The Week That Was: September 1, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where we feel like it was August as recently as yesterday.

Milestones:

Tuesday, Aug. 27 saw Bob Costas call his 450th national MLB telecast as a play-by-play announcer when the Cubs visited the Mets in Flushing Meadows. Jim Kaat and Joe Girardi rounded out the telecast's crew. Costas is the fifth person to 450 play-by-play appearances, trailing Jon Miller, Joe Buck, Dave O'Brien and Dan Shulman.

Later that same evening, Eric Karros called his 225th game as an MLB analyst, passing Maury Wills for 13th among color commentators. Justin Kutcher handled the play-by-play for the Rangers-Angels telecast from Orange County.

This Day In History:

September 5: As of Thursday night, it will have been 47 years since the infamous day in Munich. I yield the balance of my time to Jim McKay, who delivered this summary at 10:24 p.m. EDT:

"When I was a kid, my father used to say our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized. Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They have now said that there were 11 hostages. Two were killed in their rooms this m—yesterday morning. Nine were killed at the airport tonight.

"They’re all gone."

This Week in the Tennis Section:

The second week of the year's fourth major at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. Quarterfinals begin Tuesday, with the women wrapping up Thursday-Saturday and the men Friday-Sunday.

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

On hiatus because our time is being taken up by tennis and football; will return on Tuesday, Sept. 10.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, Sept. 2
1:00 -- ESPN -- Rangers at Yankees
4:00 -- ESPN -- Astros at Brewers

Tuesday, Sept. 3
12:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal
2:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal
7:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal
8:00 -- ESPN2 -- USWNT vs. Portugal at St. Paul, Minn.
9:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal

Wednesday, Sept. 4
12:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal
1:00 -- YouTube -- Mets at Nationals
2:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal
7:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal
9:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal

Thursday, Sept. 5
7:00 -- ESPN -- US Open women's semifinal (Tuesday winners)
7:00 -- YouTube -- Blue Jays at Rays
8:20 -- NBC -- Bears at Packers
9:00 -- ESPN -- US Open women's semifinal (Wednesday winners)

Friday, Sept. 6
4:00 -- ESPN -- US Open men's semifinal (Tuesday winners)
7:00 -- ESPN -- US Open men's semifinal (Wednesday winners)
8:30 -- FS1 -- USMNT vs. Mexico at East Rutherford, N.J.

Saturday, Sept. 7
3:30 -- Univision/TUDN -- NYCFC vs. Revolution
4:00 -- FS1 -- Yankees at Red Sox
4:00 -- ESPN -- US Open women's final
7:00 -- FS1 -- Phillies at Mets

Sunday, Sept. 8
1:00 -- TBS -- Phillies at Mets
1:00 -- Fox -- Rams at Panthers
1:00 -- CBS -- Titans at Browns
1:00 -- CBS -- Chiefs at Jaguars
1:00 -- CBS -- Ravens at Dolphins
1:00 -- Fox -- Falcons at Vikings
1:00 -- CBS -- Bills at Jets
1:00 -- Fox -- Redskins at Eagles
4:00 -- ESPN -- US Open men's final
4:05 -- CBS -- Colts at Chargers
4:05 -- CBS -- Bengals at Seahawks
4:25 -- Fox -- Lions at Cardinals
4:25 -- Fox -- Giants at Cowboys
4:25 -- Fox -- 49ers at Buccaneers
8:00 -- ESPN -- Yankees at Red Sox
8:20 -- NBC -- Steelers at Patriots

(Monday night: Texans at Saints, Broncos at Raiders)

The Week That Was: Aug. 25, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where we have just experienced our last weekend until February with neither the NFL nor Grand Slam tennis.

Milestones:

FC Dallas, formerly known as the Dallas Burn, played its 200th nationally-televised MLS game on Sunday night against the Houston Dynamo.

Dallas is the sixth or seventh team to that milestone; ironically, Houston is the team in question, depending on whether you count the Dynamo (2006-present) as an expansion team or the successor to the 1996-2005 San Jose entry.

Please send help as we have devolved into bookkeeping minutiae.

(This section eagerly awaits the return of football season, where every game is televised and we are two weeks from invoking the name of Frank Gifford.)

Database Updates:

Oct. 18, 1987: Dave Lapham replaces Dave Casper on the Browns-Bengals telecast for NBC. Jay Randolph was the PBP man. 506sports user ak482 does the digging here.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

The year's fourth major begins in Flushing Meadows, New York, and the grounds are pretty much packed for the first four days with 64 matches per day. Novak Djokovic is guaranteed the no. 1 men's ranking at the end of the fortnight while any one of four women could do the deed.

Serena Williams vs. Maria Sharapova is the marquee first-round match; ESPN is plugging that coverage for 7:45 Monday night.

ESPN has the television rights. Daytime coverage is on the mothership every day except Saturday, while primetime is split between ESPN2 (Monday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday) and ESPN (Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday).

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

We move to 1912. Boston and Chicago meet in the American League while Chicago and Pittsburgh play out the string for the right to meet the New York Giants.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, Aug. 26
3:00 -- YouTube -- Braves at Rockies
7:00 -- ESPN -- Cardinals at Brewers
10:00 -- ESPN -- Yankees at Mariners

Tuesday, Aug. 27
7:00 -- MLBN -- Cubs at Mets
10:00 -- FS1 -- Rangers at Angels

Wednesday, Aug. 28
None scheduled.

