Major League Baseball

MLB Network makes investment in big names

Published Jan. 7, 2010 9:13 p.m. ET

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Willie Mays visited the MLB Network studios earlier this week, sitting down for a long interview to air at a yet to be determined date.

Network president Tony Petitti figures there's no way they could have landed Mays if not for the presence of the person interviewing him, Bob Costas.

Costas and MLB Network's newest big-name hire, Peter Gammons, certainly aren't in charge of coming up with programming ideas to fill out the schedule. But Petitti views their roles as generating content as much as providing credibility to viewers.

``Because it's Bob, guys come to the table,'' Petitti said after Gammons made his MLB Network debut Wednesday, sharing a desk with Costas during the Hall of Fame announcement show. ``They're more on their game; they're more engaged. I don't think I can overstate it. We needed that. ... Peter will be in the same category.''

As the network heads into its second year, Petitti still describes it as a ``secondary tool'' for fans, who might flip over after watching their favorite team on a local channel. That modest-sounding goal may seem contradictory to what he calls the critical development of the network's first year.

``We invested a lot of resources into our on-air talent,'' Petitti said.

``At the end, what the audience really relates to is who's giving you the information,'' he said. ``That's the key thing - who they hear from, what the ability is.''

Within the first few minutes of Wednesday's broadcast, Gammons and Costas were each comfortably playing their parts as they shared the desk with Harold Reynolds and Matt Vasgersian. Gammons told a story about the camaraderie among Hall of Famers, how so many of them called Robin Roberts after his wife died; Costas emphatically opined on whether the institution had become the ``Hall of the very, very good'' and not its original intention.

Gammons announced Dec. 8 he was leaving ESPN after two decades to join MLB Network. He expects to put together long-form pieces about topics such as the practice routines of certain players.

``I call it attention span television,'' he said. ``That's no criticism of anybody - I understand the whole world of clickers. People who are watching Major League Baseball Network are not sitting there with a clicker in their hands. It's a very different mindset.''

It's a mindset he believes works particularly well with baseball, a sport that he likes to say is ``very appealing to people who are mathematics majors at MIT.''

Asked what he brings to the network, Gammons said, ``I guess just some perspective.''

``I've done it for a long time. ... Just adding to the love of the game,'' he said. ``People being passionate about things, it's really important.''

He'll be talking to an audience tuned in specifically to hear about baseball, day after day, game after game.

``As popular as football is, 90 percent of football programming is speculation,'' Costas said. ``Should Brad Childress have yanked Brett Favre? Why is Brett Favre angry? What's the effect in the locker room? What do you think will happen on Sunday? But it's only Tuesday, and we already asked this question Monday, but we'll ask it again on Wednesday.''

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