |
| Release | March 19, 1990 – present |
| Network | ESPN2 |
| Release | October 1, 1993 – present |
| Network | ESPN+ |
| Release | April 12, 2018 – present |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | September 29, 2020 – present |
| Related | |
| ESPN Major League Baseball Major League Baseball on ABC Monday Night Baseball Sunday Night Baseball Wednesday Night Baseball Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio | |
Baseball Tonight is an American television program that airs on ESPN and ABC. The show, which covers the day's Major League Baseball action, has been on the air since 1990. Its namesake program also airs on ESPN Radio at various times of the day during the baseball season, with Marc Kestecher as host.
Baseball Tonight is also the title of a daily podcast hosted by Buster Olney with frequent appearances by Tim Kurkjian, Karl Ravech and others from ESPN and more places.
In 2017, daily airing of the show, other than its Sunday airing, was replaced by MLB Network's Intentional Talk, which stopped airing on ESPN2 in December 2018[2][3] From 2019 to 2025, Baseball Tonight aired on Sundays before Sunday Night Baseball, and during the week for major events such as the MLB All-Star Game, College World Series, MLB Postseason, MLB Trade Deadline and Winter Meetings, along with SportsCenter segments during the season.[4]
With the loss of Sunday Night Baseball after the 2025 season, Beginning in 2026, Baseball Tonight will now air in various time slots throughout the week prior to any game on ESPN and ABC.
On January 3, 2000, the segment "Web Gems" was coined and created by then-producer Judson Burch. The segment originally featured great defensive plays followed by viewer internet voting on the "web." The phrase "web gem" is now common vernacular in baseball broadcasts and circles to describe outstanding glove work.
In 2007, a new segment entitled "That's Nasty!" was introduced. The new segment featured top pitching performances of the day, including the best individual pitches. These clips often include extremely high velocity fastballs, 12–6 curveballs, or changeups that completely fool the opposing batters.
In 2013, Adnan Virk replaced Steve Berthiaume as one of the program's hosts, joining Karl Ravech.
Starting in April 2017 the weekday and Saturday editions of Baseball Tonight were replaced by the MLB Network-produced program Intentional Talk. In December 2018, four months before the deal to air Intentional Talk was to end in April 2019, the show stopped airing on ESPN2, with airings on MLB Network being unaffected.[5] For the 2019 season, despite rumors of a return of the show daily,[6] ESPN, just as they did the past two years, continued to only air Baseball Tonight sporadically throughout the season on Monday-Saturday, along with the weekly Sunday version Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown before Sunday Night Baseball.
Also, a segment on SportsCenter known as the Baseball Tonight Report started, which aired all throughout the Major League Baseball season. During the Playoffs, Baseball Tonight goes back to its traditional daily airings on ESPN2.[7]
On February 3, 2019, Adnan Virk was fired from ESPN for leaking confidential information, including the future of Baseball Tonight, to the media, including Awful Announcing.[8]
During the final three weeks of the 2024 Major League Baseball season, ESPN or ESPN2 will air Baseball Tonight Special: MLB Squeeze Play on Wednesday nights. The studio show features whip-around coverage focused on the pennant chase. The show will mark the first since 2016 that ESPN has aired regular weekday editions of Baseball Tonight outside the MLB playoffs.[9]
Baseball Tonight appeared nightly on ESPN throughout the baseball season at 10:00 p.m. ET and 12:00 a.m. ET on ESPN2. The 10 PM show aired on ESPN2 in the event of a conflict. Following the cancellation of The Trifecta in late 2006, the 12:00 a.m. run of Baseball Tonight was expanded to a full 40 minutes. The show has permission from Major League Baseball to show in-progress highlights. The show was also seen at 12:30 p.m. ET and 7:00 p.m. ET on Sundays, the latter show leading up to the Sunday Night Baseball telecast.
The late-night edition on Sundays was usually just a re-air of the 7:00 show, with a SportsCenter anchor providing highlights of the Sunday night game in place of a game preview segment that airs during the live broadcast. The midnight edition usually re-aired at 12:00 p.m. ET the following day (excluding Saturday, when the show is usually 40 minutes to a full hour). That practice ended Monday August 11, 2008, when SportsCenter went to live editions in the mornings.
The show also appeared live at events throughout the year, such as spring training, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game and the World Series sites,[10] at ESPN the Weekend, and occasionally had remote stunts, i.e. a show from the rooftop at Fenway Park and a show from one of the Wrigley Rooftops at Wrigley Field in 2005.
It aired live from the field at Fenway Park on April 26, 2009, before the Sunday Night Baseball game between the Yankees–Red Sox game, which featured an interview with Dustin Pedroia.[11] On June 28, 2009, it aired from Citi Field in anticipation of that night's Subway Series game between the Mets and the Yankees.