Thursday, Aug. 29
7:00 -- FS1 -- USWNT vs. Portugal at Philadelphia

Friday, Aug. 30
7:00 -- MLBN -- Athletics at Yankees

Saturday, Aug. 31
6:00 -- FS1 -- Mets at Phillies

Sunday, Sept. 1
1:00 -- TBS -- Athletics at Yankees
6:00 -- FS1 -- Sounders vs. Galaxy
7:00 -- ESPN -- Mets at Phillies

The Week That Was: Aug. 18, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where we're two weeks away from the beginning of the only sport where every game makes the databases.

Milestones:

The Brewers-Pirates game on Wednesday, Aug. 7, was the 11,500th MLB telecast in our database. Jon Sciambi, David Ross and Ryan Howard called it for ESPN.

On Saturday, Aug. 10, Eric Karros was the analyst for his 224th MLB national telecast, a Phillies-Giants game from San Francisco on FS1 with Eric Collins. That broke a tie with Bob Brenly and Jeff Torborg for 14th on the MLB analyst list, but created a new tie for 13th with Maury Wills.

Less than 24 hours later on Sunday, Aug. 11, Ron Darling took hold of #11 on the same analyst list, breaking a tie with Orel Hershiser as he broke down the Angels and Red Sox from Fenway Park. Ernie Johnson was the play-by-play man on TBS.

Friday, Aug. 16, was Jon Morosi's turn in the spotlight for the second straight post. He handled field-reporter duties for an Indians-Yankees game in New York, moving him past Chris Myers into 10th place on the list of MLB field reporters. It was his 74th such game.

Kenny Albert assumed the title of 15th-most-frequent MLB commentator on Saturday, Aug. 17, with the Brewers-Nationals game on FS1. With Albert's 405th national MLB game, he passed Gary Thorne to take that spot, working alongside Joe Girardi and Ken Rosenthal.

Database Updates:

Dec. 4, 1990: Ron Thulin and Hubie Brown move from guesses to confirmations on the Suns-Bulls game.

This Date In History:

Thursday, Aug. 15 marked the 29th anniversary of Terry Mulholland's no-hitter, called for ESPN by Steve Zabriskie and Bob Gibson.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

Nothing this week as the tours play low-level events in New York and Winston-Salem ahead of next week's US Open.

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

The 1911 World Series began Saturday between the Tigers and Giants.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, Aug. 19
None scheduled.

Tuesday, Aug. 20
10:00 -- ESPN -- Yankees at Athletics

Wednesday, Aug. 21
3:30 -- YouTube -- Rockies at Diamondbacks
8:00 -- TUDN-UDN -- DC United vs. Red Bulls
10:00 -- ESPN -- Yankees at Athletics
10:30 -- TUDN-UDN -- LAFC vs. Earthquakes

Thursday, Aug. 22
9:30 -- ESPN -- Sporting KC vs. Minnesota United

Friday, Aug. 23
8:00 -- ESPN -- Orlando City vs. Atlanta United
10:00 -- ESPN -- Timbers vs. Sounders

Saturday, Aug. 24
4:00 -- FS1 -- Yankees at Dodgers
7:00 -- FS1 -- Rockies at Cardinals
7:00 -- ESPN2 -- NYCFC vs. Red Bulls

Sunday, Aug. 25
2:00 -- TBS -- Nationals at Cubs
6:00 -- FS1 -- Cincinnati vs. Crew
7:00 -- ESPN -- Yankees at Dodgers
8:00 -- FS1 -- Dallas vs. Dynamo
10:00 -- FS1 -- LAFC vs. Galaxy

The Week That Was: Aug. 4, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where last week had an off night and this week has two.

Milestones:

On Monday night, Jon Morosi handled MLB field-reporting duties for the 73rd time as the Angels hosted the Tigers on YouTube. Morosi's 73rd game in that capacity matched Chris Myers for the 10th-most on record.

Tuesday night's Cubs-Cardinals tilt was a double milestone, as John Smoltz passed Buck Martinez for sixth on the list of MLB color commentators with his 353rd game and Bob Costas tied Dan Shulman for 10th on the total list with his 454th game. Jackie Redmond was the field reporter.

Costas went on to pass Shulman on Friday night with the Red Sox-Yankees game.

Finally, on Sunday, Ron Darling worked the Brewers-Cubs game at Wrigley Field alongside Brian Anderson for TBS. His 228th game as a national color commentator tied Orel Hershiser for 11th on that list.

Database Updates:

Oct. 25, 1979: Don Meredith, not Fran Tarkenton, worked Monday Night Football with Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell at the Oakland Coliseum.

This Date In History:

Friday, Aug. 9 is the 31st anniversary of the first official night game at Wrigley Field. While you may have seen the YouTube footage of the first night game's pomp and circumstance on Aug. 8, that game was rained out and the one that counted was 24 hours later. Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola called it and Marv Albert hosted on site.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

We return to the men's Masters 1000 events and the women's Premier tier in the Rogers Cup at Toronto and Montreal.

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

Beginning on Saturday, it's the 1911 League Championship Series.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, Aug. 5
8:00 -- ESPN -- Athletics at Cubs

Tuesday, Aug. 6
None scheduled.

Wednesday, Aug. 7
3:00 -- YouTube -- Cardinals at Dodgers
7:00 -- ESPN -- Brewers at Pirates

Thursday, Aug. 8
9:30 -- YouTube -- Phillies at Giants

Friday, Aug. 9
None scheduled.

