Hall of Fame NBA coach and broadcaster Dr. Jack Ramsay has passed away. Dr. Ramsay died after a long battle with cancer over the past decade. Dr. Ramsay coached the Portland Trailblazers to their only title in 1977. In the last 2 decades he is one of the most respected analysts working on Miami Heat and then ESPN and ESPN Radio broadcasts. He was a World War II Navy serviceman and inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 1992. Ramsay passed at the age of 89. [ESPN]
Kevin Burkardt will be joining FOX Sports full time in 2015. Burkhardt has been a torrid rise in the broadcasting ranks receiving an NFL Playoff assignment in his first year, bypassing veterans Kenny Albert and Thom Brennaman. Burkhardt is currently the new studio host for MLB on FOX's pregame show and is expected to work College Basketball assignments this fall. Burkhard is still under contract with SNY as the field reporter for the New York Mets through this season. [NY Post]
FOX Sports 1's Crowd Gone Wild hosted by Regis Phibin has been cancelled. The program was highly promoted in the heels of FS1's August 2013 launch, but from its inception struggled in ratings. The show will end in May. With the show's departure, the Mike Francesca Show will receive an extra hour running from 1 p.m to 5 p.m. [Fang's Bites]
As a follow up their announcement of their broadcast schedule, FOX Sports announced their talent for 2014 MLB season on FOX and FOX Sports 1. As previously been reported, MLB Network's Harold Reynolds and Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci will join Joe Buck as the main commentators for baseball in 2014. Reynolds, who has been working at MLBN since its inception in 2009, has been courted by FOX since the end of last season to replace Tim McCarver, who left the FOX broadcast after last season. (He will work a limited schedule for FOX Sports-Midwest). Verducci, who was considered a finalist as well, has worked several different roles in telecasts for FOX, MLBN and TBS as studio and game analyst as well as field reporter during the post season. The three man booth will have the call for select telecasts of the Game of the Week, the 2014 All-Star in Minneapolis in July and the postseason including the 2014 World Series. They will be joined by field reporters Ken Rosenthal and Erin Andrews for select games during the season and all of October. The trios first game assignment will be April 5th contest between the Dodgers and Giants on FOX Sports 1.
Reynolds and Verducci will continue to work at MLBN and Sports Illustrated respectively. It is unknown if Verducci will return to TBS, but not likely.
FOX has also announced the creation of two shows from their Los Angeles studios. Kevin Burkhardt, fresh off completing an impressive rookie season on FOX's NFL coverage, will host a half hour pregame show before each game. He will be joined by analysts FOX Sports Live's Gabe Kapler, the newest FOX hire, Hall of Famer inductee Frank Thomas, MLB on FOX's Eric Karros and/or former big league C.J. Notkowski. The past two seasons, FOX and MLB Network had a working agreement to host the pregame, but with the show will now be wholly produced by FOX. Ryan Field will be host for games on weeknights.
Finally, in direct competition to ESPN's staple Baseball Tonight and MLB Network's MLB Tonight, FOX Sports 1 will present MLB WhipAround on FOX Sports 1. Field or Chris Myers will host a nightly baseball recap with the aforementioned analysts Mondays thru Friday at 10 p.m. (most Wednesday it will at Midnight after UFC coverage). The show will be a late night recap of the games of the night as well as break in coverage, mostly of FOX RSN games.
Kenny Albert and Thom Brennaman will return as secondary commentators and will like by joined by John Smotz. Though it has not been confirmed as of yet, Smoltz is close to signing on as secondary analyst to the A team. The former Braves starter/closer has worked mainly as a game analyst for TBS and worked occasional games on FOX and MLBN. Smoltz and TBS failed to come to an agreement before the end of last season and his last assignment for Turner was the B-series during the postseason.