During the 2019 season, Baseball Tonight went on-location for the defending World Series champions Boston Red Sox Home Opener, along with going to London, England for the New York Yankees vs the Boston Red Sox.[12]
Baseball Tonight is split into a number of segments, each of which focuses on a particular aspect of baseball. These segments include:
One featured running gag on the show is the spoof segment "Name That Molina", where one of the personalities has to guess which of the three Molina catcher brothers – Bengie, Jose, or Yadier – is being shown. "Name that LaRoche" is another spoof segment featuring the two brothers who play for the Toronto Blue Jays Andy and the Washington Nationals Adam.
Another running gag is the Umpire Fantasy League in which "owners" of umpires in this fictitious league are rewarded for their umpires ejecting players or coaches. It is unclear whether this is reference to the real-life Umpire Ejection Fantasy League.
Also another gag in session is when an analyst on the show uses the "Stump the host" slogan. This is when the analyst has information on a certain players milestone that has just happened on the telecast. An example is when a player hits a home run, double, steals a base, or strikes someone out and the analyst will say "Stump the Host; Career hr/strikeout/2-B/SB/etc. number __? The host very seldom knows the answer but will take a reasonable, and sometimes ludicrous, guess at what the answer might be. This gag is very seldom used but sometimes is quite comical for the fact that the host has no idea what the answer may be.
ESPN is generally prohibited by Major League Baseball from showing live look-ins of in-progress games, and limited to showing in-progress highlights after they happen. However, an exception is made when there is an extraordinary event taking place, such as a no-hitter or perfect game, and ESPN is allowed to show live look-ins during Baseball Tonight. Other circumstances include an ESPN-scheduled game which suffers a rain delay, or is completely rained out and postponed.
Some have criticized the program because of a perceived bias in favor of certain teams. The most vocal comment was expressed by Heath Bell:
I truly believe ESPN only cares about promoting the Red Sox and Yankees and Mets – and nobody else. That's why I like the MLB Network, because they promote everybody. I'm really turned off by ESPN and 'Baseball Tonight.' When (then-Padre) Jake Peavy threw 81⁄3 innings on Saturday, they showed one pitch in the third inning and that was it. It's all about the Red Sox, Yankees, and Mets.[13]
A video game titled ESPN Baseball Tonight was released for 16-bit systems and DOS PCs in 1994. The game featured MLB license, but not MLBPA license.
In late 2012, mobile game company SkyZone Entertainment and TheAppsGames released ESPN Going Going Gone, an arcade style home run derby game for both Android and iOS. The game features an intro and voice over by ESPN's Dan Shulman and ESPN trademark.
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Baseball Tonight is an American television program that airs on ESPN and ABC. The show, which covers the day's Major League Baseball action, has been on the air since 1990. Its namesake program also airs on ESPN Radio at various times of the day during the baseball season, with Marc Kestecher as host. Baseball Tonight is also the title of a daily podcast hosted by Buster Olney with frequent appearances by Tim Kurkjian, Karl Ravech and others from ESPN and more places. In 2017, daily airing of the show, other than its Sunday airing, was replaced by MLB Network's Intentional Talk, which stopped airing on ESPN2 in December 2018 From 2019 to 2025, Baseball Tonight aired on Sundays before Sunday Night Baseball, and during the week for major events such as the MLB All-Star Game, College World Series, MLB Postseason, MLB Trade Deadline and Winter Meetings, along with SportsCenter segments during the season. With the loss of Sunday Night Baseball after the 2025 season, Beginning in 2026, Baseball Tonight will now air in various time slots throughout the week prior to any game on ESPN and ABC.
ESPN Baseball Tonight is a 1994 baseball video game for the MS-DOS, Sega CD, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The cartridge versions was developed by Park Place Productions, while Sony Imagesoft's internal development team handled development for the Sega CD version amidst troubles at Park Place.
Wednesday Night Baseball is a live game telecast of Major League Baseball during Wednesday nights in the regular season on ESPN or ESPN2. From 1990 to 2021, ESPN generally aired weekly games on Wednesday nights. Beginning with the 2022 Major League Baseball season, ESPN significantly reduced their MLB schedule, which included cutting most of their Wednesday Night Baseball games. On ESPN, the game generally starts at 7:00 pm ET, following SportsCenter, and usually lasted around three hours with an hour-long Baseball Tonight following the game leading up to the 11:00 pm ET SportsCenter (1:00 am ET for September games with Baseball Tonight moving to ESPN2 at 12:00 am ET). Every April some broadcasts aired on ESPN2 due to ESPN's priority with Wednesday NBA coverage. Until 2022, Wednesday Night Baseball was not exclusive and was usually blacked out in the teams' local markets, where the respective local broadcasters could still air the game, unless local broadcasters chose not to televise the game. Since 2022, ESPN's limited Wednesday Night Baseball is now exclusive to the network.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →The Greenwood District.