Saturday, Aug. 10
4:00 -- FS1 -- Phillies at Giants
8:30 -- FS1 -- Rockies at Pirates

Sunday, Aug. 11
1:00 -- TBS -- Angels at Red Sox
4:00 -- ESPN -- Atlanta United vs. NYCFC
7:00 -- ESPN -- Phillies at Giants
7:30 -- FS1 -- DC United vs. Galaxy
10:00 -- FS1 -- LAFC vs. Red Bulls

The Week That Was: July 28, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where we'd really like to know where the summer has gone as August arrives this week.

Milestones:

Thursday night marked John Smoltz's 350th game as an MLB national-telecast analyst, making him the 21st person to reach that point. Since all of Smoltz's national appearances in the booth have been as an analyst, he also became the seventh analyst to reach the 350 mark.

Tom Verducci served as the field reporter for that Yankees-Red Sox affair, calling his 355th game overall to match Buck Martinez for 19th-most on record. Bob Costas was the play-by-play man.

Thursday's game was also the 300th MLB Network-produced telecast.

On Saturday, both ends of the FS1 doubleheader included milestones. Smoltz called the Yankees-Red Sox game with Joe Davis and Ken Rosenthal, tying Buck Martinez for sixth on the MLB analyst list with his 352nd game. Three hours later, Kenny Albert worked his 404th MLB telecast (Astros-Cardinals with Tom Verducci), tying Gary Thorne for 15th on record.

Database Updates:

The good news is that we're up to 2018 in our effort to put a Retrosheet ID on each game in our MLB listings. The bad news is that, in the process, we're catching a number of errors. The good news is that those errors are getting fixed.

May 15, 1994: The Blue Jays' visit to Fenway Park was rained out. Jon Miller and Joe Morgan were slated to call the game for ESPN.

July 4 and 27, 1994: ESPN lost a pair of alternate telecasts — Pirates-Braves and Indians-Oriolesm respectively — with Dave Sims and Jim Rooker standing by.

August 5, 1995: The Phillies and Reds were rained off of ABC; George Grande and Chris Wheeler were to split the call under the banner of The Baseball Network.

September 22, 1995: NBC lost two of its Friday night games, Tigers-Yankees and Blue Jays-Red Sox, due to rain. The slated talent was Bobby Murcer and Lary Sorenson on the former game and Gary Thorne with Bob Montgomery on the latter.

October 20-21, 1996: Adjusted the dates of games 1 and 2 of the World Series, which didn't begin until Sunday due to a rainout.

July 16, 2000: The Athletics and Rockies were washed out in Denver. This was to have been an ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game called by Jon Miller and Joe Morgan with Alvaro Martin on the field.

July 19, 2000: The Braves-Marlins telecast met a similar fate in Miami, depriving Dave Barnett and Rick Sutcliffe of their credit for this game.

October 5, 2001: The Phillies-Reds telecast on ESPN2 was rained out. Dan Shulman and Brian McRae were due to call it, which accelerates an upcoming milestone ever so slightly.

April 27, 2005: The Orioles-Red Sox telecast on ESPN was called off; this was to have been called by Dan Shulman, Steve Phillips and Steve Stone with Gary Miller.

August 19, 2007: The Cardinals-Cubs game on Sunday night on ESPN was rained out, which means Jon Miller and Joe Morgan did not call it with Peter Gammons.

This Date In History:

Wednesday, July 31 marks the 12th anniversary of Joe Morgan passing Tony Kubek for the lead on the MLB analyst list. Kubek had held the record since 1978.

Saturday, Aug. 3 is the sixth anniversaty of Tim McCarver passing Kubek for second on the same list.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

Washington hosts the Citi Open, the only 500-point (third-level) men's event on U.S. soil, while the women play in the Silicon Valley Classic at San Jose, California.

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

The Tigers meet the Giants in the 1910 World Series, having both been granted entry into the playoffs as division champions even though they didn't have the best record in their league.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, July 29
7:00 -- ESPN -- Nationals at Braves
10:00 -- YouTube -- Tigers at Angels

Tuesday, July 30
8:00 -- MLBN -- Cubs at Cardinals

Wednesday, July 31
8:00 -- ESPN -- Cubs at Cardinals
8:00 -- FS1 -- MLS All-Star Game vs. Atletico Madrid

Thursday, Aug. 1
No national telecasts (of regular-season games; the NFL Hall of Fame game doesn't count)

Friday, Aug. 2
7:00 -- MLBN -- Red Sox at Yankees

Saturday, Aug. 3
1:00 -- FS1 -- Red Sox at Yankees
4:30 -- Fox -- Atlanta United vs. Galaxy
7:00 -- FS1 -- Angels at Indians
10:00 -- ESPN2 -- Women's soccer: USA vs. Ireland at the Rose Bowl

Sunday, Aug. 4
2:00 -- TBS -- Brewers at Cubs
4:00 -- ESPN -- Minnesota United vs. Timbers
7:00 -- ESPN -- Red Sox at Yankees
7:30 -- FS1 -- DC United vs. Union
10:00 -- FS1 -- Sounders vs. Sporting KC

The Week That Was: July 21, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where we hope you have a happy Reciprocal Pi Day on Monday. (Monday's date is 7/22, the reciprocal of which is 22/7, which is 3.14 to two decimal places.)

Milestones:

As sometimes happens in the summer when only baseball is adding to its list, there were no milestones to report this week. (In the proto-database stage, no MLS milestones of note, either.)

Database Updates:

Moved Broncos-Chiefs of October 6, 1974, forward from 4:00 ET to 2:00 ET based on the Montreal Gazette.

The analyst for the Broncos-Raiders game on December 26, 1982, has been corrected from Merlin Olsen to Gene Washington. 506sports user 49ersrock has the tape.

