The 2013 World Series Broadcast Primer

The 2013 World Series begins Wednesday night on FOX, as the American League Champions the Boston Red Sox host the National League Championships the St. Louis Cardinals.  This will be first meeting between the two teams since the faithful 2004 season, where the Red Sox finally won its first championship since 1918.  Since then, Boston has appeared in one other series (a title in 2007), while the Cardinals have won two championships in two appearance (2006 and 2011).  This is the third time the two teams will meet in the Fall Classic.

This will be the final series for FOX's long time tandem of Joe Buck and Ford Frick winner Tim McCarver, who who announced his retirement during the spring. McCarver's series finale will be his 24th, the first being a member of ABC's coverage of the 1985 Series. For Buck, this will be his 16 World Series assignments, all with McCarver as the analyst (including two with Bob Brenly).  As they did during the ALCS, Fox Sports.com's Ken Rosenthal and Erin Andrews will be the field reporters in each team's dugout, with Andrews handling the trophy presentation to the series winner. Francisco X. Rivera and Jose Tolentino will call the game in Spanish for FOX Sports Desportes. 

FOX Sports will have extensive coverage of the series on FOX & FOX Sports One. Each game will begin with a half hour show at 7:30 PM ET, followed by the first pitch at approximately 8:07 PM (except game 4 which starts at 8:15 PM due to NFL commitments). Matt Vasgersian will host each night from the home ballpark and will be joined by Harold Reynolds, A.J. Pierzynski and Jimmy Rollins. FOX Sports One will have opening and post game coverage with Ryan Field, Rollins and Pierzynski from the game site, as well as studio coverage in Los Angeles with Mike Hill, Gabe Kapler and Eric Karros.

MLB Network will have extensive coverage utilizing its entire staff of talent and daily programming throughout the series. They will have nightly pregame and postgame coverage from the game site on MLB Tonight and will be live for all series press conferences.  All encore games of the series games will air throughout the week on MLBN.  ESPN Radio will be the official radio broadcast home of the World Series with the network's Sunday Night Baseball broadcast team Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser calling the action. ESPN's Baseball Tonight will also be live from the ballpark with pre and post game coverage nightly throughout the series on ESPN2 and ESPN.com.  Each show will be feature ESPN talent Karl Ravech, Curt Schilling, Barry Larkin and others. 

For those out of the United States, Gary Thorne and Rick Sutcliffe will have the call on MLB International.

The 2013 World Series
ST. LOUIS CARDINALS vs BOSTON RED SOX

FOX: Joe Buck, Tim McCarver; Reporters: Erin Andrews, Ken Rosenthal
ESPN Radio: Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser
Game 1: Wednesday, October 23, @ Fenway Park, Boston [FOX/ESPN Radio 8:07PM]
                    (STL: Wainwright 19-9, 2.94 ERA; BOS: Lester 15-8, 3.75 ERA)
Game 2: Thursday, October 24, @ Fenway Park, Boston [FOX/ESPN Radio 8:07PM]
                 (STL: Wacha 4-1, 2.78 ERA; BOS: Lackey 10-13, 3.52 ERA)
Game 3: Saturday, October 26, @ Busch Stadium, St. Louis [FOX/ESPN Radio 8:07PM]
                 (BOS: Peavy 12-5, 4.17 ERA;STL: Kelly 10-5, 2.69 ERA) 

Game 4: Sunday, October 27, @ Busch Stadium, St. Louis  [FOX/ESPN Radio 8:15PM]
                 (BOS: Bucholtz 12-1, 1.74 ERA; STL: Lynn 15-10, 3.97 ERA)  
Game 5: Monday, October 28*, @ Busch Stadium, St. Louis [FOX/ESPN Radio 8:07PM] 
Game 6: Wednesday, October 30*, @ Fenway Park, Boston  [FOX/ESPN Radio 8:07PM]
Game 7: Thursday, October 31*, @ Fenway Park, Boston [FOX/ESPN Radio 8:07PM]
* - If necessary