Made several updates to NBA sideline reporters, thanks to Classic TV Sports honcho Jeff Haggar watching YouTube:

• May 7, 1989: Added Tim Brant to Sonics-Lakers
• May 20, 1989: Replaced Pat O'Brien with James Brown on Suns-Lakers
• May 21, 1989: Replaced James Brown with Lesley Visser on Bulls-Pistons

Added Canadiens-Islanders to the Canadian NHL listings on Jan. 30, 1988, per a promo on Penguins-Canadiens the previous week. It was a CBC regional telecast, in other words Hockey Night in Canada, with Dick Irvin and Brian McFarlane. 506sports user sew091472 with the find.

Added Canadiens-Penguins to the Canadian NHL listings on Oct. 14, 1989. The CBC regional telecast was called by Dick Irvin and John Garrett with Chris Cuthbert on intermissions. 506sports user garretta with the find.

The Mets-Reds game on May 28, 1990, was rained out. We have removed this from our database, subtracting one game each from Jon Miller and Joe Morgan.

The ESPN baseball doubleheader of August 3, 1990, was listed on August 2 in our database. This has been corrected.

The Expos-Mets game on Sept. 19, 1990, was rained out. Gary Thorne and Norm Hitzges are no longer credited with this game.

The Reds-Mets game on Aug. 20, 1991, was rained out. Bob Carpenter and Billy Sample were the scheduled announcers.

The Angels-Rangers game on Sept. 18, 1991, and the Red Sox-Orioles game a week later were both rained out. Paul Olden and Bill Robinson have been removed from the announcer listings.


This Date In History:

Thursday, July 25 will mark 15 years since Jon Miller passed Dizzy Dean for the most national MLB telecasts by a play-by-play announcer. Dean had held the record from 1953 until that day in 2004. Rick Sutcliffe and Sam Ryan rounded out the crew for that Yankees-Red Sox game on ESPN; Joe Morgan was at the Hall of Fame induction.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

The BB&T Atlanta Open, in exactly the city you'd expect to host the Atlanta Open.

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

The 1910 League Championship Series get underway with the Giants meeting the Cubs and the Athletics facing the Tigers.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, July 22
7:00 -- ESPN -- Red Sox at Rays

Tuesday, July 23
12:30 -- YouTube -- Indians at Blue Jays

Wednesday, July 24
8:00 -- ESPN -- Yankees at Twins

Thursday, July 25
7:00 -- MLBN -- Red Sox at Yankees

Friday, July 26
7:00 -- MLBN -- Red Sox at Yankees
7:30 -- FS1 -- NYCFC vs. Sporting KC
10:00 -- ESPN -- LAFC vs. Atlanta United

Saturday, July 27
4:00 -- FS1 -- Yankees at Red Sox
7:00 -- FS1 -- Astros at Cardinals
10:30 -- FS1 -- Timbers vs. Galaxy

Sunday, July 28
1:30 -- TBS -- Dodgers at Nationals
7:00 -- ESPN -- Yankees at Red Sox

The Week That Was: July 14, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where we'd like to remind you that you aren't supposed to eat the little packets of silica gel that come in your shoes.

Milestones:

A pair of ESPN commentators hit milestones this week on the same games as Matt Vasgersian and Buster Olney double-dipped (Thursday and Sunday) for ESPN. Thursday night, the Astros visited the Rangers, and Sunday night, the Dodgers met the Red Sox. Jessica Mendoza and Alex Rodriguez were the analysts in both cases.

Vasgersian called his 275th and 276th national MLB telecasts, passing Josh Lewin (274) for 15th place and Vin Scully (275) for 14th among known play-by-play men. (Please note that Matty V did not pass Vin Scully on the Being Vin Scully scale, just ... numerically.)

Olney handled field-reporter duties for his 240th and 241st MLB games, tying and then passing Bob Harwood of OLN and Versus for the 12th-most field reporter credits among the four major U.S. sports.

In between those appearances, Eric Karros pulled into a tie for 13th among MLB color commentators on Saturday. The White Sox-Athletics game he called with Justin Kutcher was his 223rd, matching Bob Brenly and Jeff Torborg on that list.

From the Department of Round Numbers: the Thursday game was the Rangers' 600th national TV appearance and the Saturday game was the Athletics' 700th.

Database Updates:

The Padres-Phillies game on May 21, 1983, was rained out. Bob Costas and Tony Kubek are no longer credited with this appearance.

The Royals-Yankees game on July 21, 1983, was also rained out. We have removed that from the database, but it does not affect any top-16 lists.

This Date In History:

Tuesday, July 16 is the 25th anniversary of Joe Buck's network telecast debut. He called a Cardinals-Rockies game on this date in 1994, pairing with Dave Campbell on an ABC regional game. His first NFL game was that fall.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

The Hall of Fame Classic at Newport, Rhode Island. (For the next two weeks, we're claiming home-court advantage and tracking U.S.-based tournaments that don't fit our usual criteria.)

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

The 1910 League Championship Series get underway with the Giants meeting the Cubs and the Athletics facing the Tigers. (This is last week's summary as well. We got sort of tied up watching tennis.)

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, July 15
7:00 -- ESPN -- Dodgers at Phillies

Tuesday, July 16
7:00 -- MLB Network -- Dodgers at Phillies

Wednesday, July 17
7:00 -- ESPN -- Rays at Yankees

Thursday, July 18
12:30 -- YouTube -- Dodgers at Phillies
7:00 -- MLB Network -- Rays at Yankees
8:00 -- ESPN -- FC Cincinnati vs. DC United
10:00 -- ESPN -- Timbers vs. Orlando City

Friday, July 19
10:00 -- ESPN -- Galaxy vs. LAFC

Saturday, July 20
4:00 -- FS1 -- Mets at Giants
7:15 -- FS1 -- Nationals at Braves

Sunday, July 21
1:00 -- TBS -- Rockies at Yankees
4:00 -- ESPN -- Atlanta United vs. DC United
7:00 -- ESPN -- Nationals at Braves
7:30 -- FS1 -- Orlando City vs. Red Bulls
9:30 -- FS1 -- Timbers vs. Galaxy

The Week That Was: July 7, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where nothing is made up but you can still argue that some of the points don't matter.

Milestones:

Bob Costas called the 450th national MLB telecast of his career on Tuesday, July 2, in a Subway Series game between the Mets and Yankees. He's the 11th person to hit that plateau. The mark also comes in his 442nd game as a play-by-play announcer, matching Dizzy Dean for fifth-most on record. Analyst Jim Kaat and reporter Tom Verducci were on hand for the historic moment.

Tom Verducci, meanwhile, made his 350th national MLB appearance on Saturday in the Angels-Astros tilt. He becomes the 20th person to hit that mark, doing it with 186 games of color commentary and 164 games as the field reporter. Play-by-play man Don Orsillo and reporter Jon Morosi rounded out the telecast.

(We may again have as many as four milestones in this space next week, despite the All-Star Break.)

Database Updates:

In the process of scrubbing our MLB database to remove games that were scheduled but never played, we have removed four rainouts.

• August 21, 1954: Phillies-Dodgers on ABC (Dizzy Dean, Buddy Blattner) 
• July 13, 1957: Reds-Dodgers on CBS (Dizzy Dean, Buddy Blattner)
• September 23, 1961: Orioles-White Sox on CBS (Dizzy Dean, Pee Wee Reese)
• May 6, 1962: Dodgers-Pirates on NBC (Bob Wolff, Joe Garagiola)

This drops Dean's total from 442 play-by-play games to 439 and from 445 total games to 442. Garagiola's figures fall by one, to 390 color and 645 total. Reese also decrements a single game to 335 appearances.

This Date In History:

Wednesday, July 10 saw two teams carry no-hitters into the seventh inning on national MLB telecasts in 2016. The Mets' Stephen Matz went 7.1 innings without allowing a National to reach safely on TBS; that evening, Madison Bumgarner blanked the Diamondbacks for 7.1 innings in Phoenix.

This week also has two no-hitters broken up in the ninth: Nolan Ryan on July 13, 1979, in a Yankees-Angels game on ABC, and five Padres pitchers against the Dodgers on July 9, 2011, on Fox.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

Second-week action at Wimbledon. The Big Three of Djokovic, Federer and Nadal lead the men's field, which is guaranteed an American in the quarterfinals. Six of the top 11 seeds are left on the women's side where the story has been 15-year-old phenom Coco Gauff.

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

The 1910 League Championship Series get underway with the Giants meeting the Cubs and the Athletics facing the Tigers.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, July 8
No official national telecasts. Wimbledon round of 16 on ESPN and ESPN2. Home Run Derby on ESPN.

Tuesday, July 9
8:00a -- ESPN and ESPN2 -- Wimbledon: women's quarterfinals
10:00a -- ESPN and ESPN2 -- Wimbledon: women's quarterfinals
8:00 -- Fox -- MLB All-Star Game

Wednesday, July 10
8:00a -- ESPN and ESPN2 -- Wimbledon: men's quarterfinals
11:00a -- ESPN and ESPN2 -- Wimbledon: women's quarterfinals

Thursday, July 11
8:00a -- ESPN -- Wimbledon: women's semifinal
10:00a -- ESPN -- Wimbledon: women's semifinal
8:00 -- ESPN -- Astros at Rangers

Friday, July 12
8:00a -- ESPN -- Wimbledon: men's semifinal
11:00a -- ESPN -- Wimbledon: men's semifinal
7:00 -- ESPN -- DC United vs. Revolution
9:00 -- UniMas and UDN -- Dynamo vs. LAFC
11:00 -- UniMas and UDN -- Galaxy vs. Earthquakes

Saturday, July 13
9:00a -- ESPN -- Wimbledon: women's final
4:00 -- FS1 -- White Sox at Athletics
7:15 -- Fox -- Dodgers at Red Sox
7:15 -- Fox -- Giants at Brewers
7:15 -- Fox -- Nationals at Phillies

Sunday, July 14
9:00a -- ESPN -- Wimbledon: men's final
1:00 -- TBS -- Nationals at Phillies
4:00 -- ESPN -- Sounders vs. Atlanta United
6:30 -- FS1 -- Red Bulls vs. NYCFC
7:00 -- ESPN -- Dodgers at Red Sox

Wimbledon Schedule: July 1, 2019

32 men's singles first-round matches (88 hours)
32 women's singles first-round matches (53.3 hours)64 matches (141.3 hours) of tennis

17 initial warmups (2.8 hours)
47 changes between matches (15.7 hours)

159.8 hours of court activity
(Wimbledon does its post-match interviews off court.)

Men's singles: 16 seeds, 4 Americans
Women's singles: 16 seeds, 12 Americans

Weather: Sunny changing to cloudy by lunchtime. High of 70.

Sunset: 4:21 p.m. EDT

TV: ESPN, 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

My guesses as to ESPN's featured matches:

6 a.m. - Keys/Kumkhum

8 a.m. - Djokovic/Kohlschreiber

10 a.m. - Zverev/Vesely

(Osaka/Putintseva if needed to fill a gap here)

1 p.m. - V.Williams/Gauff

The Week That Was: June 30, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where nothing is made up but you can still argue that some of the points don't matter.

Milestones:

Matt Vasgersian called play-by-play of his 274th MLB national telecast on Sunday when the Yankees beat the Red Sox in London. That ties him with Josh Lewin, who was working Red Sox radio that day, for 16th-most on record.

(We may have as many as four milestones in this space next week.)

This Date In History:

Tuesday, July 2 is the sixth anniversary of Homer Bailey's 2013 no-hitter, which aired nationally on MLB Network with Vasgersian, Sean Casey and Sam Ryan on the call.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

The year's third major begins at Wimbledon, with 10 hours a day of coverage (6 a.m. to about 4 p.m.) on the ESPN linear networks. Almost 160 hours of action each of the first four days!

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

Philadelphia leads New York 2-0 in the 1909 World Series after vanquishing the Tigers in the ALCS.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, July 1
7:00 -- ESPN -- MLB: Cubs at Pirates

Tuesday, July 2
3:00 -- Fox -- Women's World Cup semifinal: USA vs. England
7:00 -- MLB Network -- MLB: Yankees vs. Mets
10:30 -- FS1 -- Gold Cup semifinal: Haiti vs. Mexico

Wednesday, July 3
3:00 -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup semifinal: Netherlands vs. Sweden
7:00 -- ESPN -- MLB: Yankees vs. Mets
9:30 -- FS1 -- Gold Cup semifinal: Jamaica vs. USA

Thursday, July 4
4:00 -- ESPN -- MLB: Cubs at Pirates
7:20 -- ESPN -- MLB: Phillies at Braves

Friday, July 5
This date intentionally left blank.

Saturday, July 6
11:00a -- Fox -- Women's World Cup third place match
7:15 -- Fox -- MLB: Cubs at White Sox
7:15 -- Fox -- MLB: Phillies at Mets
7:15 -- Fox -- MLB: Angels at Astros
10:00 -- FS1 -- MLB: Rockies at Diamondbacks

Sunday, July 7
11:00a -- Fox -- Women's World Cup final
1:00 -- TBS -- MLB: Rays at Yankees
2:00 -- Fox -- MLS: Atlanta United vs. Red Bulls
6:30 -- FS1 -- MLS: NYCFC vs. Timbers
9:15 -- FS1 -- Gold Cup final
No Sunday Night Baseball due to All-Star Break

The Week That Was: June 23, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, a feature that I do actually intend to run weekly.

Milestones:

Not much going on this front last week -- the slow season on this front is late June through Labor Day, and look where we are now. My best guess at this point is that we get our next milestone, defined as a round  number or someone passing someone else in a top 16, late next week.

John Farrell became the 514th commentator and 288th color analyst in the MLB database on Saturday, when he called Tigers-Indians with Justin Kutcher on FS1.

This Date In History:

Sunday, June 23, is the 35th anniversary of the Ryne Sandberg game, when two late home run from the Cubs second baseman and eventual Hall of Famer powered the Cubs to a 12-11 win over the Cardinals in 11 innings at Wrigley Field. Bob Costas and Tony Kubek called the game on NBC.

Monday, June 24 is the 57th anniversary of CBS cutting off a Yankees-Tigers game at 5 p.m. because the game's broadcast window was ending and CBS didn't want to delay its primetime lineup. The game went 22 innings and finished at 9:14 p.m. with Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese on the call.

Tuesday, June 25: Next season's NHL schedule drops at noon EDT, according to a league announcement from Friday. Last year, the national TV schedule came out in mid-August.

Wednesday, June 26 is the 37th anniversary of the NBC truck losing power in the middle of the ninth inning at Fenway Park in Boston. The Brewers were playing the Red Sox and Joe Garagiola and Kubek were left to finish the game with one camera.

On Saturday, June 29, the Baseball and the Media Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research meets in San Diego. Good luck and pleasant wishes to all involved and I hope to join you in person the next time you're in a Central Division city.

That meeting will start at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time (5:30 Pacific), which places it squarely in the middle of ESPN's no-hitter doubleheader on that date in 1990. At 7:30 EDT, the Worldwide Leader in Sports showed Dave Stewart's no-no in an Athletics-Blue Jays game called by John Sanders and Tommy Hutton. At 10:30, it was Fernando Valenzuela's turn in a Cardinals-Dodgers game called by Gary Thorne and Norm Hitzges.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

At Eastbourne, England, the Nature Valley International is a WTA Premier event and an ATP 250 event.

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

Philadelphia and New York look to close out 2-0 leads in the 1909 MLB playoffs.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, June 24
12:00 -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup R16: Spain vs. USA
3:00 -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup R16: Canada vs. Sweden
9:45 -- ESPN -- Rockies at Giants

Tuesday, June 25
12:00 -- NHL schedule release
12:00 -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup R16: China vs. Italy
3:00 -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup R16: Japan vs. Netherlands
9:45 -- ESPN -- Rockies at Giants

Wednesday, June 26
8:00 -- MLB Network -- Braves at Cubs
9:00 -- FS1 -- Gold Cup: USA vs. Panama

Thursday, June 27
3:00 -- Fox -- Women's World Cup quarterfinal: Norway vs. England

Friday, June 28
Wimbledon singles draws made today
3:00 -- Fox -- Women's World Cup quarterfinal: Spain/USA vs. France
8:00 -- UniMas/UDN -- Red Bulls vs. Fire
10:00 -- UniMas/UDN -- Rapids vs. LAFC

Saturday, June 29
9:00 a.m. -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup quarterfinal: Netherlands/Japan vs. Italy/China
12:30 p.m. -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup quarterfinal: Sweden/Canada vs. Germany
1 p.m. -- Fox -- Yankees vs. Red Sox at London
4 p.m. -- FS1 -- Nationals at Tigers
4 p.m. -- ESPN -- Minnesota United vs. FC Cincinnati
7 p.m. -- FS1 -- Gold Cup quarterfinal: Costa Rica/Haiti winner vs. Mexico, Canada or Martinique
8:15 p.m. -- Fox -- Mariners at Astros
8:15 p.m. -- Fox -- Dodgers at Rockies
8:15 p.m. -- Fox -- Pirates at Brewers
10 p.m. -- FS1 -- Gold Cup quarterfinal: Mexico, Canada or Martinique vs. Costa Rica/Haiti loser

Sunday, June 30
10 a.m. -- ESPN -- Yankees vs. Red Sox at London
5:30 p.m. -- FS1 -- Gold Cup quarterfinal: Jamaica, El Salvador or Curacao vs. USA/Panama loser
7 p.m. -- ESPN -- Braves at Mets
8:30 p.m. -- FS1 -- Gold Cup quarterfinal: USA/Panama winner vs. Jamaica, El Salvador or Curacao
11 p.m. -- UniMas/UDN -- Timbers vs. FC Dallas

Monday, July 1
6:30 a.m. -- First ball at Wimbledon

French Open Schedule: Tuesday, May 28, 2019

20 men's singles first-round matches (55 hours)
20 women's singles first-round matches (33.3 hours)
16 men's doubles first-round matches (44 hours)56 matches (132.3 hours) on the original schedule. 1 men's singles match (~0.1 match, 0.3 hour) held over from Monday
. 1 women's singles match (~0.4 match, 0.7 hour) held over from Monday58 matches (133.7 hours of tennis)

15 initial warmups (3 hours)
43 changeovers between matches (14.3 hours)
  9 on-court interviews (0.75 hours)

150.9 hours of court activity
Men's singles: 9 seeds, 2 Americans, plus a seed held over
Women's singles: 10 seeds, 3 Americans, plus a seed held over

Men's #25 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime withdrew, so there are only 31 seeds. This is the day he would have played.

Weather: Cloudy, high 76, winds 6-9 mph

Sunset: 9:42 local (3:42 EDT)

TV: Tennis Channel, 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.

French Open Schedule: Monday, May 27, 2019

28 men's singles matches (77 hours)
28 women's singles matches (46.7 hours)
56 matches (123.7 hours) on the original schedule
  2 women's singles matches (1 hour) held over from Sunday
58 matches (124.7 hours of tennis)

14 initial warmups (2.3 hours)
46 changeovers between matches (15.3 hours)
  9 on-court interviews (0.75 hours)
142.4 hours of court activity

Men's singles: 11 seeds, 5 Americans
Women's singles: 12 seeds, 8 Americans, plus one of each in holdovers

Weather (from Meteo France): Cloudy, high 78, winds 6-12 mph

Sunset: 9:39 local (3:39 EDT)

TV: Tennis Channel, 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.; NBC, noon to 3 p.m.

TV Commentators:


Tennis Channel:
Studio: Brett Haber, Chanda Rubin
5:06 a.m. -- Caroline Wozniacki vs. Veronika Kudermetova -- Bill Macatee, Tracy Austin
7:23 a.m. -- Rafael Nadal vs. Yannick Hanfmann -- Ian Eagle, Jim Courier
9:49 a.m. -- Novak Djokovic vs. Hubert Hurkacz -- Ted Robinson, Paul Annacone, Martina Navratilova
11:48 a.m. -- Serena Williams vs. Vitalia Diatchenko -- Ted Robinson, Lindsay Davenport
1:38 p.m. -- Dominic Thiem vs. Tommy Paul -- Ted Robinson, Paul Annacone
3:03 p.m. -- Kyle Edmund vs. Jeremy Chardy -- Robinson, Annacone

NBC:
12:02 p.m. -- Serena Williams vs. Vitalia Diatchenko -- Mary Carillo, John McEnroe
1:36 p.m. -- Dominic Thiem vs. Tommy Paul -- Mary Carillo, John McEnroe

French Open Schedule: Sunday, May 26, 2019

16 men's singles matches (44 hours)
16 women's singles matches (26.7 hours)
32 matches (70.7 hours of tennis)

8 initial warmups (1.3 hours)
24 changeovers between matches (8 hours)
  9 on-court interviews (0.75 hours)
80.75 hours of court activity

Men's singles: 9 seeds, no Americans
Women's singles: 8 seeds, 6 Americans

Weather (from Meteo France): Cloudy to very cloudy, high 72, winds 6-12 mph

Sunset: 9:39 local (3:39 EDT)

TV: Tennis Channel, 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Studio hosts - Brett Haber, Chanda Rubin
5:08 a.m. - Garbine Muguruza vs. Taylor Townsend (SM) - Bill Macatee, Martina Navratilova
7:12 a.m. - Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Maximilian Marterer (PC) - Mary Carillo, Paul Annacone
8:49 a.m. - Roger Federer vs. Lorenzo Sonego (PC) - Ted Robinson, Jim Courier
10:48 a.m. - Marco Cecchinato vs. Nicolas Mahut (SM) - Mary Carillo, Tracy Austin
11:22 a.m. - Elina Svitolina vs. Venus Williams (SM) - Mary Carillo, Tracy Austin
1:35 p.m. - Goffin/Berankis and Kohlschreiber/Haase - Ian Eagle, Jim Courier
2:01 p.m. - Jennifer Brady vs. Ivana Jorovic - Ian Eagle, Lindsay Davenport
3:05 p.m. - Sign-off

The Week That Was: May 19, 2019

Welcome to The Week That Was, a new feature at Un/Necessary Sports Research that solves all of our problems a couple of our problems.

First of all, there's fresh content on the blog side of things.

Second of all, the cable and Internet went out in our bunker (well, our below-street-level apartment) on Monday night before Trusty Laptop 2.0 passed into the great beyond on Thursday evening. All of our announcer data is backed up in the cloud, so that was never in danger, but we haven't been able to access it and tweet nuggets in almost a week.

Third, when we do tweet nuggets, they don't really get archived. (TW)^2 can serve as a one-stop shop for all that went down in the world of esoteric sports ... discoveries over the previous half of a fortnight.

So, as they say over at the Hydraulic Press Channel, with Trusty Laptop 3.0 acquired, here we go.

Sunday, May 12

• Craig Simpson ties Greg Millen for #8 on the Canadian NHL commentators list with his 783rd game, the second game of the Hurricanes-Bruins series.
• Ed Olczyk works his 700th American NHL national telecast in the same game 2. (Two of these were as a sideline reporter, setting up something on Thursday.)

Monday, May 13

• Kenny Albert handles play-by-play for his 1,050th American national telecast across the four major sports. At this time of the year, he's doing hockey, specifically game 2 of the Blues-Sharks series.
• Pierre McGuire makes his 821st appearance on a U.S. national telecast of the four major pro sports, matching Curt Gowdy for 14th-most all-time.

Tuesday, May 14

• Simpson passes Millen for #8 on the Canadian NHL commentators list with his 784th game in game 3 of the series.
• Simpson matches Tim McCarver with his 804th appearance as a color man on the four major pro sports. Only six men have more.
• Game 3 is Mike Emrick's 1000th American national telecast as a play-by-play announcer, encompassing every major pro sport except the NBA. He's the sixth person to reach this milestone.

Wednesday, May 15

• McGuire worked his 822nd game, passing Gowdy after tying him on Monday.

Thursday, May 16

• Simpson finishes the pass he started on Tuesday, eclipsing McCarver for seventh on the list of color men across all four sports.
• Olczyk works his 700th American national NHL telecast as a color commentator, becoming the third person to accomplish that behind McGuire and Bill Clement.

Friday, May 17

• The Red Sox played the Astros in a game that still sends up the "interleague" flag in my brain. Bob Costas, who remembers when the Astros didn't exist in either league, calls his 445th national MLB telecast, tying Dizzy Dean for #11 in our database.
• Garry Galley calls his 473rd national NHL telecast in Canada, matching John Garrett for the eighth-most by a color analyst.

Saturday, May 18

• Jeff Van Gundy calls his 650th national NBA telecast, all of them as a color analyst. He's the third analyst to reach that mark, trailing Doug Collins and Hubie Brown, and the seventh person overall.

Sunday, May 19

• Galley passes Garrett with his 474th appearance after having been tied since Friday.

The Week Ahead...

Below is the national broadcast schedule for the four major pro sports; MLS, the U.S. national soccer team; and major professional golf and tennis tournaments. Asterisks denote "if necessary" games.

Monday, May 20
8:00 -- MLBN -- Phillies at Cubs
9:00 -- ESPN -- Warriors at Blazers, game 4

Tuesday, May 21
7:00 -- ESPN -- Phillies at Cubs
8:00 -- NBCSN, CBC, SN -- Sharks at Blues, game 6
8:30 -- TNT -- Bucks at Raptors, game 4
9:45 -- ESPN -- Braves at Giants

Wednesday, May 22
9:00 -- ESPN -- *Blazers at Warriors, game 5

Thursday, May 23
1:00 -- French Open singles draws.
We get excited over tournament brackets. We will not apologize for this.
8:30 -- TNT -- Raptors at Bucks, game 5
9:00 -- NBCSN, CBC, SN1 -- Blues at Sharks, game 7

Friday, May 24
7:00 -- UniMas, UDN, Twitter -- Orlando City vs. Galaxy
9:00 -- ESPN -- *Warriors at Blazers, game 6
9:00 -- UniMas, UDN, Twitter -- Real Salt Lake vs. Atlanta United

Saturday, May 25
3:30 -- Univision, UDN, Twitter -- Fire vs. NYCFC
4:00 -- FS1 -- Diamondbacks at Giants
7:15 -- Fox regional -- Red Sox at Astros
7:15 -- Fox regional -- Dodgers at Pirates
7:15 -- Fox regional -- Braves at Cardinals
8:30 -- TNT -- *Bucks at Raptors, game 6

Sunday, May 26
5:00 a.m. -- Tennis Channel -- French Open, first round
12:00 -- ESPN -- USWNT vs. Mexico at Harrison, N.J.
12:00 -- NBC -- Indianapolis 500
Green flag at 12:45 after "Back Home Again in Indiana" at 12:36.
6:00 -- FS1 -- Sounders vs. Sporting Kansas City
7:00 -- ESPN or ESPN2 -- Braves at Cardinals
9:00 -- ESPN -- *Blazers at Warriors, game 7